Friday, January 30, 2015

Lucky's Under the Sea Nursery

When I look back on 2014, I was amazed on how few knitting projects I had completed.  I then realized that I had spent a lot of time and effort on two major design projects: Lucky's Under the Sea Nursery and Lucky's Under the Sea First Birthday Party.  Can you tell that we like a theme?  I was planning both the nursery and the first birthday party at the same time so my thoughts melted together a bit.


How did this happen?  How could I be planning the nursery and the birthday party at the same time?  Lucky roomed with us for the first 8 months of his life, so I started thinking of the nursery theme on pinterest as I was pulling ideas for his birthday party.  I am so proud of this room that I wanted to share it with all of you!


Before I get into where things came from I want to give a big shout out to Mimi and Poppy.  Without them this room never would have happened!  Thank you so much!

Lounge Chair and a Half with Storage Ottoman from Crate and Barrel with my No Sew Pillows

We are still living in an apartment so all of the things we did to the nursery are things we can take with us when we move.  This also meant that we couldn't paint the walls.  With white walls, I wanted to get colored furniture (versus white) to stand out.  I didn't want to go with all wood toned items because I wanted the room to be distinct from the rest of our apartment.

Bayside Dresser from Land of Nod in Denim

Did you know that you can request paint and fabric swatches from the Land of Nod?  We ordered swatches of the "Make a Splash" bedding set (sheets and changing pad cover) in addition to a swatch of the finish on the dresser and night stand.



I might have avoided a bedside lamp all together, but the "Thar She Glows" Table lamp was too cute to resist.  I wish that Lucky's wooden toys would stay neatly displayed on the bedside table as they are in that photo!  We didn't really need an end table for the nursery, but I wanted to get a matching piece to the dresser so the furniture could grow up with the baby.  

Storagepalooza from Land of Nod in Midnight Blue

We are very happy with the quality of most of the furniture, however we had some major issues with the Storagepalooza.  We ordered 3 pieces, two 2-bin and one 3-bin but didn't realize that these pieces required assembly.  Fine, we've done a lot of Ikea building over the years, so this shouldn't be a problem.  Unfortunately both of the 2-bin sets had pieces that were miss drilled so they could not be assembled!  Land of Nod has fantastic customer service, so they sent replacement parts... but one of the replacement parts was also miss drilled!  This was really frustrating but ultimately I am happy with how quickly the customer service helped me with these issues.  I just wish that this hadn't happened in the first place.  

Ikea Sundvik crib in black-brown

Lucky's crib from Ikea didn't match the blue/grey furniture, but we found a way to bring it into the theme of the room.  I modified the crib with custom printed fabric decals that I ordered from Spoonflower.  (Spoonflower doesn't offer the decals anymore, now you would order one of the wallpaper types that comes with a sticky backing.)  


With the remaining sticky fabric, we cut out and placed some of the animals around the room, like over the light switch.  



We also put some Nautica Whale Wall Decals on the closet door.  These are removable so it was really easy to position them the way we wanted to.  


I am not a painter, but when I found the three panel whale art on Pinterst I knew that I wanted it for this nursery.  The navy and gray match a lot of our theme and the bright blue can be found elsewhere around the room.  I painted the panels with chalkboard paint and then use a chalk pen to create the whale.  


We have even more whales around the nursery.  The Whale Shaped Mirror came with a piece of paper to help you drill the holes correctly to hang it, which was very helpful.  Unfortunately the sketch of the whale around these holes did NOT line up with the whale itself!  We had placed the paper on the wall thinking that was where the mirror would end up , and it was VERY wrong (both in terms of orientation and spacing.)  We had to redo the mounting.  Hopefully you will read this before making the same mistake.  Also on the dresser you will find the Munchkin Nursery Projector and Sound System that we purchased one week after Lucky was born.  He falls to sleep to the sound of waves crashing on a beach.   One of the projector disks is ocean themed, but we only play this when he is very upset and needs help calming down with snuggles.  

Whale Shaped Mirror from Pottery Barn Kids

As a crafter, I love etsy.  (Is there anyone who doesn't love Etsy?)  Before we had even really settled on the design for a room I had ordered some custom name letters and a custom mobile for Lucky.  I used these as the center of the room design.  


To hang the letters, I lined them up upside down using the edge of a rug to align the tops.  I then used paper taped together to mark where the screws need to go.  This ended up working REALLY well and we didn't have to reposition any of the letters.  We used a 12-Inch Plant Hanger to hang the mobile over the changing table.  


The carpet isn't 100% on theme, but when we found this rug from Ikea with a river running through it I knew that it would be a lot of fun for play.  I can visualize dinosaur battles, teddy bear picnics, boat races and more on this river rug.


The very final touch for the room was a window treatment.  I struggled with selecting some kind of curtain because the room only has one tiny window facing an ugly alley.  We used Ikea black out shades to keep the room dark, but I wanted something pretty to go on top.  I didn't want to purchase expensive curtains that might not fit the windows in his new room when we move again later this year.  We ended up finding a navy and white striped shower curtain that fit our decor perfectly.  When I realized that we would need some shower curtain hooks to hang it up, we even found Whale Watch Resin Shower Curtain Hooks!  


We might only be in this apartment for a year, but I am really excited that we decorated it.  I know that most of these items will transfer easily into Lucky's new room when we move.  Taking the time to plan the room out on Pinterest gave us the room design I am the most proud of in our whole home.  I am really excited to go room by room and decorate our future house!


Want to see more of my inspiration?  Check out Lucky's Under the Sea Nursery Pinterest board!