The Nursery Project

More Pictures from the Nursery

More pictures from the now-declared-as-done nursery. I am thoroughly satisfied by how it turns out. And I'm even happier that we didn't actually spend much for this nursery. All her furniture from the old house are brought in. The big shelf is also a feature of the old house, which we used as a divider between the living room and the nursery. I believe as she grows, she would have more books, and more toys, and it's never a bad investment to put a solid and spacious storage system in a child's room. The white chair by her crib literally came to us by itself, being found in our old basement with no known owner (it always got shoved into our lot), so we salvaged it and give it some love. The Edward Gorey prints used to hang in our old bedroom, but now look better against her yellow wall (no, it's not from The Gashlycrumb Tinies).

The IKEA LÖMSK chair is the only new feature in the nursery, bought for € 49.95, while the Steven Harrington poster which I bough several months back, cost $25.00, and holds all the different colours together nicely in the room. I also proudly passed my whole set of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' books (which I read during the pregnancy, plus the last of the series which only came last year) to her library.

Now it's time I attend to my own bedroom, that still looks like a dump.

The Midsummer Lights by Tord Boontje

Just because the nursery is (very close to) done, doesn't mean it's the end of The Nursery Projects. Peanut grows, the room will be too, and I will still be coveting nicely designed items for the room, of course. And in time, I will need to take Peanut's own tastes and style into account. She might want another colour, another look, and might not want to call her room 'nursery' anymore.

We have an IKEA Knappa lamp hanging in her nursery now. It used to hang in our old bedroom, but now it fits in nicely in hers. But look at these Midsummer Lights by Tord Boontje! What a delight to have one of these in a girl's room. I love the combination of prettiness, yet modern look to it. It's organic, and each one will unfold in their own individual way, which makes it somehow one-of-kind.

The Midsummer Lights are the creation of a Dutch born but French based designer, Tord Boontje. They are made of die-cut Tyvek (high-density polyethylene fibers) and high temperature polypropylene cone diffuser. Each one is made of cut sheet only, no gluing is involved. Available in several different colours from plain white, to silver, to two fading colours, at POAA, from €99.

First Peek at the Completed Nursery!

We finally moved into the new house! The last two weeks was so busy, and the move last Saturday definitely didn't end it. We've still got plenty to do around the house, doing the finishing touches, unpacking the last few boxes, fitting in lamps and curtains to sew. But at least we can say that the nursery looks wonderful. It's not completely done as I wanted it, so I'm not making copious pictures of it yet, but what you can see on the left is what the nursery looks like right now. I am happy to say that I managed to stay with the colour palette I set a couple of month ago, and that the classic IKEA fabric turned out to be just enough for the blind (I hacked a ready-made IKEA blind to make it, but that will be another post). I love the way it looks girly but not cutesy.

Peanut didn't have any trouble at all settling in her new room, slept like a log from the first night on without a fuss (she's such a monkey during the day, but bless her for being a prodigious sleeper).

More pictures and story to come...

The Nursery is Almost Ready!

Before                                              After

Two weeks until we move to the new apartment. We've been working really hard on the new house. It's not quite ready yet. The kitchen will be fitted this week, but at least we've got all the walls plastered and painted. The floorboards are in, but I still need to install the skirting boards myself (yup, I do the handyworks, Chris does the paperworks).

Peanut's nursery has one bright yellow wall, as was planned. I'm still somewhat unhappy with the brown window pane, but once I've got the curtains on, it won't be that visible anymore. And speaking of curtains, I found out that the 'vintage' IKEA fabric I had would actually be enough to cover the whole window, I just need to find someone who'd sew it.

It's rather dark now, because I haven't put the lights in, and the afternoon sun comes through the front part of  the apartment (the living room). But it's lovely in there in the morning.

I'm off to the construction site again now, hopefully all skirting boards will be on by the end of the day.

Related article: The Nursery is Taking Shape

Highschool Locker from Kids Factory

I love this highschool locker from Kids Factory. It's simple and stylish, and looks great either in a nursery or a teen's bedroom. Available in six different colours, you can even mix and match several colours together.

Highschool locker is € 365.00 a piece.

Also available as a three-door closet (no price indication on the site).

Ikea MANDAL: Bedside Table, or Retro School Desk?

Ikea MANDAL supposed to be bedside tables for grown up. What caught my eyes are the way it resembles classic school desk. I love the two toned finish and the metal legs. The drawer adds feel of authenticity. It's also great because it looks like it's a good size for a toddler. It's 45 x 49 cm in surface area, and 52 cm in heigth. It would look great with MÅLA blackboard.  What's missing is the perfect school bench or chair, of course.

Ikea MANDAL bedside table is € 49.95 a piece.

Related article: The Pilgrimage.

I Think I Found A Big Girl's Bed for Peanut

I'm still undecided whether to buy Peanut a junior bed or straight to a twin bed for her first 'big girl's bed'. A junior bed always looks so cute and they save space in a small room for more play area, but you do need to get rid of it in place of a proper twin bed probably before they're 7 (and then to a queen bed when they're a teen?).

I got a copy of a local kid's interior magazine the other day, called Ariadne At Home Kinderen. Why they have such a long title escapes me, except for the fact that it's a special children's edition of the magazine that usually goes as Ariadne At Home (who's Ariadne anyway?).

I love these local interior magazines because they always have great ideas that are not too over the top budget-wise, and they even tell you where to get them. They even sell some of the things they featured themselves, including this gorgeous four-poster bed. I'm not a four-poster-bed type of woman, but this one is so lovely in its simplicity and versatility for a little girl's room. It comes in wood grain finish, and you'd have to paint it yourself if you want colours. We have this dark vibrant yellow coloured wall in Peanut's room, and I bet a white washed version of this bed would look great against that wall. It even solves the junior/twin bed dilemma by being available in both sizes.

The only problem is, Peanut is not quite ready to move to a junior/twin bed. She's going to be 18 month by the end of this month, but she still loves her small spaces. By the time she's 2, I'm not sure this bed will still be on offer. What to do?

Hemelbed (70x150) is € 179,00
Hemelbed (90x200) is € 209,00    

Homemade Playhouse for Peanut, Means We'd Be Moving to the New House Soon

Peanut is in the age where she loves small corners, claustrophobic closets, playing tent under the blanket... you get the idea. Today I built her a new playhouse on one of the walls of the kitchen. It was an instant hit with her. When I cover the whole thing with a sheet and she's totally enclosed in it, she loved it even more.

That playhouse originated from our 'For sale' corrugated plastic sign that we stuck on the outer window for less than a week before somebody actually made an offer on the house just yesterday. It's not legally sold yet, but we took the offer and tore the sign down again. While it was sitting on the kitchen doing nothing, I came up with the idea.

The corrugated plastic board looks sturdy enough, and it came with quite strong double tape on each ends so that I can stick them to the floor to make sure it will withstand Peanut's wiggling inside (I've checked, it's not too strong that it won't come off without any mark on the floor). If she still likes it by next week, I might take it to the new house, paint windows and roof on the outside to make it like a proper play house.

Too bad I couldn't make better pictures, since our camera is broken again. Thanks to Little Miss Peanut, who reached for it from the tabletop, and sent it crashing down on the floor. I had to take these with my cellphone.

Just in case you're wondering, 'Te Koop' means 'For Sale' in Dutch.

Vintage Russian Fairy Tale Postcards, Found During Holiday in Former East Berlin

We're just back from a short vacation trip to Berlin. While there, we stayed in an apartment hotel in Berlin Mitte, the now trendy area in Berlin that used to be in the East side. Next door from the hotel is a used book store which one afternoon put boxes of books, postcards and old photographs, all for 1 euro each.

I rummaged around the boxes and found this pack of vintage postcards from 1972 Uni Soviet featuring lino cut of classic fairy tale scenes. Some are of Russian origins which are totally obscure to me, but I could recognise others like Cinderella (called 'Solushka' in Russian), Puss in Boots, and the Frog Prince.

Needless to say, I got the whole pack of 12 for 1 euro. Quite a bargain, and I'm going to frame these for Peanut's nursery for sure.

Stone Age Chic: The Livingstones

Livingstones are designed by Stephanie Marin. They are pebble-like cushions of various sizes. Some are big enough to even pass as a lounger or replace your sofa. The upholstery is made of either wool, polar fleece, or neoprene for outdoor use. I love how they resemble real stones, and what fun it would be to have these in the nursery! They can be piled together or scattered around the room, to make a great reading corner. Or play with them, roll them around, throw them, throw yourself on them, the possibility is endless. I can think of a thousand games and pretend plays children can come up with these.

On the off side, I've searched around the internet to try to find how much they cost, and nobody seems to list them. I have the suspicion these are ridiculously expensive. In that case, forget the nursery, I want them for my living room!