So despite the fact that I had grand schemes for her nursery in my head, the reality is that we were SO busy this fall with two kids, Matt's teaching and coaching, and my busiest fall to date for my photography business. Christmas break came and went with nothing getting accomplished either because our family was sick most of the time. It was not until I was 35 weeks pregnant that we even touched this room! My dad and I painted the room that week. I finally got around to decorating it about a week before I was due and it would never have gotten it done without the help of my cousin Rebekah and the fact that Nyla was 5 days overdue...I'm convinced she was staying in there until her room was done! :)
The result: a nursery for Nyla that I love! It was completely worth the effort to customize the room for our little girl!
Let me start with the inspiration for the room! My sister-in-law Jamie is an AWESOME quilter and has made so many adorable quilts and gifts for my boys over the years. She knows me so well and had been saving this fabric that she knew I would like...just in case I would have a girl someday! The fabric I believe came out in 2009 and she had been saving it ever since! The name of the fabric is Wonderland by designer Momo for Moda. Jamie and I were discussing the design of Nyla's quilt and since I've always loved sock monkeys, we decided that the border fabric for the quilt would be fabric mimicking the texture of sock moneys! Appropriately, the first thing you see when you walk in the room is Jamie's quilt which become the inspiration for the color scheme and the entire rest of the room.
Here is the link to Jamie's blog post about Nyla's quilt! The quilt rack/shelf that the quilt is hanging from was a gift from my sister-in-law Katie and came from etsy.
On top of the shelf is a family picture taken by my friend Jennifer when I was about 7 months pregnant with Nyla. I added a verse from Psalm 139 and the frame is a thrifted one that I spray painted.
Next is a yarn wrapped N. I saw some of these I liked on Etsy, but decided to try to make my own instead. I bought a wooden L from Michaels and covered it in red felt (to prevent the wood from showing through), and wrapped it in yarn using a glue to secure it, both vertically and then horizontally. This took a little longer than I expected, but I like the result anyway...
Rebekah made the cute "Grow" embroidery hoop! We spray painted the hoop brown. I love the cute button flowers and stitching she did!
This is the view as you look to the left...
I think one of my favorite things in her nursery is her name above the crib, which Rebekah and I made together. I had seen a similar one on pinterest, but on that one the name was painted on. I really wanted to have the texture of fabric instead, so we cut the letters from felt (font is clementine) and stitched them on. The hoops area all spray painted different colors...of course I chose to do this on one of the colder days of February!
A close up view...
Another project that I love is the photo blocks hanging in the corners of the room. The wood blocks are 8x8 plaques that I found at the thrift store for less than a dollar. At the time they had lovely farm scenes painted on them :) I tried to spray paint these, but the spray paint didn't cover very well, so I ended up painting them with acrylics instead. The pictures are some of my favorites of Nyla's newborn photos, printed as 6x6 squares mounted on a 2 mm styrene board from my pro photo lab. I attached them to the blocks using Command photo strips. I like the three dimensional quality this gave and it was a very economical way to display photos!
The quilt hanging over her crib is another beautiful gift! This one is from Jamie's mom, Jill.
Nyla's room is really a sun room and has eight windows. I chose not to put up curtains, because I didn't want to block the beautiful light that comes in...but I wanted some way to decorate the windows and settled on a fabric bunting. This project did not get done until the night before I went into labor and Rebekah and I stayed up pretty late that night getting this made! The fabric is the leftover 5 inch squares from the Momo Wonderland charm pack fabric from Jamie. We cut them down to triangles with pinking shears and backed them with the sock monkey fabric. They are sewn into a brown bias tape.
On the shelf under the window is a cute frame we made at a recent MOPS meeting:
The bunting is on the windows facing north and south. On the west facing windows, I used a ribbon clothesline and covered the clothespins with ribbon too using a glue gun. On the clothesline is photographs and paintings that the boys made for Nyla. I plan to switch the photographs from time to time. For now, some of the ones up are from my baby shower, Nyla meeting her great grandma, and Daddy and Nyla shortly after she was born...
As you look to the right, this is what you see:
We kept a twin bed in her room for when she is older and also for when we have guests. The quilt is one we already had, brought back from India years ago. I think all the colors blend in fine with the rest of the room.
I printed one of her newborn photos as a 12x18 with a frame around it (also mounted on a 2 mm styrene board) and secured it to the closet door using Command photo strips again.
The words are from the song that was playing when she was born, "Little Light" by Audrey Assad and Matt Hammitt:
Next to the door is her dresser and we have one of those baby book calendars that you can put stickers on...hoping I can keep it caught up. Notice the picture has March showing still. Hmmm...
And on top of the dresser are pink antique booties that were a gift from my aunt Gayle and a frame from Nyla's grandma that reads "Baptized in Christ"...still need to switch the picture to one from her baptism day though. The blue Mason jars are old ones from my grandparents' farm.
I used the walls of Nyla's nursery as the background for her birth announcement:
I guess that is about the complete tour! We didn't have much money to spend on it...actually none of the furniture is new, all repurposed, and we basically just bought paint, bedding, and craft supplies. It's a space that I really enjoy being in and I hope Nyla will love it too as she gets older!
Special thanks to my cousin Rebekah and my sister-in-law Jamie for their help and inspiration! :)
