Saturday, September 4, 2010

nursery project: how's it coming?

we live in a modest {ie. little} three bedroom home in a great cleveland suburb. we bought the house before i even had a "real" job. it was a forclosure. it was cheap at the time {about a year or so before the housing crash} for what we paid, we could now afford a house double the size -- but we won't go there, it's just too depressing. All this to say that we love our house and love the fact that it has always given us just enough room.

when we moved in we picked the biggest bedroom for the master, then we each chose the other rooms as our respective closets/ offices. See, our house was built in 1937 and the closets are the size of a refrigerator. I was in charge of the paint selection for all rooms, and based on the bedding we already had for the guest bed, i selected a vibrant brick red/orange for Curtis' office.

On a good day, this is what the room looked like:

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When we decided to adopt, i began a huge reorganizing project to clear out this room and share "my room" with the man in order to start on a nursery for our little Ethiopian boy. You may remember me blogging about cleaning the basement and moving half of my stuff down there to make room for Curtis' stuff.

By the time the "red room" was cleared and cleaned we found out we were pregnant.

Still, we needed a nursery, and probably in less time at that, so i got to work, mulling over paint samples and beginning to envision "baby's room."

People made fun of me for wanting to start on this room so soon, but here was my justification.
In late August, Curtis would start his last semester of classes up. He would be gone four nights a week and with studying on the weekends, i wanted to take the big task of painting off his plate to worry about. Plus, i didn't want to wait until he was graduated in December to begin the nursery. So naysayers were silenced and i picked the paint and we got stared.

Unfortunately we were so on a roll one weekend that i got no pictures of the progress. But here is what it looked like all painted and fresh. (note: when we decided to adopt, we began to receive many generous gifts of used furniture and baby items...the crib was a gift from my in-laws, given sooner than we needed because they were moving)


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The paint color was called Burnished Metal by Behr. It was between that and a color called Dolphin and so in the end, we (ie. I) went with the brighter of the two although they were extremely similar.

My goal was a very neutral backdrop to a bright nursery. I love the look of crisp white walls, but that just wasn't for me, so i chose what i thought was my version of a white wall. pale, pale grey. Curtis was unsure, some made fun of me for choosing grey in a baby's room. But i love it.

The following pictures are of the room as of a week ago. I placed all the toys we have on top of the dresser (from our guest room set) and placed my favorite Anthropologie pillow in the crib. It's sparse but clean and the perfect backdrop for some inspiration.


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Then my sister declared that she had a gift for baby P. I wondered what it would be. When i finally saw her, before i opened the bag she told me that she saw this and knew she had to get it. Then i saw it and i knew why...



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We now have our first item of baby clothes...I have promised to buy not an item until we find out the sex (on October 8th!) And although i have been tempted upon seeing a few things, i have restrained. Other than a few garage sale purchases (a baby bjorn snuggly, a swing and running stroller) in the last couple months that totaled only about $50, i have purchased nothing until i spotted this rug on Ikea.com



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I had been browsing rugs for a few weeks and everything was either pink, blue or very very beige and neutral. i really wanted something bright and fun and not my style at all. i got it in my mind and everything was falling significantly short of what i had in mind. until i thought to go on ikea.com. their rugs are inexpensive (some of them) and fun. When i spotted this one, i fell in love. it was just unisex enough, just bright enough, and only $39!

So i texted my mother-in-law who lives 10 minutes from an ikea near Chicago and asked her if she wouldn't mind picking it up for me on her next trip out there. she said she'd go the following day. And better yet, they were coming to cleveland the following week and offered to bring it with them.


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Everyone i've showed it to has the same reaction: wow, that's bright. definitely a statement. funky. fun.
Curtis was again, unsure about it, but i loved it. It wasn't as big as i thought it would be, but for 40 bucks i'd make it work.

I want a nursery that is unlike any of the other "earthy" rooms in my home. No brown, no camel, no green or gold...

This is so not my style and i think that's why i like it so much. I've never been a primary color kind of girl, but i think the colors of this rug give us so much potential. I just keep telling curtis, the rug is the statement piece of the room, the whole room will not be this loud!

He just replies by saying, "okay Jess, whatever you say, i trust you, you haven't done me wrong yet."

And that is why (or just one of the reasons) i love that man and am so glad that out of all the men in the world, he will be the father of my children!

He gives me free reign and humors my style!

3 comments:

Aili said...

Love it!! Especially the pillow, rug and wall color!

Anonymous said...

That rug is fantastic! And high five on the gray walls - so much potential!

jess said...

thanks ladies! i like them too -- i' glad someone's with me!

 
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