the nursery

Welcome to Eli's room tour! We've been slowly piecing things together since Christmas and I can't believe it's finally finished! (Well... almost. I'm always adding little things here and there so it may look completely different in a month.) 

There are so many cute baby rooms out there, but J and I definitely started off with a pretty specific vision for ours. We both wanted:

- A simple, calm, relaxing vibe.

- Something he could grow into (so we don't have to totally redecorate in a year or two).

- Inexpensive... We liked the idea of using a lot of what we already had.

- For the things we surrounded him with to have meaning/history/a good story.

This is the view when you first walk in the room. Notice "Rocking Moose" on the right... we have serious love for him. He's one of the first (and very few) things we actually bought new for Eli. The curtains are from a duvet cover I found on clearance. I cut it in half, sewed a few seams, viola. And because its a duvet its already lined. Easiest (and cheapest) curtains ever! 

I painted this for him. I had a hard time finding a canvas the size I wanted so I used foam board, you know, like those huge sheets of bubblegum pink or baby blue insulation you find at the hardware store. I used leftover paint from around our house and for less than $10 had a pretty substantial piece of art... painted with a lot of love =)

These cubes are from my great-grandmother. You may remember remember the post I wrote about it back in the summer. I love that they can be stacked or moved around and even turned into a little window seat. I found the baskets (exactly 3 of them) on clearance around Christmas time and they turned out to be a perfect fit. For now, we're using them to store extra books and clothes, but I could also see them housing toys, or dress-up costumes in the future. 

This is a little nook on the other side of the room... just a few feet of wall between the door to his room and his closet. The husband was an amazing sport and built these little floating shelves in half a day with help from my awesome dad and some power tools. Then thanks to a book shower my family threw for me this past weekend (+ some favorites I've bought for my first-graders over the years) they are full! After filling up the shelves, J mentioned that he had never read probably a dozen or so of them (Whaaaaaat!?!?!) so over the past month he'll choose one from the shelf and read it to Eli and Mocha before bedtime. Little did I know, the only thing that could make me love children's books more is hearing my husband read them out loud to our baby and pup. 

Melt. My. Heart.

I can't wait to cozy up in this chair with Eli and read him stories too. =) This chair actually had a pretty cool journey. It was passed on to us from my cousin Holly after being well loved by two little ones (who are not so little anymore!). My plan was to just slipcover it, but in the process of looking for fabric my aunt Diane suggested using something a little more special. The fabric covering the chair is actually a quilt from my great-grandmother on my dad's side of the family. How amazing is that!? And I love the 60's vibe with the fringe on the bottom. I decided to just drape it instead of slipcovering because I couldn't bring myself to cut it up... which also makes for some easy laundering!

These trunks were also from my great-grandmother's attic. The green one underneath was her son's footlocker while he was in the military. It has his address and info painted on it and postage that has been stapled to it from all over. No doubt that the charming, chippy paint covering it is likely of a lead variety that I'll have to urethane before the boy is here and starts crawling around and putting furniture in his mouth.

And this is the wall to the right of his bed. I found both pieces of furniture on a yearly thrifting/antiquing girls trip. We go every fall and always find the most amazing treasures! (Do you remember that huge, old door that's now a headboard in our master bedroom? Same trip.) The one on the left was an especially amazing find. I was actually looking for a dresser and had planned on just putting his changing pad on top when I spotted this piece. It's actually a dry-sink (read: seriously old) thus the sunken in section that perfectly houses the changing pad. I did give it a little paint job, but other than that, haven't had to do a thing to bring it up to speed. He's a sturdy little guy and heavy heavy heavy... I feel so lucky to have found him =)

I'm a little map obsessed, so this was a must. I hunted for a while trying to find one of the old classroom, pull-down types, but in the end budget won out and love this little guy I snagged on ebay for just a few bucks... braided some rope, pinned that joker up and called it day.

This little stash is so special to me.

The Shell: My uncle used to make shipment on his sailboat for a living. I remember going to visit him when I was really young and he took us out on his boat. Instead of a boat horn, he used a conk shell he had found and taught me how to blow it. It's SO LOUD and sounds incredible. Before we left, he gave me the shell to keep and it's always been one of my most special treasures.

The Books: The green stack is from my mom and a collection of classic children's stories that her and her brother had when they were little. The blue stack is newly precious to me and from my aunt Diane just this past weekend. The collection was originally from my grandmother and was one of the first things she bought before she had her first child, my aunt. They're titled "Mother's Encyclopedia" and there are six in the set. At the time they were living in chicken coop and it took her a year to pay for the set, but it was something she thought was really important to have, so she made it happen.  

Make that reason #749 that I love my grandmother and her incredible spirit.

And here are some goodies that I can't wait to use! Most of these sweet things are from friends, family or my first-graders and their parents who surprised me with an amazing baby shower on my last day of work.  

We have been so so so blessed - especially over the past 9 months - and can't wait share it all with this baby boy.