nursery before & after

i promised to show you before & afters of the work we've done on our house, and i want to make good on that promise. shortly after moving in, we found out we were expecting a baby boy, who gave me a great excuse to decorate a 4th bedroom that would have otherwise remained neglected forever.

we eventually want our two boys to share a room, so we did this nursery with an end game in mind; it will become a guest room as soon as the baby is old enough to jump out of his crib. (which, as of this post date, happened- waaay earlier than i'm ready for!)

the budget for the entire room came in right around the $1000 mark, thanks to craigslist, existing furniture, a ton of diy's, and a free crib from a dear friend (thank you allison!).

all of the "before" pictures were taken way back when we were house hunting:

and now, without further ado, is the after!

before:

and after:

you'll think this is nuts, but the first thing we did was remove the closet. this room in teeny tiny, and if all the necessary furniture was going to fit, it just had to happen. the reasons it works are this:

1. baby clothes are tiny. there was more than enough room in the dresser to store clothes and diapers for this age.

2. he won't be here for long. we knew our boys would share a room eventually, and his older brother has plenty of closet space for when that happens.

3. this room will ultimately become a guest room, and space to move around will be more beneficial to guests than a closet full of our unused sports gear.

so i'm glad we did it! it provided the perfect little nook for snuggling up and nursing or reading. there was even enough space for an ottoman, which was great on those nights i ended up holding the baby and falling asleep in the chair for a few hours at a time.

the pendant light started with a $1 drum shade from the good will thrift store. i wrapped it with raffia using a hot glue gun, and then glued dried mushrooms to it. a downlight kit from lowe's turned it into a pendant, and we were able to install where the previous closet fixture had been.

another before picture:

and after:

the dresser was a craigslist find that we painted with sherwin williams north star (same color as the ceiling). the walls are sherwin williams naval, however i took the can back after we started painting and had them add more black. the pictures make the blue look a little brighter than it really is!

we replaced all the baseboards and window trim, and added crown moulding. i made the curtains with clearance fabric from joann's and the rod is a discontinued style from restoration hardware. (sorry that wasn't helpful at all, was it?!)

i kept the nursery bedding minimal. now that i'm at baby #3, i know how unnecessary bumpers and heavy toddler quilts are. aden & anais make the best linen swaddling blankets on the planet, and they were all that was needed for my summer baby.

the blue crab crib sheet is from serena & lily. for the crib skirt, i used one we had from my older son's nursery, and used iron-on fusing tape to add grosgrain ribbon. that was only because the skirt i wanted from pottery barn kids was sold out at the time. 

here is a before shot of the window, which is actually quite tiny:

beefing up the trim and hanging the curtains higher and wider than the window made it look huge!

i made the nursery mobile by twisting three faux willow brances into a circle and securing them with twine. then i tied on mini birds from a craft store with twine and strung it from a cup hook in the ceiling. 

the picture frames are all from my grandma's house, my basement or good will. i removed the glass and spray painted them all the same glossy white. the artwork came from a children's book, one, two, tree by anushka ravishankar. i carefully cut out the pages and mounted them to card stock. they are thumb-tacked to the wall (and i added blue tape behind them as well to keep them from curling).

the nice thing about this art display (besides that it was cheap- less than $30 total) is that it's very easily changed out as our son grows or as the room's purpose changes. 

and i love that this particular book is a counting book, so the animals in the tree grow from one to ten as the pictures make their way around the room. its fun to count them with our little guy!

the leather chair was from the living room in our previous house and the nightstand is from homegoods. i made the lumbar pillow with batik fabric from joann's, and the striped pillow cover was rescued from my basement landfill.

so there's our little nursery! 

thanks for stopping by! i'm linking up with the pink pagoda who's hosting some other blue & white inspiration so i'm off to check those out...hope you will too! and happy cinco de mayo. ;-)