Before we got pregnant, we knew which room would be our future nursery. It’s closest to the master bedroom and the windows face the backyard instead of the front of the house. We used it as a guestroom from the time we moved in, until after we found out we were pregnant and started the transformation.


Most of the furniture and decor was from my room at my parent’s house, except the rug and dresser.

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It was really girly, but worked because we rarely had guests spend the night besides my little brother. I was using the closet in this room for my clothes, so it also became sort of a laundry sorting space.

Our first order of business was  to clear the room out.

Then, it was time for the most difficult and time-consuming part of the transformation: smoothing the horribly textured walls.

When we bought our house, most of the rooms had some sort of heavy texture on the walls. Luckily, when our living and dining rooms were made over by HGTV (you can watch the episode here), they smoothed the walls in those rooms. Soon after, my husband did the entryway and hallway, then came this room with its awful rainbow-like texture.

It took Mr. TTT and his dad quite a few weekends to get all the walls smooth, but it ended up looking great. Then, it was time for paint.

We narrowed our choices down to four colors and painted swatches on the wall. I helped, though not without protective gear. We changed our minds several times, but ended up choosing Benjamin Moore’s Polar Ice.

Mr. TTT and his dad painted the room, then installed trim around the closet and crown molding along the ceiling.

That was then painted white and we were ready to start moving in furniture, just in time for Christmas!

Mr. TTT installed the picture ledges we planned to use as book shelves, and we moved the cowhide rug into the room from the dining room (it didn’t work well in there because the dining chairs always got stuck on it). We also moved in the crib that was given to us for free from our neighbors. It was originally from Pottery Barn and only used for one child, so it was in excellent condition. We did have to call the manufacturer to get the conversion kit to make it stationary because it was a drop side, but they sent it for free and it was easy to fix. Mr. TTT had that adorable rocking moose under the Christmas tree with a big bow on it, which was so fun to wake up to.

We hung curtains and moved in the tree stump side table from our living room, but we waited a while before we worked on the room again because we wanted to see what we got at our showers. Eventually, we scored a dresser and rocking chair on craigslist and got to work making them fit our vision.

We scored this chair for just $65 and had it reupholstered by Upholstery Zone in Woodland Hills, CA, who did a great job and gave us an incredible deal. They had a perfect gray fabric leftover from another job, so we weren’t charged for it — just labor, which came to $200.

This dresser was just $60 on craigslist, but it needed some work. Mr. TTT sanded it down and repaired it, then stained it black so we wouldn’t have to worry about peeling paint.

We had planned to spend $300 for this exact dresser from Ikea (Hemnes), but we only spent about $75 total. Score!

Once the dresser was finished and in place, Mr. TTT got to work hanging all the artwork from this project…

And I got to work on the growth chart. I also stained a shelf with hooks from Michaels to match the dresser.

Then, we were ready to put the finishing touches on the room! This included arranging books, making a pillow for the rocker, setting up the changing table on the dresser, framing and hanging art and pictures, storing toys and even more books, and styling the room for photos.

Coming soon: the finished room!