Nursery Crafting

In our posts about Connor’s nursery, here and here, we glossed over a few projects that we worked on for the decor, so we figured we’d go back and talk about them, assuming you’re interested 😉

I grew up as a total cheapo. My family made fun of me for everywhere we went I always claimed that I “forgot my wallet.” I’m sure this has some crumb of truth in it, but I won’t give them that satisfaction to fully admit to it right now haha. Now that we bring in steady paychecks and can live comfortably, and aren’t struggling, broke college kids, we’ve definitely loosened up on our spending habits. At heart though, I’m still a cheapo. I had a lot of ideas for the nursery, that big box stores don’t typically sell. They’re more the types of decor that you find on Etsy. As much as I appreciate supporting someone to do that type of work, some of the prices are crazy. So I researched and pretty much decided that I would do them all myself.

“You are our Greatest Adventure” Sign

This is one of my favorite things about his nursery. I found some inspiration on Etsy (see our idea board in the first post). All of the options that I liked we $50+, so we decided to make our own.

I forgot to take a lot of pictures of the process, but I picked up an unfinished pine project board from Lowe’s and cut it down to the size that I wanted to match this decal that I bought on Etsy. I would link to the product, but it looks like the lady I bought it from has closed her shop.

David cut the board down for me and I sanded it all down, paying special attention to the edges. I wanted to make sure they weren’t sharp because it would be hanging over his crib. I then did the same process for staining and sealing it as I did for the basement bar shelves, same stain color and all.

A few days later after it was all dried and cured, I applied the decal. Look at that super pregnant belly. oof.

It turned out so great. David used 2 heavy duty screws and just screwed it right into the wall planks, which were pretty thick wood and I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t come off the wall unless an adult really wanted it to. We didn’t care about the screws showing too much because it was already a pretty rustic look.

Crib & Changing Pad Sheets

I envisioned a light teal fitted crib sheet for Connor’s crib that would balance out the room with the color I chose for the side table next to the glider.

I wanted something with some small deer on it. Of course, everything I found on Etsy was overpriced. Well, my mom is awesome, and when she came by the house one day, she brought me some mint fabric that she found on sale at Joanne Fabrics. It was perfect. She also got some in a navy blue.

I did some googling and found some easy tutorials. I had enough to make a crib sheet from the teal fabric, and a crib sheet and changing pad cover from the navy fabric. I followed this tutorial from the Ribbon Retreat to make the crib sheet. Also, this tutorial from A Small Snippet for the changing pad cover. They were fairly simple, but also involved me breaking out my sewing machine.

I have a love-hate relationship with my sewing machine. My mom is amazing with the sewing machine and made like all of our clothes growing up. I got this sewing machine probably when I was 12 or 13 years old, and started out with basic projects, and eventually moved up to making my own pajama pants and things. I was never awesome, but I got by. Whenever I do a sewing project, I’m super excited while I’m doing it and love the finished result… but getting over that initial hurdle of getting started is always so hard for me. I have no idea why it is so hard for me to sit down and sew. It’s not my first pick of a fun way to spend my free time, but I always end up loving and being super proud of the result.

My mom gave me her old sewing machine table that my Dad bought for her early on in their marriage. David was able to find the right screws for my sewing machine to fit right into it, so the cool thing is that the sewing machine drops down underneath the table on a swing arm, and it just looks like a nice table when you aren’t using it!

The sheets and pad cover turned out great, and I was so pleased with the results, thanks to the tutorials. Notice the baby monitor above, I did these while on maternity leave during Connor’s naps. His nursery was definitely not completed before he arrived in this world!

Awww, look at 3-4? month old Connor! I wish he still sat this still for a diaper change.

Wood Slice C

The wall above the changing dresser needed some decor, so I found this cute deer head from Target.

I put it pretty high up on the wall so that he couldn’t reach it because it doesn’t come with a very secure method to hang it up.

I also grabbed an old mirror that I had hanging in my dorm room in college and some frames from Ikea that I would use to hang up his ultrasound pictures in. These, unfortunately I thought were hung up high enough, but he was able to reach them a few months ago, so I may have to redesign this gallery wall setup. But for these pictures, it looks super cute 🙂

A few years ago, I was trying to be creative with a birthday gift for David and come up with something unique. His birthday is like a week after Christmas, and it’s always so hard to have to be creative with Christmas presents and birthday presents in such a short amount of time. Since he enjoys tools and woodworking, I came across this pyrography set and thought it could be something he could check out and give a try. I also bought this wooden tree trunk slice:

It sat around for a few years. I don’t think he was that into it as I thought he may be. Maybe it was too artistic for an engineer. Well, I thought it would fit perfectly in the nursery with the woodland theme. I found a font that we liked and printed a large C on a piece of paper, then used some of my transfer paper from my sewing kit to transfer an outline of the C onto the wood. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of all of this, but here’s David taking the Versa-tool and filling in the C. He’s essentially burning the wood to give it that dark color