A new room for New Baby

Halle-LU-yer y'all!  Nursery inspiration has done STRUCK me!  

For a minute there, I was afraid New Baby was going to get stuck with this for a nursery:

So sad.  So very very sad.

Thankfully, my second child will not have to suffer this tragic fate, as her mother is going to get it together and properly decorate her space before her arrival.  And then her mother is going to stop talking in third person because when she's talking about a bunch of girls, it's hard to know if she's referring to herself, the first girl child or the second girl child.  No seriously, she's going to stop.  Right now.  Sorry about that.  

New Baby is practicing her judo on me right now which apparently means "You don't need to sleep Mom!  Go tell people about my awesome nursery!"  Sure thing, New Baby.  You're the boss.

So when we left off talking about the nursery, I'd mentioned that I wanted to put hearts on one wall as an accent.

Like these from here

I also knew I wanted to pull the gold into other places around the nursery, and then the decorating gods smiled on me.  A while back, I was in Target and saw a side table that I absolutely fell in love with.  Originally, I wanted to put it in the living room but Drew wasn't a huge fan.  At the time, we didn't really have another place for it, Drew didn't love it, and I didn't want to pay full price for it.  THEN, yesterday Sofia and I were in Target and lo and behold, it was on clearance!

I did a happy dance, along with some 

celebratory oo-OOOOOs (it's at :37, because you don't want to hear me do it.)

Clearance, and a couple more dollars off with my Red Card?

I sure will take you home with me, my precious.

It's okay if Drew doesn't love you, I'll love you enough for the both of us.

I picked it up while Sofia was in school and made another stop to JoAnn's to see about some piping, because you're gonna LOVE what I do with that.  THEN, I rounded a corner and beheld this lovely sight.

Please envision this as a ruffled bedskirt and then please die from the cuteness possibilities.

Just like that, my hearts on the wall changed to gold polka dots and when Sofia and I came home and she went down for her nap, I ran to my computer and started scouring Pinterest.

I took this picture with my phone just after dinner tonight, but this is where the crib will live

and the dots will go on this wall.

The question is, do I make a grid, like for real with 

proper measuring and spacing and such, like this from here?

Or do I go for a fun confetti-type pattern, which will be

much more forgiving and far easier to place, 

like this from here?

I'm not sure where I'll end up, as the engineer of the house will be able to figure out grid spacing in like two seconds, but the free-spirited yoga-loving, dance in the rain type really gets the randomness, you know what I'm sayin'?

Put a gold picture frame or two on the other wall and we've got the gold covered.  As for other colors, the words that come to mind are quiet, tranquil, serene.  Sofia's nursery was and still is one of my favorite projects of all time and it truly was a labor of love.  Those bright and happy colors still make me smile.  But this time around, my age, the things I've been through in recent months and just where I am in life have me craving soft, quiet things and that's translating to muted colors.  I'm also still craving pink; I guess Sofia's big girl room didn't quite fill me up with pink, but I want an even softer quieter pink in the nursery.  I'm thinking dusty pink, antique pink, barely there pink.  Combine that with some gold and natural fibers and I believe we have the makings of a sweet little nursery.

This is the wall opposite the crib.

And here's what I'm thinking for that wall.

I have a mirror like this one, although mine doesn't have the scrolly bits.

I'm still deciding whether to leave the walls the beige-y tan color, paint one wall pink or paint the whole room pink.

I have the top right mirror, and even though it's smaller than 

my inspiration picture I bet I could make it work.

Maybe I could hang it with some pink or gold ribbon like they have on the left.

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My other mirror option is to go big, like this from here.

You remember my big mirror that was in our old breakfast nook?

I could leave it white and paint the silver part gold or do some sort of

distressing to the whole thing to make it more shabby chic, 

modern vintage, quiet soft and serene.  

These are all technical design terms, BTW.

Now, I realize that's a lot of talk about the walls and that's mainly because I haven't found a rug yet.  However, I'm confident that the decorating gods won't let me down and I'll find the perfect rug in due time.  But I'm leaving out the final piece of the room that I'm sure of, and it's because it's the best part.  Now whether I mean best or worst when I say 'best' remains to be seen.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let me back up.

Nearly all nurseries have the same basic elements:  A crib, a changing table/station and a comfy chair.  I have no idea why I skipped over the basics when I was planning because New Baby's poor little nursery is missing a basic element.  The kid will have no comfy chair!  That, my friends, is NOT the business.  I have clocked many hours in Sofia's chair and she still loves to cuddle in it, so we had to have a chair in the nursery as well.  The problem is, that room is smaller than Sofia's and there's no room for a crib, dresser, twin bed *and* a chair.  That means the bed has to go.  Thankfully, it wasn't too hard of a decision as we hardly ever used the bed in Sofia's nursery; Drew and I slept in there when our parents would visit so they could have our bedroom.  Since this house is smaller, a twin bed is the best we could do and there's kind of no point to a guest bed if you can't make it at least a queen.  

When we used it as an actual guest room, there was only just enough room for 

a queen bed and a dresser.

In Sofia's nursery, we could combine the two but this time around there just isn't enough

space, so from now on, if we have guests we'll just have to kick it 

old-school with air mattresses and sleeping bags.

Not that anyone will be banging down our door to share space with a toddler and a newborn; on second thought, can I come stay with you?

Anyway, tomorrow Drew will move the twin bed to the basement and that will make room for a comfy chair.  But which comfy chair?

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This, my friends, is a Monte Luca glider, also known as 'The Chair That Desiree Would Sell All Her Worldly Possessions For.'  And what a coincidence, it costs as much as all my worldly possessions, and then some.  It would seem that I am fated to love nursery chairs that just won't love me back, as my first nursery chair love was also out of my reach.  I sighed, lovingly stroked the screen, and painfully clicked that little red x.  In another life, my beloved.  In another life.

Thus began the search for another comfy chair that would work in the nursery and I didn't have to look far.

Tilt your head and squint your eyes…

And you just might see this.

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Now, I don't intend to paint my chair as I love the burled wood and I think it would be an absolute crime to put paint over it.  However, the fabric leaves oh so much to be desired.  We got this chair at a garage sale in Dallas nearly four years ago and from the day we brought it home, we said we were going to have it reupholstered.  We've been saying that for four years because it turns out that for the price of reupholstery I could have my Monte Luca glider.  Three guesses which I'd rather have, and the first two don't count.  Plus it's hard to shell out nearly a thousand dollars to have it reupholstered when it already cost so much to buy the damn thing.  But Drew fell in love with it, didn't care how much it cost and now it lives with us.  That, as they say, is that.

Now here's the part where you want to sit down.

Since reupholstery is off the table, slipcovers are the only other option, so I made some calls.  Turns out, having a custom slipcover is only a couple hundred dollars less than reupholstery.  Again, that's not in the cards, so this is what's going to happen:

I'm going to make the slipcover.

That's right, you heard me.  Me, Desiree, the next Vera Wang.  I'm going to sew a slipcover and make a lumbar pillow for this chair.  I hemmed my jeans, for pete's sake, I can sew a slipcover!  Just like I can make some jewelry storage!  Okay, maybe the jewelry storage is a bad example, but I can do this!  I have watched the tutorial videos several times, I bought my drop cloths today and I'm going to do this before New Baby gets here.  I have to have a nursery chair and if that's the chair we're using, it has to fit in the awesome nursery I have planned for her.  And really, can't you see that lumbar pillow wrapped in that polka dotted burlap?  This could work, people.

I'm not going to back down from this challenge.  I'm even going to set reminders on my phone that ask me every week "Hey, how's that slipcover coming?"  This is going to happen and you know I'll document every bit of my progress.

Right here is kind of where I wish you and I could trade places and I could get cozy on the sofa with a glass of wine and watch this all go down.  Because…

Wish me luck!