Friday, September 6, 2013

now I know my ABC's

Nursery Progress

Baby girls nursery is starting to come together, and actually resemble a place where baby can sleep and eventually play.  Way back when we first found out I was pregnant, I think one of the first things I did was start scouring Pinterest for nursery inspiration.  I came across this framed wooden letter alphabet snapshot and knew that whether boy or girl, no matter what color scheme we decided on, I had to make something like it.

Nursery Progress

I really could not be more thrilled with how this turned out!  After finding a whole slew of alphabet wooden letter options on both Etsy and Ebay, I settled on this set, and was really pleased with what I received.  Their customer service was also top notch, as Amanda was super sweet when I contacted her concerned that I was missing letters, and had duplicates of others, when in fact I had the "y" upside down as an "h", the "q" upside down as a "b", and was convinced my Q was missing.  Needless to say she very nicely sorted out my mess of letters.  I blame pregnancy brain :-)

I went back and forth deciding how to finish the letters, and ultimately settled on modge podge and scrapbook paper.  This tutorial explains the process perfectly and was so incredibly easy, I covered all the letters in one weekend.  Instead of using an Exacto knife, I found scissors worked just fine, and I skipped the sanding step, as I was mounting them on the wall, it seemed a little overkill.  As for the scrapbook paper, I was less than thrilled with my local craft store's selection in yellows and greys, so I nabbed a few digital packs from mooandpuppy on Etsy and had them printed on cardstock at my local Office Max.

Nursery Progress

As for finishing off the frame and display, I bought a sheet of bead board from Lowes and had them cut it for me in the store to my desired dimensions, and then bought 2 strips of prefinished baseboard trim, that I took over to my parents and had my dad miter cut into a frame.  A little Elmers wood glue worked perfectly to affix the letters to the board, as well as to attach the outer frame.  I did use a few clamps when attaching the frame portion to make sure it really stuck together.

Again, I am so so incredibly pleased with how this turned out.  It is very large, measuring about 3 1/2" feet x 3 1/2" feet when all was said and done, but I'm ok with that as its sort of the piece de resistance of the nursery, centered over the dresser/changing table.

Nursery Progress

There's a whole smorgasbord of DIY happening in this little area of the nursery...who am I kidding, there's a whole lot of DIY throughout the entire nursery!  But for this little portion, I did make a cover for the changing pad, one of Noodlehead's divider baskets and a fun little hombre paint chip elephant display.

Nursery Progress

I couldn't find a changing pad cover that I really loved in grey and yellow, so I decided to make one myself.  This was incredibly easy, only requiring me to buy a yard of Minky and elastic, and using a half yard cut of Riley Blake yellow chevrons I had on hand.  Within an hour I had finished the cover and am pleased with the finished product.  I followed this tutorial, and the Minky was much easier to work  with than I had originally envisioned!  I actually grabbed another yard of Minky in yellow and paired it with a grey accent cotton piece to have as a backup.

Nursery Progress

I also decided I needed a divider basket to have diapers and changing essentials within arms reach, and of course it had to be cute :-)  Enter Noodhead's divided basket pattern.  Best $6.50 I have ever spent.  This basket came together quickly and easily in about 2 1/2 hours one evening, and easily half of that time was spent cutting out pattern pieces.  I see a few more of these baskets in my future, as baby can never have to many cute baskets to hold all of her cute things.

I am digging this nursery so so much, and am glad we went with a more neutral color palate with bits of pink here and there.  Lord knows this child has enough pink clothing to stock a boutique, so I figured we could do pink-lite in the nursery.  I'll be back with a few more projects, and hopefully a full nursery reveal soon!



15 comments:

  1. Jessica, your baby's room is going to be the most awesome place ever!

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  2. Looking good! Love how the bead board looks like lined paper!
    Such a gorgeous nursery :)

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  3. Lovely! You are makine one darling baby girl nursery over there! Can't wait for the final reveal!

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  4. It looks fabulous, although I'd have the exact same problem with those letters, and I'm not even pregnant ;o)

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  5. Wow Jess - it all looks beautiful!

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  6. This is so super cute. I'm a lover of grey and yellow. Classic and modern at the same time.

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  7. Such adorable nursery decor!!!
    Thanks for the tutorial link on the letters - my girls would love the letters of their names on their walls - a project that I've had in mind for awhile but haven't gotten to yet!

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  8. I love how your ABC's board came out! The whole nursery looks awesome :)

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  9. I CANNOT stand how creative you are!!!! Argh, I want a wooden alphabet set too! Maybe I will try this using a quote... Seriously, you are inspiring me. Thank you for sharing so many great details and links.

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  10. I'm obsessed with that paint chip frame! I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I first read this post a few days ago. Did you just use regular glue to hold them in place, or something stronger?

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  11. the framed letters are wonderful! I like them a lot. I also like the way everything matches in gray and yellow. Wonderful!

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  12. It's gorgeous! I was wondering why so neutral when you know it's a girl, but I guess if you have future boys you don't need to change the whole decoration palette.

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  13. Eek! I need to make one of those changing pad covers... So cute! I laughed at your post about basting pregnant... I am supposed to baste two quilts tomorrow, and I'm nervous!

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