Rob&Tiff... & Trey: Nursery Transformation

Monday, March 28, 2011

Nursery Transformation - Part 1

Thanks to our families, the past two weekends we have made gargantuan leaps forward in getting ready for Baby Trey. I mean huge. I've kind of had this frustrating feeling that we were behind the game in our nursery room prep. That, coupled with a (probably ridiculous) fear that he might come a month early, were just causing needless stress and worry. I'm sure it would have been fine if we had gotten around to everything next month, but it sure does feel good to be pretty far along on the nursery progress, and we're so grateful to both sets of our parents and my brother who helped us get this far!

So Trey now has a nursery, and it actually looks like a nursery for a sweet little boy rather than an office/man cave/catch all room. There's still work to be done, but there's no mistaking his room is "his room." Robert very kindly gave up what was his designated room in the house for our son. With the nursery, the new guest room now double-functioning as a guest room/office, and our master, our little 3/2 Homewood bungalow is working nicely for this growing family. I mean, the larger house the more to clean, right? I think we'll be content with fitting nicely in our space because goodness knows I don't have time to clean - as much as I love too (type A neat-freak true confession).

I didn't do a great job of taking before pics of the office, but let's just say there was a mix of furniture and random items we had collected over four+ years of marriage and even during college for which we found new homes in all parts of the house (attic, etc.) or in donations to my brothers' college apartment collection or to Hannah Home.

So here's your before pic - aka mental image because I didn't take a before pic - lots of stuff, gray walls, nice hardwoods, and need of a good de-cluttering and then just a good cleaning in general.

Our plan was as follows: new paint for walls and ceiling, add crown molding and chair rail molding, replace light fixtures and wall outlet/light switch covers, clean hardwoods and blinds, put together crib, paint antique armoire. I'll save my color scheme/fabric selections for a later post, but suffice it to say we decided to go with a neutral pallet that would work well if a baby girl later occupies this space, and that also would work as an office/third bedroom if we ever have the house on the market. Didn't want any potential future buyers to be turned off by a room that screamed nursery.

We picked out paint colors on a Thursday night after I mostly finalized fabric selections and painted the ceiling (that was actually all Robert) and top half of the walls on Friday night, which was actually St. Patty's Day. Surprisingly, it was honestly more fun getting ready for Trey than going out for a green beer and night on the town. Saturday morning Robert purchased the molding and borrowed a nail gun from a handy and generous friend while I started on the paint for the bottom half of the room. Later that morning my parents and Kyle came over to help, and we honestly couldn't have gotten it all done without them. Mom and dad helped me paint (don't worry - the room was well ventilated) while Robert and Kyle measured, cut, and installed molding. There was lots of nailing and caulking and touching up and painting, and after burgers and more work that afternoon we had made major progress.

We finished painting the molding, cleaning blinds and hardwoods, and other touch-ups on Sunday afternoon with just enough time left in the weekend to put together the crib. It was so neat to see it in the mostly finished room. We definitely slept well that night after a long weekend of satisfying hard work (aka physical labor). The next morning it was so strange, but exciting, to see Trey's little room (almost) all ready for him.

Now for the few pics I did take:

Taping for chair rail molding. Room is the old gray. (And, yes, I picked a different shade of gray to paint as the new color, and it's nearly identical. But it's honestly a completely different shade that goes much better with the new color scheme. I love it and am thankful to my husband for seeing beyond the similarities and letting me buy an almost identical (to some) but completely unique shade of paint AND for repainting the room for me.

New shade of gray on top above chair rail tape. You can see if has more silver, blue hues/tints.

With the new white painted below the chair rail.

Lots of help with taping and painting trim work from my parents.

Robert and Dad installing and caulking the chair rail molding.

While Kyle caulks the ceiling molding he and Robert cut and installed. By the way, from this pic you can see the new color we painted the ceiling - a cloud-like, light blue. Robert did it all, and I'm sure it was back-breaking work. Again, much appreciated!