Final Nesting Place: Nursery

It seems like an eternity ago now, that I first mentioned we one day hoped to turn this downstairs bedroom into a nursery.  The picture below is what the room looked like for a VERY. LONG. TIME.

And then, and then we got the best news ever: that we were pregnant – with twins.

I’m not sure how we came to the conclusion of what would be the nursery. It was really a work in progress. But not like work. We mainly spent time brainstorming how we would make the room a nursery without (a) spending too much money, or (b) well, spending too much money.  But first-things-first, the floor needed to be re-sealed as the builder had clearly done a poor job of doing so.  

After that, the first big decision was what color(s) to paint and how to decorate.  Did we want primary colors?  Not really.  We’re neutral/earth tones kinda gals.  Did we want “baby theme”?  And we thought for a long time that we would go with something more contemporary/modernish.  But after pricing that stuff out, we were like NO WAY, not when you are buying TIMES TWO.  That, and it’s BABIES so why not have something BABYISH in the NURSERY?

We first found some cute zoo/safari/animal crib bedding sets at Target that were on sale.  But we decided to return those and do something a little more, a little less, something.  

We agreed to go with something that would accommodate two girls or two boys or one of each. And then we walked into Pottery Barn Kids and found some really cute animal print bumpers for a steal of $33.99 each.  And because we got such a great deal, we also, several weeks later, after they were on sale, purchased two valences in the same print for $19.99.  

It said Baby without screaming BABY.  We’ll save that for the RJBs. The colors were on the pastelish side, so this would make it easy to get solid crib sheets from just about anywhere, and be able to use them interchangeably on both cribs.  

Now that we had our color palette, we needed to decide on the walls.  So we went with a soft yellow. Unfortunately, the way I took these two photos with whatever settings the camera had, it hardly looks soft.  But hang with me a bit.  The Beloved taped the molding and began painting away.

And I just have to say, what a splendid job The Beloved did!

Around this time, we had made our decision on cribs:  safe, new, inexpensive.  Love those cute $400 cribs, but again, when you multiply times two, it just doesn’t make sense for a bed that won’t be used but for the blink of an eye.  We bought both our cribs, with the 10% multiples discount, for $179 each.  NOT TOO SHABBY.  The most expensive item in the room ended up being the rocker/glider.  But what we chose, and the material/color we chose, will last long past its days in the RJBs room. And well into the days where I’ll kick my feet up and make them massage my feet before dinner. Oh, wait, that was MY childhood.

It was time, though, to get rid of the plaid roman shade covering on the window, since it wasn’t going to go with the bedding or the valances that we had picked out. We had, by then, obtained the cribs and the rocker glider had been delivered. It just wasn’t all in it’s place. But here is The Beloved removing the hardware.  

Soon thereafter, we purchased the rug.  It could have been expensive (in which case we would not have purchased it), but we had gift cards that brought the price down to a Target price or maybe even WallyMart but for the fact that we’ve been boycotting that place for three plus years.  Not only was the pricing right, but it MATCHED THE BEDDING.  Rock friggin’ on!

And rather than purchase new furniture, we made do with what we had: an old Ikea dresser became the RJBs dresser and on top we placed a changing pad for their changing station. And for additional storage, I purchased some $4.99 canvas cubes from Target that had a perfect fit in an entertainment center that one of my graduate school buddies gave me years back because she didn’t want to haul it back to Oregon.  And you know what Internet?  The tones and materials of the furniture DON’T MATCH EACH OTHER.  AND WE’RE STILL BREATHING!  

Just yesterday, the honeycomb room-darkening top-down, bottom-up shades were delivered.  And we paid for installation.  Because let’s face it, at 35 weeks and 5 days I’d practically be willing to outsource GOING TO THE BATHROOM.  Or Eating.  Or walking to the kitchen to refill my water mug.  And in all fairness, the Beloved has done so so so so so much already – Yesterday, ON HER DAY OFF, she took me to the doctor, picked up my prescription, went for a 4 mile run, vacuumed the house, watered the plants in front, took out the trash, took me to dinner, brought me an ice cream cone, put liners in the Diaper Champs, did two loads of laundry, and put the car seats into the car.  

Now?  Now we wait impatiently for the RJBs.

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