Nursery progress: Thinking pink and musical rugs

Happy New Year, my friends!  I hope 2014 is getting off to a great start for all of you and that this time, no seriously, this time you stick with and/or complete all your resolutions.  Me?  I absolutely did not.  Actually, I take that back.  I just went back and looked at my New Year's post from 2013, and I kept one resolution: I did get pretty savvy with meal planning, thanks to Fresh 20, so at least there's that.  One is better than none, right?

However, I'm looking at 2014 with just one resolution:  Have a baby.  That's it.  If I get to December 31st, 2014 and we're all still alive, then 2014 will be a rousing success.  

Everything beyond that is a bonus and it would be super swell if I could complete New Baby's nursery by the time she gets here.  Yeah, I just said 'swell.'  I'm trying it out.  But back to the nursery:  We've made huge progress, but I'm not talking about the slipcover for the chair.  I haven't done jack squat in that arena, but it's going to happen I promise.  

But let's move on to the things that we have accomplished so far!  First, we hired a painter to paint the nursery and other odds and ends around the house.  Usually, I'm the one who does all the painting around here but let's face it, I can hardly roll over in bed anymore and it was time to bring in someone else.  

Even though someone else was painting, I still had to choose a color.

I was looking for a grayish pink and got a test pot of 
Cool Pink by Behr - it's the one marked 's.'

Unfortunately, that color turned out to be way too chalky and too reminiscent of Pepto-Bismol so I went back to the drawing board.  Of course, I polled my internet friends and they reminded me of the color Young House Love used when they painted their nursery pink.  I went to Sherwin Williams and got three more test pots while the painter worked on other parts of the house.

This is a terrible phone picture but the Cool Pink is on the far left.

The other three are (L to R): Sherwin Williams Rose of Sharon

Benjamin Moore Proposal matched to SW

SW White Beet

I liked the lighter pink much better and painted some more test swatches in another part of the room.

Bill (that's our painter) said to paint swatches close to the floor and/or furniture

to see how it would look next to those tones.

After a little more deliberation I decided to go with Proposal, matched to Sherwin Williams' Emerald formula of paint.  I handed it over to Bill and he worked his magic.

It's absolutely perfect.

The striped rug lives in here now and I love it more, if that's even possible.

It goes perfectly with the crib sheets.

It's so barely there and that's exactly what I wanted.

I know I made the right choice because every time I walk in there now, I get a huge grin on my face and I start imagining how the finished room will look.  The green and brown basket is going to get a hit of gold spray paint and I can't wait to start hanging pictures now!  Also, I'm in love with the chandelier.  I love my husband for hanging it, I love my friend Shunta for telling me about it and hooking me up with a coupon for it and I love that it's gold dots.  I pretty much love everything about it.

Obviously, the room is super bare but I was waiting until it was painted to fill it up and now that it's done, I will be getting started.  After all, I only have about a month and a half before she gets here so I really need to get on it!

I should *probably* do something about this.

Since we moved the striped rug into the nursery and discovered (okay, *I* discovered) that the living room rug was too small after rearranging, the navy rug moved into Sofia's room.

Her room, on the other hand, is very much lived in and not at all bare.

Also, I should have lowered the blinds to cut the glare.  Sorry about that.

The navy rug is what we call a 'bossy' rug.  He's kind of a diva rug.  He came into this room and was like 'Oh no chile, them butterflies got to go.  I need center stage honey!'  And you know what?  I can't even argue with him.  The butterflies, while awesome, are just too much with the diva rug.

 Navy rugs absolutely work in kids' rooms, you just have to tone everything

else down because navy rugs are divas and you just have to accept it.

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So I will bow to the navy rug.  I will allow him to take center stage in Sofia's room, as long as he understands that the TRUE diva will spill milk on him in a hot second without an ounce of regret.  And while the navy rug will have the spotlight, I'm going to work in some bits of raspberry here and there.

I'm taking this raspberry/pinkish lamp and running with it.

Also, I didn't get a good shot of the bookcases but I painted them white and 

they look so much better that way.

I'm using this as my inspiration.
Now that I know how to sew a floor pouf (sort of) I'm going to make a raspberry one with navy piping and find some awesome fabric for a throw pillow for her chair.
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I will also switch out the yellow and orange canvases for other canvases

or picture frames with raspberry accents.

Also on the list is figuring out a better toy storage solution than

'shove everything in the corner.'

I'm not using her closet as well as I could; maybe things could go in there.

The picture and book ledges and artwork display will stay; I like them and I will 

only indulge the navy rug so much.  

Sofia may be the princess diva of the house, but I am the QUEEN.  

Remember that, rug.

The new living room rug should arrive tomorrow and I'm super anxious to see if it'll work.  I still have a lot on the to-do list - I haven't even shown you our new laundry room! - but I'm getting there.  If the living room rug works, then our rug situation is solved and I won't have to get any more rugs (you hear that, Drew?)  As always, I'm excited to see where we end up and my fingers are crossed that the nursery will be finished by the time the baby comes.  Last time, I finished Sofia's nursery with a little less than a month to spare, but I also knew when she was coming.  This time, my doctors aren't inducing me so I'm really trying to get it done sooner rather than later because I will be on high alert come February.

So that's how things are looking in my daughters' (!!!) rooms these days.  I *think* Sofia likes the changes.  After we moved the navy rug in there, she ran into her room and stopped dead in her tracks just inside the doorway, not saying anything.  She stared at the rug for a minute, and then decided to play hopscotch on the navy parts.  Well, her version of it anyway.  Okay, really she just started jumping around, trying to stay on the navy bits.  I'm taking that as a positive sign that the rug can stay.

Now if only I can figure out what to do in our bedroom….

Wait.  Hang on.  Decorate.  If only I can figure out how to decorate the bedroom.  I know what to *do* in there.

You know what, let me just stop right there.

DECORATE.  I'm talking about decorating.  

I totally walked into that one and I'm not editing it in any way.  I'm leaving it, because sometimes I am a dork.

I'll show myself out.