the nursery

I finally finished the nursery. PHEW and THANK GOD. Not because I was in a rush - I have plenty of time, I realize - but I hate having "things to do", I'm a do it now type of girl for most things (except diets and exercise, that I will put off "until Monday" for the rest of my life).

So why did I need to finish the nursery so soon? ONE REASON... BIG, FANTASTIC, FABULOUS GIVEAWAY that I'm so excited for it's ridiculous because I am such a BIG FAN of these products, to the point that I've never received anything free or any of that nonsense but I just wanted to share the product with you because I love it so much! That's big! Most bloggers that do giveaways do so because they love the free-crap. I love free crap too. But, what I like more??? Supporting fantastic companies and sharing awesome products with other Moms!

You know I love to do everything Ryan Seacrest style... so, you'll have to wait. Until Wednesday. You can guess what my big fantastic giveaway is but you'll have to check back in TWO DAYS to enter it. So there! :p tee hee hee. Mainly because I want to show you the nursery and Jane's room and tell you all that I saved money on by doing myself and, because I like to blabber, this would be the LONGEST post ever if I did that PLUS told you about this fabulous product.

So, here she is... The nursery. :)

This is my "signature wall"... every room needs a good wow-factor. Originally, we had the builders paint the room a pale grey colour that was neutral. So, when we got preggers and decided we wouldn't find out the sex, I thought this colour would still be a great neutral - thankfully, because I really don't love painting. The starting point for the entire room, however, was the curtain fabric (shown to the right). I bought it on Etsy over the summer because I was in love with it and wanted to use it in my guest room to cover pillows. Well, that didn't work out. So I had to find a place to use it because I loved it so much. Enter: Neutral nursery. Yes, I'm aware that the main accent colour of the nursery is blue - but blue is the new yellow if you ask pottery barn. Which I didn't as I didn't care because, like I said, the fabric NEEDED a home. When I decided to use the fabric as the curtains, then came decision number two - what to do with the signature wall. Since I wanted a bit more colour in the room, without having to paint it entirely, I went with a grey-blue accent wall and, then, because it's my favourite way to decorate a large blank space - I found a decal that was fantastic. Ummm. Hmmm.

So, here's where I saved money first - custom, one-of-a-kind curtains. Ready-made, decent quality, decorative curtains are typically $50/panel. Custom curtains in the fabric of your choice - like $100/panel. I've never made curtains before. Who cares, you can do anything, you're a Mom. And, you have google. So, I bought the fabric for $9 US on Etsy. THEN, because I rock, I bought a package of two blackout panels from Walmart for $19.99 because, not only did I want beautiful one-of-a-kind curtains, but I wanted them to block the light from the room too. Woot woot! So, for $39.98 + say $5 for thread for my sewing machine, I made two rectangular panels that I hung with drapery clips on a standard rod. Bellissima! I have to admit, when I set out to make the curtains, I envisioned - as with all my crazy mommy projects - disaster and wasted hours. This was SO MUCH easier than I ever imagined. As long as you measure right and cut straight, you're good to go baby! As my favourite HGTV gal Sarah Richardson says "fabric is a great jumping off point". Here, here sister. I also had enough fabric leftover to make a pillow cover for the rocking chair!

Oh, and on that topic... the rocking chair. Another save. It's a 1970's classic lay-z-boy rocker. THE most comfortable chair ever created. I found it at a used furniture shop for $12.99. I bought the pale torquoise fabric at the local fabric shop for $40 (2 yards) and took the chair apart and recovered it myself. THIS was a project all right - I had bloody fingers, knuckles, everything. But I love it. It's not perfect - you might see a rare staple here and there if you looked really closely. But I love it and it does look great. Double plus, it's comfortable. It's like the lululemon of rocking chairs... for $52.99. Win.

Save #3 - the artwork over the changetable. This was from a previous crazy mommy project seen here. The artwork itself cost me nothing but time. The frames, I got on sale from Homesense's clearance dept and Michaels - probably cost me $40 total.

A non-save that I'm happy with was the wooden gardening bins/crates I picked up from Homesense to use as baskets for the shelving on the changetable. They match the light torquoise accents of the room perfectly and I love the shabby chic finish on them. They weren't too $$, about $5-$7 a piece, which is probably cheaper than they charge for baskets at this point... but I like them way better.

My last two items to point out - completely due to pride - are the mirror, which I picked up for $5 at a garage sale last summer and was totally worth it. I love how it shows the reflection of the trees. Also, it's placed at a height so that when there's a bouncing infant in that crib, he/she can enjoy watching giggly reflections. :)

And, the dust ruffle. What is a dust ruffle, you may ask - likely not, since you're Moms - but I had to explain it to my hubby like a hundred times... the crib skirt. So, because of how busy the rest of the room was - the curtains, the pillow on the chair, the decal, I wanted to keep the crib bedding really simple - no big patterns, colors, etc. This is hard to come by in a dust ruffle. So, I made one. Yes, you can bow down to me anytime now (obviously joking). It was easy peasy again. I just measured the base of my crib and started cutting and sewing. I found a greyish brown polkadot patterned fabric at the local fabric shop that I loved (the local fabric shop can be a blessing and a curse - I find myself finding fabrics first and then having to come up with a place to use them). Anyways, the big savings was that, to order in a plain beige or white crib skirt, would have cost me $80 + taxes. I made this dust ruffle - in the fabric of my choice - for $25 + time. WIN.

So, there she is. What are your thoughts? I think it's pretty neutral, despite being a lot of blue - I think it's more serene than boy-ish. Plus, I really like that, if it is two girls for us, we don't have two pinky-purple rooms. There's a difference. I still have to put up some photo frames on the wall behind the chair of newborn shots once the little 'un arrives and I also have to pick up one of these monograms for his/her door as I have one already for Jane that coordinates with the colors of her room from A Lasting Expression shop on Etsy. Love them. So classic.

Check back tomorrow to see Jane's room and, oh, um, maybe on Wednesday for the BEST GIVEAWAY EVER! :p