Nursery Reveal !

With about four weeks to go until we meet our little one, we finally have our nursery just about finished !  It's painted, furniture is put together, shelves are up, most of the decor is up, and the drawers are just about stocked with clothes and diapers.  Since we didn't find out the sex, it's fairly gender neutral.  I figured I can add some pops of purple if its a girl and leave it how it is if it's a boy.  Here's a little picture tour :

The curtains came to me as a revelation.  I couldn't, for the life of me, settle on a pair of curtains !  I looked at IKEA, Target, Wal-Mart, and the internet and just couldn't find anything that fit the room. I was thinking of purchasing a fabric from IKEA, but fully making the curtains was a little intimidating for me (I made my bedroom curtains from scratch and I felt like it took me foooorreevverr to make them and vowed I would never do it again).  Then, one day as I walked passed the bed sheets aisle in Target, I vaguely remembered reading about using sheets as curtains.  Then I quickly Googled it (thank you smart phone) and read that it can be done !  As soon as I turned into the aisle, I found "the one" set of sheets:


I purchased a twin set of sheets.  This print was PERFECT for the room, and at $15.99 (no, I didn't get that sale price) I couldn't beat the price for turning it into two panels of curtains.  Since the nursery is "forest" themed, the leaves pattern was perfect and the teal and green matched exactly to the other teals and greens in the room.  This is how I turned the sheets into curtains (sorry for no step-by-step pictures):

Step 1: Wash and dry flat sheet.
Step 2: Fold flat sheet in half length-wise and iron the sheet (this helps to put a crease right down the middle to make it easy to cut).
Step 3: Cut the flat sheet right down the middle - now you have two curtain panels.
Step 4: Fold over, pin, and sew the long cut side to make a nice edge.  Repeat for other panel.  (I did read that some people use hem tape if you don't have a sewing machine)
Step 5: Depending on how tall you want your curtains will determine how you do the next part.  I just folded the top of the sheet over about five inches and then sewed a horizontal line to make a rod pocket.  
Step 6: Slide the rod through pocket and hang.  Easy !  



There are a lot of other great tutorials out there with pictures that can help you as well.  The sheets worked perfectly because of the print and color, but also because it was so easy to make.  I didn't have to do a lot of measuring or cutting and I only had to sew four straight lines because the other sides and the bottom hem were already done for me.

So that's how I got the perfect curtains for the nursery.  The rest of the nursery is just a smorsgaboard of framed things, books, and stuffed animals.  It's a pretty simple nursery.

The pennants on the wall were made out of scrapbook paper that I already had.  I used a 12x12 sheet of paper and was able to cut out five triangles per sheet.  Then I used a hole punch, punched two holes, and put the twine through.  Pretend pressing of Staples "Easy Button."

The "Owl Always Love You" print was also made out of scrapbook paper I already had.  I found a cute owl picture online, freehand drew it, and cut it out.  I used my heart punch for the heart and my Cricut for the words and placed it in an IKEA frame. Done !

Lastly, the animal prints above the cube shelf were a bit more time consuming.  I've decided on a forest theme pretty quickly and you guessed it...I had these pretty much made the weekend we found out we were expecting.  I found these animal prints online for $88 for all four. Even though I loved them, I couldn't bring myself to spend that much.  I kept looking at them, hoping I'd change my mind, and then I realized they looked like pieces of paper rather than an actual print.  So I thought, "Hey, I can make these !"   Over the course of a couple days, I freehand drew, cut out, and taped these little animals together.  Each piece is cut out of scrapbook paper and taped with acid free tape to a piece of white 8 X 10 piece of paper.  Then I placed a teal piece of paper behind the white to matte the picture.  The frames are from, yours truly, IKEA.  

So that's just a quick little tour of the nursery.  Actually not too much was DIY, but what was DIY'd was made with love...with a few trips to IKEA (and a pit stop to the restaurant for their meatballs each time).

Here's a rundown of the items we bought for our nursery:
   * Dresser: IKEA Hemnes
   * Knobs on dresser: from Hobby Lobby
   * Crib: SUNDVIK
   * Cube shelf: EXPEDIT with 4" CAPITA legs
   * Rug: GISLEV
   * Curtains and Rod: Target Room Essentials Collection - Mint Leaf and Ball Cafe Rod
   * Paint: Behr's Silver Drop
   * Frames: RIBBA series

And since I don't ever post pictures of myself, here's a little bump picture for ya.  

Hope you enjoyed the tour of our upcoming little one's room.  Not sure how much DIYing I'll be doing once the babe is born, but hopefully once we get into a routine, I'll be doing more fun projects.  Spring is around the corner and I'm bound to get a good garden this year and I'm sure Pinterest will inspire some more crafty projects for me to take on as well.  

What was your inspiration for your little one's nursery?

Now you can Do It Yourself Too !

~Stephanie