Nursery Beadboard

Remember back in this post I asked for a vote of what people liked, classic white beadboard or stained/glazed beadboard in my daughter's nursery? The majority vote was that people liked the idea of staining it and adding that brown to it.

This is the way it is right now, I did the sample board with the glaze over it and even I have to admit that in person, the sample looked AWFUL! I did not like it at all, it looked dirty and cheap.... what I was going for was this....

My nephew has the stained beadboard in his room and I love the way it looks. We were wondering what it would like if we left the top trim and the baseboard white and this is what it would look like. I love the look of this and would really love to it..... BUT..... I showed it to my husband and he still wasn't sold. He prefers the classic white look and doesn't want to stain it :( Kind of bummed about that but it was he hard slave labor that made the beadboard possible and I don't want to do it without his blessing. Looks like I have to find other ways to add dimension to this room. I pretty much haven't done anything in here since I hung her name on the wall... I am just having a hard time picturing everything since my original design in my head called for stained beadboard........ still thinking!

K E N I D I

Accessorizing Kenidi's room has been kind of slow but I did get her name made and put up above her crib. It has been amazing how hard it is to get things designed around the house... not necessarily because of my girls (but that is part of it), but I can't really leave the house to easily and so I can't get items that I need to get to make things.

But here is her name that I finally got put up. It isn't anything original or that you probably haven't seen before, but I really wanted to put her name up on the wall. Her spelling is so different from the original spelling of Kennedy that I wanted to highlight it in here. Her spelling is actually after my spelling, Lindsi instead of Lindsay or Lindsey.

Now Here is how I made it.

I went to our local craft store and purchased the letters for $3 each and painted them with

this brown paint from Home Depot. (Did you know that Home Depot now offers a sample size paint! I so wish they had these when I painted murals!)

Then I purchased 2 spools of ribbon, green and red, and staple gunned them to the back and tied bows on top.

Now hanging this is something that I had to think about for a minute (and of course I forgot to take pictures while I was doing it).

First - I found the center of the wall and marked it

Second - I laid a ruler on the floor and starting with the "K", I laid in on the edge of the ruler, where it ended I measured 2" from that and placed the "E" and continued through the whole name. When I was done, I saw that it ended at 27 1/2". I took half of 27 1/2 which is 13 3/4 and placed that point where the center of the wall is. By doing this, I knew that I was going to be centered on the wall.

Third - I had my husband hold the level with the ruler on it while I placed each letter in it's spot and nailed it in the wall.

I hope that makes sense if you decide to do one of these on how to hang it centered. I had every intention of taking pictures through the process but as I got started on it, I totally forgot.

We are building a beadboard cornice box for the window, so I hope that I can have that posted next week. Things just don't get done as quickly as I would like with 2 babies now.

Crib and Bedding

I am starting to learn that if you try something out for a while, you might actually start liking it.

I really was not sure about this crib once we got home, I thought the color was WAY wrong, but I have to admit that the more that I am in the room, the more I really like the crib.

We paid $150 for this crib. It was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but it is a good quality crib.... once she told me that she would give us the rocking chair to go with it, I was sold on the idea.

I have a rocker recliner that I used with my older daughter for nursing, but it is a bit large for Kenidi's nursery and Brooklyn loves to sit on it, so I loved the idea of having one in both rooms.

We purchased the changing table first for $60. I loved that it was a dresser/changing table and that it had a hutch on top for extra storage. It is a darker color than the crib and rocker and that is why I wasn't sure about the crib at first. I have decided that I don't really care that they don't match perfect, it is growing on me.

Here is the rocker. I have to give a HUGE shout out for my neighbor Dave. This rocker was GROSS!!! The fabric cushions were covered in gross stuff. Our neighbor Dave works for a carpet cleaning company and he took these cushions to work with him and completely cleaned them up as a gift to us. They look AMAZING now and you would never know how gross they were when we got them.

Bedding is a big deal in any bedroom and the nursery is no exception. Something that I personally love to do in my nurseries is have original bedding. Don't get me wrong, they have some DARLING crib bedding out there that I would buy in a heart beat, but crib bedding is VERY expensive. Something that a lot of people do that I am personally not to fond of, they make the mistake of buying the bedding, then the matching lamp shade, the matching diaper cover, the matching window treatment, the matching wall hanging... you get the idea.

Now my complaint about this is... there is no originality to it! I want to walk into a room and feel like it is a one of a kind instead of feeling like I purchased it from a retail catalog.

With that being said. I love the bedding that I did for Kenidi's nursery and it isn't anything fancy at all.

I showed earlier how I made this quilt and I am seriously in love with it. I spent HOURS on the thing so I should love it, right!

I paired it with the simple brown skirt that my mother-in-law made and I purchased a cream colored bumper and sheet from Burlington Coat Factory that is a Carter's bedding basic. These are the exact same that I used for Brooklyn's crib just in the cream instead of pink. The quilt in both rooms is what makes it original and unique..... One of a kind!

I have the main structure of this room together, now I am gearing forward with the accessories and window treatments..... I have it all in my mind and I have some of it purchased already, all I need to do now is find the time to get it done!!!!

Beadboard Process

I have found that this project isn't for the faint hearted. It was so much more work and time consuming than both my husband and I were anticipating but when all said and done, we are both VERY pleased with the results and I think we would do it again !? :)

Here is what we started with. Basic tan walls and a very small bedroom.

I went around the room and taped off just the top section of the room since I was only needing to paint the top of the room with the beadboard covering the bottom half.

I chose this peach color for the top half. The color is called Warming Peach from Sherwin Williams but I had Home Depot mix it in a Behr paint. (did you you know that Home Depot has other companies colors on file and they can just select the color and mix it without having to do an actual color match? I had no idea until they did this color.)

Next we took the 4'x8' panels of beadboard and cut them in half so that they were 4'x4' squares or down to whatever size we needed for each section and glued them down with liquid nails glue and then nail gunned them down to secure them.

Then we took a 5" baseboard and turned it upside down and ran it along the top to finish it off.

Some of the areas didn't butt up perfectly so my husband went in with wood filler and filled in the gaps and used a small nail to create the little grooves to make it look like the rest of the beadboard.

Here at the window sill we had a section that wasn't covered so used wood filler once again to make it look like the beadboard.

Once everything was in place and nail holes were filled, seams were caulked, and wood filler was sanded down, we laid drop cloths and tucked them under the base boards and taped the painted area off. We used this great product that had the tape and this plastic already attached together, well worth the little extra money.

Then we borrowed a spray gun from my husband's best friend and spray painted the beadboard.

We needed to match the color of the existing baseboards & closet doors, so we took a bathroom door into Home Depot & they were able to create a perfect match. I had them mix the paint in a paint-primer in 1 and in a semi-gloss finish so that it is easier to wipe up.

Now, I was taking votes on whether or not I should glaze the beadboard and most people said that they liked the glaze. I was planning on glazing but letting myself just have the baby and wait a while until I could do it right..... but, I have to say that the more I am in there, the more I am falling in love with the solid, classic white look and I don't know if I want to glaze anymore. I think that the glaze would look amazing, but I am starting to think that the classic white look might be a better choice to go with because it is easier to grow with when she gets older. Beadboard is NOT easy to paint unless you have a spray gun so I don't want to repaint it down the road if I get sick of the glazed look.

I think I am going to get the accessories in the room and the window treatments made and then we can see how it all looks together and I will decide them whether I want to glaze or not. As of right now, I am perfectly happy not doing it, I think my husband did an AMAZING job with it and I think it is beautiful just the way it is!

* We have 6" baseboards plus the beadboard which is 4' and then a 5" baseboard turned upside down on the top, making this almost 5' tall. This is taller than your standard chair rail style beadboard. I opted for this height so that it would clear the height of the crib and make a nice backdrop for the crib without cutting into it.

Kenidi's Crib Quilt

Now remember these fabrics that I purchased for Kenidi's crib quilt and nursery inspiration?!

Well I worked INCREDIBLY hard and long hours to get it finished and it is finally done!

(Normally I would show you the finished piece here but I didn't get a picture in here so I am just going to go through the steps of how to make the quilt and you can see the end result at the bottom! :)

The first step you need to do is pick out your fabric and have a pattern in mind. The next thing that you need is a Rotary Blade and cutting mat.... this makes it SO much easier than cutting with scissors. I made my squares 6"x6" but you can go bigger if you would like. I purchased a 1/2 yard of each fabric (in flannel) and I have 5 different fabrics and then bought 2 yards of the cream fabric (also in flannel) which is my backing.

After the many hours of cutting (it was very time consuming!) I laid them out into the pattern I wanted and then labeled each column by numbers to keep them in order.

Next I took some quilt batting (I happened to have some in my stash already) and cut 5"x5" squares and sandwiched them between the cream backing and the front square.

Then I took each of my labeled piles that were in order with the batting sandwiched between already and started sewing an X pattern through the squares. My sister gave me this little idea to sew on part of the X and then just start sewing on another square and create this chain, then I cut the threads between them, stacked them back in order and did the same thing to the other part of the X. Doing it this way made it go so much faster and I didn't waste as much thread.

After each X in sewn on all of the squares, then you need to sew all of the squares together in order with the seam facing the front of the quilt. After each row is sewn, you need to sew the rows together. Like in the picture above, you need to pin the seams together on each square so that you can make sure that they match up (again, make sure that the seams are facing outwards so you can see them in the end).

Here it shows the rows all pinned together and ready to sew.

After all of it is sewn together, you need to sew around the outside edge and finish those sides off. Then, the not so fun part of cutting the seams begins.

The picture above, shows part of them cut and others not cut. You should cut about every 1/4 inch or so to get a really nice frayed edge.

Here it shows what the outside edge should look like, you also need to cut the outside edge.

After all the seams and edges are cut, you throw it in the washer and dryer and you have a frayed Rag Quilt!

And here it is all finished!

The close up of it.

It turned out super cute and I am really happy with it, but I have to admit that it was WAY more work than I was anticipating but it will be so cute in the room.

Also, it shrunk a bit after I washed it. It is still a good crib size since I made it a little big in the first place but be aware that is will shrink.

So now seeing the quilt all made up and you know that I have beadboard on the bottom of the nursery that we have been working on, does anyone want to guess what color I painted the top part of the walls? It may actually surprise you.

Kenidi's Nursery Inspiration

For those of you who don't know, I am expecting my second daughter in about 3 weeks and haven't even started on her nursery yet.

A while back I posted this picture as my Inspiration Piece for her nursery, but

I tried and tried to find fabric that would coordinate with this and bring in the teal and I couldn't find anything really at all.

After looking around and seeing what there was out there, I sat down and cut out some paint chips and came up with another color scheme.

These are the colors that I pulled out and I thought they would be kind of fun and different to do. I want this room to be very cute but I don't want it "girly" with pink and purple.

Yesterday I was running errands with my husband and we drove by a Joann Fabric Store and I told him to pull over and let me go look at fabric's really quick to see if I could find something for Kenidi's nursery.

I told him I would be quick but I ended up finding some fabrics that I was in love with. We had to run to meet someone really quick and I told him that we had to go back and he had to let me know if he liked them.

Of course he didn't really care but he let me get the fabrics to start on a quilt for her.

And here is what I got!

I am still going to use the brown bedskirt that my mother-in-law made and I am going to put some beadboard on the walls and then I found these fabrics that unconsciously have all of the colors from the paint chips in them. I honestly didn't even think of the paint chips when picking these fabrics out, I just loved them and could picture how darling the room would be.

I wasn't planning on having the green in the combination but when I got playing around with different fabric combos I just loved the green and thought that the green polka dot was much cuter than the teal one I found.

I am going to take these fabrics and make a large rag quilt that can be made into a comforter when she has her crib into a toddler bed.

Here is the picture with the fabrics and the paint chips. The paint chips aren't exactly the same colors as the fabric but they are pretty darn close.

I am only going to put beadboard about 3/4 of the way up in the room so I need to figure out what color to paint the top 1/3 of the room.

Maybe I will have to have a vote on it. There are so many great colors to choose from and I am not sure what direction to go.

I am SO EXCITED that I found these fabrics and am completely in love with the direction that this room is going.

Brooklyn's Nursery

I have been wanting to post these pictures forever but I have been waiting for a few things to get hung. Brooklyn's nursery is not a nursery for everyone! Some people may have a difficult time with the dark color that I used, but I love the way that it turned out and I wanted something different and I got it.

INSPIRATION PIECE

Every room should have an inspiration piece (I will go into more detail another time) and this was mine for her nursery. This is a quilt that my step-sister Maria made with her mom. I thought they hit the nail on the head with the colors and fabric that I had to see what I could do to turn it into a room. One thing that I absolutely love that they did was make it a bigger size than a crib. This will be a great little comforter when I turn the crib into a toddler bed.

This wall color probably scares some people out there, but I have so much white and light colors in the room that it doesn't feel closed in at all. This room also gets A LOT of sunlight in it! You know that if my husband was ok with doing it that it isn't a dark feel at all.

This crib was a crib that we found on my trusted KSL classifieds. I bet you can't guess how much I spent on this crib!.......lower........I spent $30 for this crib! It was such a steal. The mattress I bought at Walmart for $40 and the bumper and sheet I bought at Burlington Coat Factory...Bumper-$30 & Sheet-$10.

As many of you know, not only am I an Interior Designer, but I am also a Mural Artist. I don't want to do full on murals in my kids bedrooms, but I want some type of painting in each one. One night I was holding Brooklyn and rocking her when we first moved in and I looked above her crib and it just came to me that I always wanted her to remember that she is a Daughter of God! I decided that I needed to paint it up there so that she can grow up seeing that right there.

These picture frames I LOVE!!! These are ones that I bought unfinished and then painted them myself. I will show you another time how I put this together.

These are window treatments that I made and they are very functional for naps and I love the way they turned out.

This shelf is such a darling shelf. When we moved into this house, my neighbor across the street was moving out of her house. Shortly after we moved in, she had a moving sale going on and we decided to run over. Her house was a model home and had a girl's bedroom all set up... well, she had all boys and didn't have use for the girl's room. She stored all of the girl's stuff and sold it at her moving sale. I got this shelf, brand spanking new, for $5. All of the stuff on both the shelf and the changing table were gifts from people and I haven't quite figured out the best way to display them.

This changing table was another KSL steal! It was purchased separate from the crib but they look like they are a set. I found this for $50 and it is in EXCELLENT condition. I had the changing pad already and I purchased the pad cover for $11 at Burlington Coat Factory. My recliner chair I love and that was a bit more money, but we paid for part of it and then her Grandpa Mark gifted the rest of it to her. It will end up going into Kenidi's nursery when I get that put together and I will find a small chair to put in it's place.

Now these darling little hooks I also got at the moving sale for $1.50 for all 3! I went to go hang them up and my screw heads were to big for the holes on the back so I have to go get new screws.... but they will be hanging on the wall here.

They will eventually hang play clothes I am sure.