Thursday, February 23, 2012

New Look!

How do you like my new header?  Chris made it for me last night after I was complaining that I didn't think my blog was very cute!  We brainstormed for a few minutes, then he just whipped it up in about an hour.  Handy to have a graphic artist around the house I guess.  We've also been talking about way I could increase my readership around here, since I'm fairly certain there's about three people who read my blog, and two of them live in my house.  Chris suggested I go into a little more detail about some of our choices and decisions for the nursery, my pregnancy, and anything interesting that comes up along the way.  To avoid starting with an internet overshare on my philosophy of pregnancy, I think I'll start with the nursery.  That seems safe, don't you think?

Let's start from the beginning. Our goals for the nursery were few and (sorta) simple: First, it had to be easily undo-able, since we're renters.  We don't know how long we'll live here, and I don't want to invest time or money in things that we can't take with us, or that we'll have to undo when we leave, like a crazy awesome paint job.  Second, it had to be frugal.  We know that nurseries don't stay that way forever, and since we're hardly rolling in dough, we wanted to invest our money as wisely as possible.  ($800 crib?  No thanks.)  Third, we'd like it to be as eco-friendly as possible while still fitting within our other goals.  I'll probably come across on the blog as a tree-hugging hippie earth-mother, but that's only partly true.  I'll sacrifice a tree now and then for frugality and convenience.  Sorry.  With these things in mind, here's a few of our nursery choices thus far:

The Crib:  
We chose the Delta 3-in-1 Winter Park Convertible Crib from Target.  Originally we had our eye on a very similar looking crib from Burlington Coat Factory (yes, they have baby stuff--who knew??) for a fairly similar price.  We needed something that would be gender neutral (no canopy beds or racecar beds yet), and something that came in a medium warm finish to match the existing furniture in the room, that being the armoire and the cubbie shelves.  There we go being frugal again.  No sense buying a whole room full of furniture when we only need a crib.  The Winter Park crib seemed to be generic in style and correct in finish.  It was one of the less expensive cribs we found that wasn't also ugly like a butt.  Then Target went and put it on sale for $100 a month or so ago, and I couldn't help myself.  It was a done deal. 

The Paint:
This was an area where we opted for the "green" choice, not the frugal choice.  We decided on the Olympic Premium paint in Stonington. We wanted a no VOC paint, which means no weird chemicals off-gassed by the paint, and no paint-induced fume highs, and the Olympic paint was our best (if not only) choice.  It wasn't the cheapest paint we could find, but overall, it didn't break the bank.  (Here's where I have to make a little confession.  The paint wasn't entirely a nursery-based decision.  We had previously painted most of the apartment in the same paint and color, and had some left over so that's what went in the nursery.  The VOC reasoning still stands, but there's nothing magically "baby" about Stonington.  It was the best taupe for the rest of the place, so it went in the nursery too. )  Back to the paint.  As far as quality goes, it seemed to go on easily and cover fairly well.  We did have to do two coats, but I'm not going to blame the paint on that because we are certainly novice painters.  My artistically inclined husband decided a flat finish would look best, so I rolled with it.  In other parts of the house, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser seems to take off any smudges just fine.  And it was a nice neutral color that was pre-approved by the landlords. Yay paint.

I think that's a good stopping point for today, don't you?  I don't want to spill all my secrets at once, and besides, that's about all the decisions we've made for the nursery.  Wouldn't want to get too carried away with progress, would we?  More decisions will be made in the near future, since we find out Monday what the gender of our little Peanut is!  Counting down the minutes!  Until then, are any of you planning a nursery?  Painting walls?  Trying to live cheap and green?  Let me know!

4 comments:

  1. We're planning a nursery for the babies to share. Hickory will only be 15 months and still in a crib by the time #5 debuts, and we only have a 3 bedroom house. (The older 3 boys all share a room as well.) I'm wanting a vintage circus look. We are also renters and I hope to God we will be buying a house and getting into a bigger place (6, soon to be 7, people in an 1100 sq ft. house is tight.) But like you, that definitely effects our decorating choices. While I would love to paint the room in stripes and scallops to look like the inside of a circus tent, I'm just not going to get that invested here. I have found some great vintage reproduction circus fabrics on etsy, and some Barnum & Bailey poster reprints. I'm really excited about it. I don't want anything too baby-ish, but I still want something a bit whimsical. Vintage circus fit the bill. Our cribs and dresser for our nursery came from Ikea. Hooray for inexpensive furniture!

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    1. I love the circus idea! That could definitely grow with your kiddos as they get bigger. What it you draped fabric from a central point in the ceiling toward the walls for a tent-like effect. We did that at our wedding and it really helped disguise the gym-ness from the reception.

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  2. Oh Seester. You know I read your blog. But Chris is right. We do want better details. This was a good start.

    Oh, and... no nursery planning for me!

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  3. Um I read your blog too my dear friend!

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