down to the wire: nursery reveal

John and I would love to have more kids. Like yesterday. So on a whim Thursday, I swapped our master bedroom for Annie's much smaller bedroom. She's still months out from sleeping in a twin bed and we're not even pregnant yet, but I wanted to get a move on finishing the whole apartment - as in choose fabric for drapes, the daybed and the walls in our room. But the idea that our room could become a kids' room sooner rather than later to accommodate a crib AND twin, meant putting a major halt on any custom fabric purchases, etc. So rather than live in the between indefinitely, we went ahead and transitioned. Did I say we? I'm sorry, You must think I have fleas. I transitioned while John was at work. I lugged our bed frame, mattress and box spring across the apartment, nearly breaking them all and nearly shattering every lamp on our way. It was a battle, with bruises on my body and scratches on our hardwoods to prove it. 

But first, anticipating a future moment of nostalgia, I snapped a few pictures of Annie's nursery so that I could always "remember when..." By the way, I never actually finished the room, because talk of the swap kept me from getting in too deep. But in a whirlwind hour, I threw a few last things up on the wall and called it done. Took some pictures. And ripped it all apart again. So let's begin. Welcome to her room before:

. 

And after:

The brick finally got painted white. And that rug I bought on the street in New Orleans did get a professional cleaning. The Oeuf crib came from a shop on Magazine Street, but is all over the Internet. It was pricey and I love it. I've never for half a second regretted the splurge. And I had a plethora of very generous people help me to buy it at our baby shower. Very lucky. Very grateful. Still very much all about it. You don't see too many of these on-the-crib changing tables but I don't know why not. They're fantastic. I'll never be able to change a baby from the side again. Head on is where's it at. And it's a total space saver for all those closet sized nurseries out there. We bought ours for a steal on Ebay but it's from the Oeuf line as well. And that little rocker in the picture below was John's as a baby. Once again, his mom pulled out another gem from the past! Annie lurves it. Way too much. She'll probably crack her skull from falling off someday. What can you do?

Sweet Griffin made his way into the room as well of course. He watches over Annie as she sleeps and protects her from all the robbers. The glider came from a shop in New Orleans. John's mom graciously bought it for us and it's been lovely. (On the left side of this picture you can see the beam that I had built in the living room to add a little more character to the condo. The same talented guy who built this in our kitchen made the beam.)

Below is a shot of John's mobile as a baby. And the frames behind it came from Ikea. Love those things. As you know, I'm still on the hunt for what to fill them with. Although my artist aunt Jeanie is trying to persuade me to personally paint something for the frames....Eek. I never like anything I make as well as the real deal! But I'm super excited for when Annie starts cranking out some finger paint art. There's no better way to decorate a kid's room! But walking before painting, people. One milestone at a time.

And trite, I know. But I'm still into those pendant flags. The fabric was what we call 'chere' in french. I like that word because it not only translates as expensive, but means darling, too. Takes the edge of the expensive part. I used the bulk of the yardage to make crib bumpers and then not only read all about how dangerous bumpers are - whoops - but didn't love the final result of them anyway. Here is a picture from a couple years ago when I made them.

Down filled bumpers from Serena and Lily are the way to go. They're also bank breakers. I bought cheap inserts from Joanns and you could tell. So I cut apart the fabric and sewed the pendants instead. Couldn't let it go to waste!

The flowers on the left in this next picture and the hanging driftwood are sort of a funny story. I had initially asked people to give store credit in lieu of a baby gift at my shower. I wanted to pool it together to buy the Oeuf crib from an online company. However, after the shower and before I used the gift cards to make the purchase, I happened to walk into a store in New Orleans that had a huge Mother's Day sale going on AND also had the crib. Everything was 25% off. I asked the sales assistant if that included the furniture and she said it was doubtful but could ask the owner that night. In an attempt to soften her up, I told John we needed to buy something and be good customers. So we snagged those really delicate hand made flowers and the driftwood. Attribute it to what you will, the owner called back that night and said that although furniture was NOT included in the sale, she'd give us the crib at sale price anyway! Woot woot! (We used the online baby store credit to buy a carseat instead.)

So there you have it. Some not so put together final pictures of the never finished nursery. And in case you're counting, this represents the THIRD nursery she's had in fourteen months. She's now asleep in number 4. You can see the first and second nurseries here and here. 

And I mentionned, the minute after these pictures were taken, I tore it all done and threw it into our bedroom. Here was what the house looked like by the time John came home from work. He was thrilled...

(P.S. On the floor you can see a glimpse of a little project I just finished for Annie's new room. They're roman shades that you make out of cheap mini blinds. Pictures to come soon...)