Finished Nursery

The nursery is finished!

Well actually it was finished about 4 1/2 months ago, in time for Ansel’s arrival, but I am just now getting around to write about it. I am so pleased with how it turned out. There is a lot going on but that is how I tend to decorate. I get going and want every part of the room to be special. At least I know visual stimulation is NOT something Ansel will lack!

I also like that many elements in this room are appropriate for when he’s older as well. (Where the Wild Things Are, anyone?) This room also works for a child of either gender. Heck, I would put half of this stuff in my own bedroom.

Click picture to see the panorama full size.

Here I am, so glad to be finished with this room and so ready to have the baby. Four months later I have yet to look that well-rested!

Feature Wall – Trees on Burlap

My favorite part of the nursery so far is the forest wall. In the apartment we rent our second bedroom has one wall with a very funky angle making it pretty much useless for putting anything against. I knew before we got pregnant that I wanted a wall with trees on it somewhere in the house. When we started planning the nursery this idea seemed like the perfect way to utilize this otherwise awkward space.

Of course, since we are renting we didn’t want to paint directly on the walls. Who wants to put their heart and soul into a mural just to paint over it later? We covered the walls with plastic, and then hung our “canvas” made of old burlap coffee bags.

Sewing the burlap bags together…

Lath screwed to the wall provided the frame for our canvas.

Tom folding and stapling the burlap to the lath. He had to do this before and after painting as the burlap stretched differently with the paint.

Finished canvas. We used white bar soap to draw our trees before painting. It is easy to erase with a spray bottle of water.

These guys love to hang out wherever we are working; Can you tell?

Great horned owl and a pair of birds. We took the easy route with these and just found silhouettes online and printed them off to make stencils.

For the leaves, we painted a large sheet of burlap with our green color and cut leaves out. I love that these leaves make our forest look brighter and happier. The silhouettes alone tended to look a bit morbid for a nursery.

Finished product! Now to teach the cats that this is NOT a new scratching post for them…

(This project was also featured in my friend’s blog that is a great resource for news and research on building material waste prevention and reuse. Check her blog out here http://reclamationadministration.com/ )