Well, the time has finally come to make over the nursery. Tim and I (with the help of our mothers and my grandmother) lovingly decorated this room before bringing baby Rex home from the hospital over six years ago.
We invested a lot of time and money creating our babyland. I bought the bedding from Rockinghorse Designs in Canton. Then, I searched all over the Dallas area to find complimentary fabric so that I could make the covers for the chair and the curtains. Grana, Nanny, and I all sewed the cushions for the glider and ottoman one weekend at my grandmother's house in Burnet. I made a pattern for the curtains and sewed them myself. Tim built the armoire and also a bookshelf (not pictured) with moon and star cut-outs that matches the stenciling on the walls. We painted the walls by making stencils out of transparency film in the desired star, and moon shapes. (We added the pink spirals later when we knew that a little girl was on the way.)
We decided to allow the children to sleep together in the same bedroom so that the extra bedroom could be used as a toy room/guest room. This really worked out great, but I had the extra challenge of making the room look both masculine/feminine and baby/toddler friendly. Luckily, the crib bedding had some pink accents, so we added the pink spirals to the wall as well as a pink cover to the changing table. I got Rex's twin bed from my grandparents. It had been stored away in an old shed for many years. I stripped the varnish off and painted it white. Then, I was fortunate enough to find yellow and blue moon and stars sheets which coordinated well with the room's theme, and a yellow/blue comforter to match. It all worked well together. Best of all, the children worked well together. They have a very close friendship, and I think sharing the room has been a big contributing factor...sniff...sniff. This is a bit of an emotional transition for me.
It's time for a change though. Rex now has a new loft bed in the once playroom. I am in the slow process of trying to convert the Americana decorated guestroom into a Star Wars themed room for him. I have removed the crib from the nursery, and Mara is now sleeping in Rex's old twin bed. I found some adorable bedding for it at Target, and plan to decorate her room in a shabby chic motif. It's fun to finally be creating a girly room for her. I'm so glad that the kids shared the nursery, but I did miss out on making her baby room adorably feminine. Stay tuned for pictures of the transformed rooms, but don't hold your breath...it might be a while.
