Hellobee

Before we even found out we were going to have a baby, I had decided I wanted to use this nursery as my inspiration. I loved the bright colors, and since we will likely have more than one child sharing this room at one point, I loved that it was fairly gender neutral. And this is what Little Lion’s nursery looks like!

Rather than a theme, we started with the 3 bright fabrics. I  loved the way the blue chevron looked as curtains in the original room, so I set to work sewing my own. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but they turned out great and LL loves them! It didn’t occur to me before, but babies love high contrast. The fabrics turned out to be perfect!

We decided that we didn’t want an expensive bedding set, since the AAP recommends not using bumpers or blankets anyway, so instead I used the fabrics to create a bed skirt and quilt. The bed skirt is simply 3 rectangular pieces of fabric that I hemmed on all four sides. I then used Velcro to attach it to the frame of the bed.

The quilt was a bit intimidating to start, but I used this tutorial. It actually wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I didn’t like the way the fabrics looked right next to each other, so I bought some cheap white fabric to use as a border. The colorful side of the quilt isn’t very soft, so I used a super soft fabric as the backing. The quilt was so thick with the fluffy fabric that I didn’t need any batting in the middle. We don’t use the quilt inside his crib, but just like the curtains he loves to stare at it while it is hung over the side.

The crib and mattress are basic and inexpensive, purchased from Target. We didn’t want one that converted into a full bed, as we will most likely move him to a twin bed instead.

The dresser was a craigslist find and ended up being the perfect size. It is just the right height to take the place of a changing table, and it is so great having everything in one place. Our diaper pail is nothing fancy. It uses regular trash bags, so there is no need to buy the expensive ones. The chair was given to us by a friend, and we purchased a slipcover from SureFit to match the room. I love the charcoal gray color, and that I can take it off and wash it if I need to! Originally I was going to attempt to make a slipcover for the chair, but my pregnant self decided that I was NOT crafty enough for that project…. straight lines are about it for my sewing ability.

We went through several configurations for the top of the dresser/changing station before we figured out what worked. (Hence why the pictures aren’t centered…they used to be! ;))

We gave up on the pretty green changing pad cover…we were having to wash it pretty much daily. I use burp cloths now instead, since they can be washed easier. I love the green lamp (Target) and baskets (Walmart). We fill one with disposable diapers (cloth are in the top drawer), and the other holds our wipes box and other miscellaneous diaper items. The tiny white box next to the lamp is a dimmer switch, which Mr. Lion added after he added an easy access switch to the base. I love my engineer husband <3.

Baby stuff is so tiny, and I love to be able to find things quickly! We got these drawer organizers at Ikea when we were in Charlotte. I had seen them on another blog and had to have them.

On the other side of the room is one of my favorite pieces of furniture. I love these cube shelves. They look so neat and organized, even though what is inside them is usually a mess! I love that they will make it easy to keep toys put away. We will add more baskets as we need them. For right now, the empty holes are a great place to put photos! That will change once we need to baby-proof.

Instead of having a white noise machine, I put our iPod docking station and iPod in his room. We never used these, and it is nice to have an extra night light and clock. I love that I can make playlists, set a sleep timer, and easily take it with us when we travel. I bought two tracks of wave crashing nature sounds on iTunes and use those on repeat as white noise. I also have a couple playlists of music that I use when I put him to bed. The one we use at bedtime is long enough to last through a feeding and then plays ocean noise afterwards, and the other one I use for naptime. It has just a few songs and then ocean noise.

The picture hanging above the shelf is one of the final things I made for his nursery. Inspired by some pictures I saw on Etsy, I cut shapes out of scrapbook paper and mod-podged them onto a thin canvas. I was able to custom choose the colors to match the room!

Two more of my favorite things! This frame is Mr. Lion’s favorite baby shower gift! It is a super fun addition to the room :)  The train is a bank that I painted at Paint Your Pot when I went with a friend and her daughter. It looks much more perfect in this picture than in reality, but I still love it.

Inspired by my years teaching infants, toddlers and twos in a preschool setting, I knew Little Lion needed a place to keep his books where he could get to them himself. Mr. Lion built this shelf for me. I love that it holds the books with the covers facing forward. Kids choose books based on the cover, not the spine, so I wanted a shelf that allowed him to see what he was looking for. I have seen the pretty walls of books on pinterest that are so popular, but I want them down low where he can reach them!

The beautiful picture above the shelf was a baby shower gift from a very talented friend.  She is the art teacher at the elementary school where I used to teach, and is amazing! We are so proud to have her artwork hanging in our home!

I also wanted to have a baby-level mirror that was big enough that he would be able to see himself. This is an over the door full length mirror. It isn’t child proof, but it bends pretty far when it isn’t hanging, so I figure it can take a lot of banging. The fancy child proof ones were much more expensive. I got this one at Target for $10. I will be keeping a very close eye on LL when he plays in front of it just in case, but I figured I would be doing that anyway.

This wall was a blank canvas, and it took me a while to figure out what to put up! I (again) was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. The green board is a picture frame found at Goodwill. I made green chalkboard paint and painted the glass. This is probably going to be temporary, as I did not paint the glass correctly and it will most likely chip off when I go to wipe it off. But for now, it serves its purpose.

The bench was Mr. Lion’s grandmother’s hope chest. He painstakingly sanded off all of the old (probably lead) paint and repainted it white. He then recovered the seat. It now makes a perfect toy box and provides extra seating. It is also the spot we are using to take monthly progression pictures. These are hanging with clothespins from a piece of twine I have strung up above the bench. It looks a little crooked right now, but it will hopefully even out as we move down the line.

Last is the bathroom. We are lucky enough that in our two bedroom house we also have two full bathrooms. This one was painted green a couple years ago, but we added a new shower curtain and some more scrapbook paper art to make it a little more child friendly.

Altogether, this room wasn’t expensive, but it did take a significant amount of time to complete all of the projects! Fortunately, practical crafts are my favorite. A whole lot of love went into this room while we were patientlywaiting for our sweet boy to arrive. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way it turned out!