Thursday, August 20, 2015

A room for Miller

I had a lot of big plans for last weekend, and then I ended up with even bigger plans, so all my little to-dos (and medium to-do's...and anything other than "have a baby" to-do's) sort of fell by the wayside. None of the tasks on my list were crucial though, and they all of course pale in comparison to the task of welcoming a new human, so even the things that seemed important then didn't matter much anymore.

So there will always be more things to get done around the house, but I'm thankful we managed to make as much progress as we did before Miller's arrival. I had thought he was going to arrive early, so I was forcing some of the nesting process to happen sooner than later. (Dustin was constantly questioning the need to update things like guest room lampshades, and hallway picture frames right now, but I was of the mindset that if we couldn't get it done before the baby, then there would be no way we'd do it after).

One of the questions we got a lot once we announced our pregnancy, was about where all the kids would sleep. We have four bedrooms, so the kids don't actually have to share but I like being able to keep a guest room, and always thought it would be fun to have the girls share (big reveal of their "big girl" room...someday...) so we planned to keep Fin's room as the nursery, and just shuffle everything/everyone around a bit. Typically we don't move our kids into their own room until they're at least around three months old, so we weren't really in any hurry to make the switch, but we did think it would be best to have Fin transition before the baby arrived, so she didn't associate him with getting kicked out of her space.

Enough background...on to the fun part!
Here's the official "before"...(excuse the rough picture quality saved from the original real estate listing)
The previous owners had it set up as a nursery, which was convenient for us. It's maybe not exactly what I would do in the space, but it's neutral, so we decided to work with it rather than spend time and money updating it right now. It's chocolate brown under the chair rail, with a subtle cream stripe above (all one color paint, alternating finish between flat and gloss).


We set it up for Fin using mostly pieces from her old nursery in Pittsburgh (which was a combo with our guest room) mixed with some of Piper's old stuff and curtains from our old master bedroom. It's a little bit of a mish-mash, but it all works together, AND all that reusing and swapping means it was free!

I haven't really done a good job documenting the decorating process in our home through photos so I don't have much to show for its set up previously, but it is featured for a hot second in our last video tour (with bonus footage of almost-naked baby Fin!). Since that video was shot, we made a few updates, mostly hanging some things on the walls, so it was more or less finished. And because it was so neutral, transitioning it to a boy's room was reallllly simple. Basically we did a couple picture frame swaps, and we were done!

Here's where we landed (for now...):


Right now we have Piper's baby quilt in there, but I have dreams of a making a new one for Miller, so hopefully that can happen soon! (I may not be a master, but I've certainly caught the quilting-bug!)

But don't pity our little hand-me-down baby too much, he does have a few new things just for him; including his very own Jelly! (time will tell if they bond as well as Fin and Jelly).

We set up a little nursing/reading nook that, to be honest, is mostly for show. In my experience I end up feeding my babies wherever we are at the time, and book-time with babies and toddlers is more of a crawling on the floor free-for-fall than a relaxing rocker affair. But who cares, because it looks pretty, right?!


One of the new (/vintage) things I'm in love with is this wire tray-turned-picture-frame. Dustin surprised me by having one of our friends paint a custom picture for Miller (depicting him with his sisters). It came with the cutest note from their whole family, and I think it's so cool to have something special from people we love. (For more awesome-ness, check out Megin's etsy shop...these two have more talent than I can even handle). I added Miller's name at the bottom with some vintage blocks we've had since Piper was born.

The frame holds a vintage poster that makes me laugh...I always think of the Ginuwine song (which I will not link to, out of respect to my young son's developing morals). And the wooden teether was a gift from a friend who owns the cutest shop of little handmade lovelies. 

In the corner we removed the closet door, and replaced it with a curtain, to save little fingers from getting smooshed between battling doors. (who puts doors back to back like that? such a maneuverability nightmare!)

The other side of the room is the dresser/changing table, and the gallery wall. We had this all set up for Fin, and just updated a few pieces to be slightly less girly. (I've always thought about painting that buffet- which was a cast-off from a friend, but we've used it in several different rooms, and I've never quite landed on a color for it. So for now...we leave it.)


In place of a couple of frames with sketches of girls, I hung a couple quick DIY's. One is a cardinal, in honor of our first Ohio baby (it's the state bird, for those of you not familiar). The art was done by a co-worker, and I decoupaged it to an old slice of wood I had on hand. I went semi-distressed with it...not sure if I love it, but it's cute for now, and I can always rework it later. (ha...we know that won't happen!)

The other is a pinterest inspired craft using pennies from the year of each of our births (and one from our wedding. Simple. Sweet. 6 cent cost. :)


And that's about it. Thanks for sitting through the virtual tour. It's fun for me to create special little spaces for our family, and it's extra fun to share them!

What little touches have you done in your kids' rooms that you're in love with? Anyone else have to transform a room for use by kids of each gender? I'd love to see or hear about it!

P.S. Check out more of our house posts- new and old- here.
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