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.

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

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.

The Nursery is Taking Shape

A bit busy lately. We've got words from the contractors that our apartment might be delivered sooner than we expected, which means we have to seriously start thinking about what we're going to put into the place. It is quite overwhelming for us who never done decorate a house from scratch, and now we're confronted with this blank canvas of a space. The floorplan to the left shows Peanut's future nursery layout in the house.

It is 3.1 x 3.8 meter square, with one tall window (approximately 75 x 270cm, which is floor-to-ceiling). It's a decent size room for a growing child. My only disappointment was that it has brown window pane, in place of a more expected white.

As this is practically the only room in the house where I'm free to do whatever I like with it without having to resort to lengthy discussion with the hubby (he let me have the prerogatives for the nursery), it is in this room I spent most of my creative energy. I came to this colour palette for the room (image to the right):

You might think it's a rather harsh colour palette for a nursery, but I really wanted a colour scheme that is bold, girly yet gutsy, and something I would never dare trying with any other room in the house. I'm going to paint 2 walls in the brightest canary yellow, and the other two in white. The room's walls are not very perpendicular, so I thought I could balance this annoying asymmetry by camouflaging them with two tone coloured walls in diagonal opposites. The black will not be dominant at all, I put it along since I have plans of putting up my black-and-white Edward Gorey prints againts one of the yellow walls. As for the fuchsias, I found an old IKEA fabric in the linen cabinet with the colour which I think will look brilliant for the curtain of the room. I'm just hoping that I've got enough to cover the whole window, since it's a pattern IKEA doesn't do anymore, and I can't think of anywhere else I might find a thick cotton fabric with the same colours and pattern.

To give a better idea of how the room would look like, I put up a composite of things I'm going to put into the room (above image):

More to come soon, watch this space. Woohoo, we finally have a real nursery!

Our Nursery on Smallest Coolest Nursery Contest

Peanut's nursery was featured at Apartment Therapy's "Smallest Coolest Nursery Contest 2007". Woohoo, I'm so excited! I hope we make it further in the contest, even though hers is not actually a real nursery but an en suite nursery with living room and kitchen.

I also think this might be a good time to introduce Peanut's current nursery. I know this blog is all about the new one, but despite the odd circumstances, I actually like Peanut's nursery as it is now. I've grown accustomed to the whole concept of having a nursery in the living room by now, I can't even imagine it would look odd to the grocery delivery man who'd follow me across the hallway just to find a crib and a complete nursery at the end of it (instead of a living room/kitchen).

Anyway, if you happen to have a login account at Apartment Therapy (or wouldn't mind making one), please vote for us!

The Birthday Girl Update

More on the search for Peanut's birthday present. We're still trying to find her a perfect present that is enjoyable from a 1-year-old's point of view, but still looks good enough to sit in our living room. Since this also meant to be something that stays in the new nursery, we also have to think ahead what would look adaptable enough for a nursery,with a decor that we haven't got a clue at the moment.

From left ro right, our shortlist:
1. BRIO pushcart: sleek black, and might be useful as a toy and a storage for toys. SEK 299,00, or about €32.
2. Playsam Rocking Horse: Looks modern, yet Trojan classic. SEK 1 212,00, or about €130.
3. Trioli Chair by Eero Aarnio: A rocking thingy that can be turned into a normal looking child's chair. Space saving and very minimalistic. A point for being available in white too. About € 132.
4. The Gem of the Catalogue, The Fire Engine from Baby Walz, a classic looking fire engine in bright red. A bargain at €54.50. Additional fireman's helmet costs €4.50.
5. Playsam's Saab Roadster: A very handsome piece of toy, I wouldn't mind it sitting in my living room at all. In fact, when she's not playing with it anymore, I might just keep it in the living room just for it's sculpture-like quality. SEK 2654, or about €290. 

How 'The Nursery Project' begins

I've always wanted a nursery for Peanut; a room I could decorate in a way I'd have mine if I were a child (with power to have anything I want in my room), yet follows the sensibilities of a parent (who needs to tidy and clean it). I know it's never going to happen with our current living situation, having to share a 67m2 apartment with one bedroom between ourselves, the baby and two house rabbits.

But it's going to change soon. We've bought a second property not far from where we live now. The building's going to be finished at around the beginning of 2008. It's got two bedrooms, which means finally Peanut can have her own bedroom instead of having to sleep in a crib in the living room and she won't have to have everything she owns, rattles and teething ring included, to be scrutinised before allowed entry into the house, on the basis of how it goes along with the rest of the living room decor anymore. I often stare at some toys that look like a lot of fun, but look absolutely hideous, and whisper in her ears; "when you have your own room, you're allowed to have ugly toys..."

Anyway, ugly toys aside, I'm very excited about this nursery. I spent hours going around the internet trying to find the coolest (yet affordable) children furniture out there.  After a while the list went longer than what the new nursery could contain even if I redecorate every month, and even worse, I began to forget where I found certain items that I still wanted badly for the nursery. I need a system to organise it. That's how 'The Nursery Project' came into existence...