Nursery Project: Starting to come together

This weekend, the nursery finally began to look like a baby is on the way.

After the painting was completed last weekend Stacy and I unpacked and set-up the furniture, which let me tell was not as easy as we had thought. A few weeks before, we had gone over to my mothers house to set up her crib for her. Sally bought one at Sears for $89 and it was a piece of cake. Four pieces, fit together well, slide the bottom in, done. So, one would figure our more expensive crib would have to be just as, if not easier, to put up. Wrong. It was in about twenty pieces. Once the shock of that wore off, we got it together in no time and started putting the dresser together. Have you ever put a dresser together, completely? Its a lot of work. Installing the drawer tracks, putting seven drawers together. While not hard, it was time consuming.

For those of you who saw the room before, I had made a Cubs lamp for the Cubs room. Once the painting was complete, I went to work on a panda lamp for the panda room. First, I painted a lamp. Once dry, I brought it in to the house and added a plush panda to the base. It turned out really cute.

At that point, we left the nursery alone for the week awaiting Stacy's dad to come and help with his contribution...the chair rail.

On Saturday, he came by and when he left, the room was drastically different. What was once a two tone wall, is now divided in two distinct sections. It looks amazing. From there, it was my mom's turn to make a contribution.

For those who don't know, in her youth, Sally was a stencilling machine. Given that the first time Stacy and I decided to stencil something, it did not go well, we decided to turn to the expert. She came by Sunday morning, and we stencilled four pairs of pandas above the chair rail. This was the first time the room really looked like a child's room.

Next comes Stacy's mother's additions. She is doing all the cushions, crib bumbers, and accessories for the room. Sunday morning she brough over the crib bumbers so we could attach them to the crib. Stacy and I picked out a panda fabric we wanted since no one carries panda accessories, and she kindly agreed to do the sewing for us. Wow. It looks great.

Finally, the last thing done on Sunday was to hang a shelf and an accessory on the crib wall, and throw some pandas around to complete the theme.

Continue to check back as the room gets closer and closer to being complete. We still need the window seat cushions, the valence, more shelves, and a couple more surprises. I will continue to update until the room is completed.

For more pictures of the room, including some close-ups and the cutest shot of Wrigley (who still believes its her room), please follow the link on the right side of the page. Thanks for checking in!

Nursery Project: Day 2

Its day two of the big nursery project. Today, we painted the bottom portion of the wall. For the frist time, we have an idea of exactly waht its going to look like and we LOVE the way it turned out. You never know from paint cards if the colors are what you hope they will be. In this case, they were spot on. The greens compliment each other perfectly, and will look great with the patterns we purchased for the crib bumbers, valence, and window cushions.

Next step, Grandpa Vogel will come by this week to help install the chair rails and we can put the furniture into place.

Nursery Project: Day 1

This morning, we got out of bed and began the nursery. On today's slate: paint the upper section of the room. First things first, we had to measure out where the chair rail will go. So i busted out my handy laser level, and marked the walls where the divide would be. After that, we had the very unpleasant task of taping all the woodwork, windows, and the chair rail line. After an hour plus of that, we got to the fun part. Stacy and I each had our jobs, and after another hour or so we had coat one of the upper section done. Tomorrow, after more painting, will be the bottom section and we will have a better idea of how the colors will look. After that, Grandpa Vogel will come and we will install the chair rail. Then, the decorating will begin.

Check back all week for continued updates on our progress.

The Nursery Begins

Today I began working on the nursery. I thought it might be fun to do a week by week, work in progress update on here for those of you who won't see it until it is done, or possibly not at all.

This is the room today. Empty. Blank walls. No furniture. Today, I primed all the walls to prep them for the big paint job.

Next weekend, Stacy and I will paint the room. The following weekend, we will install chair rails and put in the furniture. From there, the sky is the limit. We are both looking forward to decorating, and are happy to share the process with everyone we care about. Check back next week for an update on our progress.