When I was pregnant with Vada I did up a little nursery in our spare room for her. You can see photos of that here. I chose not to paint the room again (I had painted it in 2011 when we moved in) but I always knew in the back of my head that I would paint it whenever we transitioned into a twin bed/big girl room.
On Halloween Vada climbed out of her crib 10+ times before finally passing out. The next day I took the side off her crib and made it a toddler-esq bed. I hadn’t planned to transition her to a twin bed so soon, I thought surely she would stay in her crib for a few more months, so the toddler bed gave us some transition time to decide what we would do for her new room.
After Christmas I decided to start the planning process. I REALLY wanted the Jenny Lind twin bed from The Land of Nod. I researched reviews, price compared, looked up how people restore old ones, and in the end Jay and I decided to go ahead and invest in it. When I say “invest” I mean that shit is super expensive, but it’s also really high quality and would last generations if taken care of. Then I waited for a sale, 20% off and free shipping ideally, and in late January when that sale came about…I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t spend $599 on a bed. I want to make it clear though that I do not see anything wrong with buying expensive high-quality furniture, I LOVE the Jenny Lind bed, and I think its totally worth it. For me though, I just kept 2nd guessing myself, which is something I do when I’m not comfortable with making a decision. I have no problem pulling the trigger on purchases if I know that they are perfect for us, but this bed, it just wasn’t. The universe agreed with me when a few days later I got a text from a friend offering me a vintage bed that needed some TLC for FREE. FREE PEOPLE, FREE!
The bed had been white, and I sanded it and painted it Tahitian Breeze in high gloss. We also put slats and a thick piece of plywood across it so that it was SUPER sturdy. we wanted to feel comfortable having Jay lay on it. I based the color off of Land Of Nods Azure color, although I had planned to buy white in that bed, simply because I didn’t know if the teal color would be something I would want forever, even though I LOVED it. This way I got the color I wanted and didn’t have to settle on white.
Around this time Hanna Anderson had a big post-holiday bedding sale. I got this organic cotton quilt for $25, and two sets of sheets (no longer available) for $15 each. I also ordered this organic mattress saver. I decided that a funky fabric print mix would work.
While the bed paint was curing I hunted for a wall paint color. I had thought maybe white because all the kids rooms I like have white walls, but I worried in our older house that white would look more dingy and dark then bright and loft like. Then I thought maybe pink? I’m generally not a pink fan, but I wanted a light/bright color, and the room had already been blue, I didn’t want grey, our room is yellow, and I’m not really a green fan, so pink made the most sense. These are the top pink colors I debated.
I decided on Wild Aster by Benjamin Moore (although I had it color-matched into a Behr High Gloss at The Home Depot) after I saw the color on Making it Lovely’s blog. I like that it is ever so slightly grey, and just not too crazy baby-pink. A spur of the moment decision led to the big puffy cloud/scallops that I did around the whole room. I had thought about doing the pink color only 3/4 up the wall and then white on the rest, but I HATE taping off, so I used a couple large kitchen mixing bowls and made this cloud border, which I am obsessed with. We also replaced the ceiling light with an LED light from Costco.
Something I had planned to do before Vada was born was to make valances to cover the hardware of her black out roller-blinds. I finally did this with Jay’s help. He made me two – 3 sided boxes, and then I stapled on some leftover batting I had, and then fabric over the top! So easy, and one of my favorite parts of the room. Jay also made two little house shelves for books, and one big house shelf for all Vada’s nick-knacks, I painted them white with the same teal bed color on the inside.
I also made three fun pillows for Vada’s bed (all soft flannel from JoAnns) as well as a bed skirt (its Velcro on). I also purchased a rug that actually arrived yesterday, but sadly it was too big and Hula was obsessed with clawing it, and since it was a loop rug I just could keep it. I may keep hunting. Lastly I used my DSLR to take some photos out of a Little Bear book, then had them printed and framed them with inexpensive Ikea frames I had leftover from a Christmas project.
After those little projects, it was just sort of pulling the room together, getting rid of unused toys, re arranging storage bins, and selecting more cohesive art for the walls, including a cool collage piece that my sister made Vada. I also washed the windows, shampooed the carpet, replaced the light switch covers, and went through all her books.
And finally a little comparison shot.
The Family Chapters 