Baby Nursery Phase 1.2 and three quarters

Just for your information, I wrote the title of this post, remembered that I needed to see if HP tickets were on sale, got really excited when I found out that they were, bought them, called friends, posted on FB and now I'm back.


Back to the stuff I'm sure you're just dying to know about.

BABY ROOM!

If any of you know me well, you know je adore decor. I have been SO excited to redo the "guest/storage/junk room" since we've moved in almost two years ago! (Will be two in October-crazy).  It didn't look terrible...at least not from afar, so we just cleaned it real well and threw "the extras" in there.
Here's what it looked like upon purchase

 

And I'm pretty sure that's after we removed the 20 year old pastel curtains. I think I'm going to gag just thinking about them. They were definitely "Decrodelated"

 

It stayed like this for a while.

Then went to this, with curtains and was much cuter. Not sure why I don't have a full room picture. 

The closet got a paint job and upgrade courtesy of Mr. B

 

Which soon became this.

And then was cleared back to this.

 

Then the prep work began.

 

As with many old houses, most of our walls are plaster. As with most of our house, "repair" work was shoddy. And I don't really just mean "shoddy". 

So after I scrubbed with 

Mr. B had to sand away all of the flaking pieces. 

Mud.

Sand. 

Repeat.

Not sure if this is pre or post mud, but if you notice, the base is now orange instead of white.

Did we decided to shellac the trim? It's so fashionable of course.

Nope.

See note on "shoddy".

You can't put latex or oil paint over shellac without primer. I mean, come on.

Because we hope to get the floors refinished...which in essence means all the floors refinished-YAY! (which ideally would have been done before we moved ourselves and all of our things into this lovely home, but which costs just a little bit of money), but still costs a little bit of money....we...as in Mr. B, pulled off the quarter round which pulled off the previously mentioned shoddy paint on the base.

Was that confusing?

 

The ceiling needed about three coats of paint so that it was extra nice and white. Ooh do we love a clean, white ceiling.

While Mr. B is doing all of the, ahem, hard work, I'm working on R&R.  Which of course for me means re-styling and re-purposing. LOVE it!

You may remember this old gal from our Jack$on, Mi$$i$$ippi days.

I actually R & R'd it.  The bottom was a baby changing table (I think both pieces were a different color) which had a base on the top which we removed and the hutch didn't go with this piece and "we" added bead board to the back and made a plate rack to hold all of my lovely china....which is now stowed in a dark closet (looks like someone needs a new china cabinet....)

 

So I decided to restore it back to its former glory..er..purpose. 

The chest is in a photo above.

I forgot to take a before of the other dresser.  You think someone who is so "in" to photography would think better about before and after pictures, about documenting the whole process, but usually I just dive in and my hands are perpetually messy and I forget about the camera! 

 

So it became...what other color...white. Couple of coats of nice, hard oil paint.

And I know what you are thinking...with all of that painting, isn't her baby going to come out looking like 

 

Well, let's hope not. I did some reading and research (also known as R&R which is not confusing in the least) and wore this the whole time.

 

Well, it was more like the second one, but still safe.

                                          Then added this awesome product.  It's a glaze in "bone" I think.
And you can't tell from the pictures very well, but it gives a nice "shimmer" or pearl look to the
                                                                    dressers. I LOVE it!

 

The knobs are a mixture of antique and Anthropologie and I obviously need more.  But, again, they "cost a little bit of money".  I love cool knobs by the way.  Anthro has GREAT ones.

The bottom dresser is the new changing table.  And actually, the hutch that's on the first changing table (the one that was the china cabinet) goes with this second piece. Everybody has a new purpose!

When Mr. B finished all of the sanding and mudd-ing and sanding and mudd-ing, we patched the holes in the crown and trim, scraped on the windows, more patching, more priming.

We added two coats of white oil to all of the trim and casing, and finally painted the walls.

Voila

 

Not really super impressive yet, but see all the work we had to do just to "change the paint color"?

I can't wait for those floors to be refinished.  I've bought fabric for drapes, have plans to make a cornice board, bumpers, bed skirt and...yes, a crib.  Mr. B is great with wood working and we are R&R'ing our old antique bed frame into a crib.  If it turns out, it will be amazing.  In my opinion of course.

I'm also trying to find one of these for this room

 

 

I know. I know, it's a little ridiculous, but when we lived in J, M.S a while ago there was a couple who had one in their baby room (I had never seen that before) and I really, really loved it.  Not something ridiculously fancy, just whimsical.

SO, that's it!  As with all projects in our house, "It's come a long way and has a long way to come".

Although when I look at this I don't see much of an improvement...  Better before and after to come!