Track 7: A Not-so-plus-size Nursery →
We live in a tiny house. Not what's considered an actual "tiny house" today, but a small house nonetheless. Our plan was to stay for the first year of our marriage and here were are on our way to our third wedding anniversary! Because guess what? We've absolutely grown to love it!
While living in our first home together, we became debt-free; we've essentially become a one-car family (I say that as we're in the process of selling two cars...hello baby/hospital bills!); I've gone part-time with my work (we're not utilizing daycare); and perhaps most importantly, we're always down-sizing, letting go of "things" that clutter our lives and take up God's precious time. I don't know if I'd go as far to say we're minimalists, but we have goals to let go of even more, while being more considerate of what comes in to stay. All Glory to God – He gives us a roof over our head and the ability to create a lovely temporary home until we're with Him in heaven.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
When Paul and I first started dating, he took me to my very first Ikea – outside Chicago. This was before I had one close – in Kansas City. This picture he snapped of me walking inside is still on his phone! (Yes, I was geeking out! Interior design and journalism were my original college majors...) He said I was like a kid in a candy store for sure. I just loved the idea of reasonably-priced home goods that you could hack into all kinds of useful items for everyday living.
We left with this dresser, in red, along with whatever else I could fit into the car, alongside guitars and our bags. After we got married, the chest of drawers lived next to our washer and dryer as our laundry folding table and "linen closet." And when we got pregnant, it was the first piece of furniture we decided to modify for our little lady's nursery. I knew I wanted to use it as a changing table, paint it (a gender-neutral color) and replace the hardware. The piece will serve as our sweet girl's dresser until it gives out. (It affixes to the wall to prevent tipping onto small children.)
I had our local Menard's mix up this green and I said no way to these bar pulls I liked ($50 each!)...and hello to light-weight, silver-looking pulls that I scored in a sale aisle for $2.99 each. I painted them when I got home using leftover spray paint I already had. Paul did the sanding, hole filling and new hole drilling.
I've actually had the project pinned on a private Pinterest board for a long time – along with some other nurseries for inspiration! Here are some of the rooms and ideas I saved.
1. I loved the white walls, light curtains (with poms!), gold curtain rods, natural wood crib and the touch of green. 2. This one came from Instagram (looking for the source!), and really, it was that old orange chair that caught my eye. I later saw a similar chair on our local Habitat store's Facebook and after going in weeks later, we found it on the very top of warehouse racking, nearly touching the ceiling. A volunteer climbed a ladder for us as we said, "Please let it be a rocking and swiveling chair..." Not only does it do both, but it also came with the comfiest footstool AND it was an extra percentage off that day, leaving with us for just $25. It is SO comfortable! I find Paul reading in it often, which I love, because it's where I read now too. 3. The Ikea dresser hack I copied. 4. Here's the $80 Ikea crib. It was the only other piece we had for our nursery early on, beyond our forest green dresser and orange chair. Our room was shaping up to be very gender-neutral. (At that point, we didn't know we were having a girl. Even if we did, we are not super "pink people.") Apparently, the SNIGLAR Ikea crib is the cheapest available anywhere and it's non-toxic (unfinished solid beech wood). We plan to convert it into a toddler bed when the time comes.
5. I've also always wanted to do something with Ikea's $3.99 spice racks, shown above as book shelves. We left ours unpainted to tie in with the crib. They hold our larger, "prettier" books that I'm calling "art" since we left our walls white. We've already been given books as gifts, so we've converted a shelf in the dining room into our little one's bookshelf since we're tight on space in the room. 6. Rather than using a changing pad that requires a fabric cover, I researched alternatives, finding the Keekaroo Peanut Changer, which will save me laundry time and I won't need to purchase multiple changing pad covers. It's impermeable to all fluid and the special material limits bacteria growth, plus it's crack and puncture-resistant. I can easily wipe it clean. For anyone considering purchasing one, I will share that I left it outside to "air out" right after getting it, because it had a strong smell!
7. I loved these gold scallop shelves and cute bow drawer pulls. I thought the scallop shelves would "girl up" our room a bit, and the gold tied in with my existing gold curtain rods (the nursery doubles as my home office). Instead of drawer pulls, we found a gold bow hook on sale for her closet door. I saw one of my favorite bloggers used the Land of Nod gold scallop shelves in her nursery, too, so I asked her if she had trouble hanging them...because we definitely did! I wouldn't recommend these to anyone, unless you're interested in making custom shims to get them to hang out from the wall level. I didn't check out the reviews before buying them, but if I added my own, I'd say these are joke shelves – like the birthday candles you can't blow out, they're shelves that don't hang level! 8. I knew I wanted to keep my cowhide rug (that Paul gifted me last Christmas) in the room. There are very few nurseries on Pinterest with cowhide rugs!
I guess you could say our nursery leans on the "sweet cowgirl" or "country girl" side.
Not merely because there's a cowhide on the floor, but because we've hung Paul's grandpa's old toy guitar on the wall and added our collection of wooden farm animals around the room. (The basket in the crib is part of our bassinet.) By the way, the room gets super great lighting, but I didn't take these photos in ideal lighting, nor did I spent much time on them!
We found a small wooden rocking horse at a local flea market a couple of years ago. It was tagged for maybe $5, and once we discovered it was our former mayor's (Mayor Skip, for all you Pathfinders!), we decided to get it. It was fun to pull it out from under our basement stairs recently, where it has been patiently waiting for us... The baskets are for toys and laundry.
Her closet thankfully has a lot of room, and we got pretty creative with some storage solutions in there. Here's my favorite one...the Ikea ALGOT wall upright and baskets. These will undoubtedly all get switched out once Baby comes, I'm sure. I am already loving the extra storage and deep baskets.
The room was/is my office, so the pom curtains, gold lamp, rugs, etc. were already in place. I sold my old desk and some other furniture, replacing it with a much smaller, white one from Land of Nod. The idea is that it will eventually become our daughter's desk (as we have another desk in storage). My desk lamp didn't fit anymore, so it has a new home on a small table from Target. The best part about this side table is that the lid comes off, so inside is more storage! Here's that comfy footstool too...the funny thing is, I already had a footstool I wanted to use in here, but after trying them both out, this one is the clear winner. Maybe not as easy on the eyes, but definitely on the swollen pregnancy feet!
We found a light pink lampshade to match the crib skirt. I already had the lamp...just spray painted it to match the room. We opted to keep everything pretty creamy – the walls, curtains and base rug – so the room would feel light and airy. We THINK the wooden blocks will be her initials, but we want to SEE her before making that final decision! Next to the changing table is a rolling cart for more storage. The mini baskets came from my bedroom, originally from The Container Store. You can't make it out in the photo, but the words in the frame read: "Your mercies are new every morning. Your love is never ending."
We are so thankful for the gifts God has given us to bless our child, and while we look forward to enjoying our new space together, it is nothing next to our Lord and Savior.
“This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God.”
P.S. Here's my "corner office"... Condensing a room down to a corner was a challenge. The new shelving works great, although we'll probably end up replacing these boards I had cut to fit. We sanded the edges and just left them raw to see how I liked this. My plan is to get something a little bit thicker that would look nice stained and sealed. Let me know if you have any suggestions!
