I hadn’t really expected to be writing a post about Abe’s new nursery (well, at least not until he moved in there); I didn’t think there was much to say about it because the plan was and is to pretty much move everything that’s in his nursery now (his current nursery is a sectioned off part of our master bedroom) down the hall and be done with it. But then I thought about it some more and realized that, while the basic decor of the room won’t be changing, there are a lot of things to do to make his new room ready for a permanent occupant (up until now it’s been a guest room/office/place to put things that don’t go anywhere else) and to change things up just a bit to meet the needs of a young toddler instead of a plain old baby. Plus, I mean, it’s not like I can write up a master bath floor reveal or anything.

We’re planning to take a break from bathroom work after the tile is finished and get Abe all settled down the hall (which will make evening work on the master bathroom a lot more doable). Here is a sort of to-do list with some ideas and inspiration for the big move.

For reference, here is his nursery now (well, more or less; I actually need to take some pictures of how it is now before we take it all apart):

And here is his new room right now:

(the old room’s  a lot prettier right now, but we’re going to fix that)

The two spaces are almost the same size (both are right around 10 by 12), but his new room will have 4 actual walls (instead of a curtain room divider on one side) and a closet (it’s a very small walk-in closet). All the furniture will be making the move except possibly/probably the white dresser that we’re currently using as a changing table (you can’t see it in the picture there; it’s up against the curtain “wall.” We haven’t actually used a changing table in months, as he’s far too wiggly for such things, and I’m thinking we won’t need the storage anymore since we’ll have the closet.

1. Light: Dave thinks we shouldn’t switch out the light in here, but he’s definitely wrong. This is what it looks like right now:

It’s not TERRIBLE, but it’s not good, either. Also I don’t like ceiling fans in bedrooms (or most places, really). And I came up with a brilliant plan to break down Dave’s resistance to spending money on a new light: the ceiling fan in our screened in porch is truly, undeniably even to Dave, awful. So I suggested that we move the fan from Abe’s new room down there. I have no idea whether this is even feasible…can you just put a random ceiling fan in a semi-outdoor space? I don’t know, but my argument worked, and that’s mostly what I care about.

Yay–Abe gets a new light! Still needs to be 1. not too expensive and 2. not too juvenile/themed. I.e. no awesome octopus light that will need to be switched out in a couple of years when we redo his room. I like a lot of lights in the $400-500 range, like this one: Unfortunately, Abe cares more about stuff like warm clothes and food than having a beautiful nursery, so I can’t get that one.

This one is a mere $20 over budget, and I like it, too. I think it kind of has a nautical/porthole thing going on that will go nicely with his current nursery but will fit in fine with whatever comes along next, too:   I’m still on the hunt for something firmly within our budget, but we may end up with that one.

2. Toy storage: this is one area where things are really getting out of control in his current nursery, so I want a good plan for the new one. I used a TJ Maxx gift card I got for Christmas on a couple of nice baskets for storing things like blocks and stuffed animals:

….and the aforementioned closet should help some; I’m thinking maybe keep some toys put up in there and rotate them out every so often so things seem new and fun. And I’d like for Dave to make him a nice low shelf for toys, so that he can see and get to everything himself. Sort of like this:

3. Reading corner: Abe has lots of books. He enjoys pulling them all off of the shelf and spreading them out all over the floor, so that you can’t really walk through his nursery without stepping on them. So I’d like to make him some of those fancy shelves that let babies see the covers of the books even without strewing them all over the floor. Like this maybe:

Sunshine on the Inside

I’m a little conflicted about whether I want to make his reading corner out in his room or to turn his closet into one. But I’m thinking the closet project will come later; he’s a little young to want to hang out in the closet by himself right now.

This little rocking chair that I bought for him at the thrift store made an appearance in his one year pictures the other day. Here it is in color, with no baby in it:

I’m hoping the rusty-orange upholstery will work as is in the nursery (it’s in really nice shape and has kind of a cool retro vibe going on), but the stain color is more retro in a bad way, so I’m thinking of painting it with the pint of Benjamin Moore’s Gray Horse that we have leftover from when we were deciding on a kitchen paint color. And then that will be a nice addition to the reading corner.

4. Floors: well, here’s the big one. I kind of want to go ahead and put down hardwoods (or bamboo) in Abe’s room while we have it all empty and blank slateish. Eventually, we very much want to do the whole upstairs (the stairs and hallway are already hardwood, so it would be just the four bedrooms), and it would be nice to get this room (the smallest one) out of the way. We’ve never put hardwoods in before, but I have it in my head that it will seem like the easiest thing ever compared to the tile. The downsides are: 1. more work. 2. more money. 3. it means committing to a particular flooring now for the whole upstairs. So we’re still thinking about it. I was going to ramble on about floors some more, but I’m sure there will be plenty of that if we actually decide to get them, so I’ll hold off for now.

5. Turtle: I bought this turtle, and I love it, and it’s going in Abe’s new room.