Some of my girlfriends have begun to point out that I have been suspiciously quiet about the nursery progress on the blog.
The reason for that is that I was planning to wait until her room was finished to post before and afters. But the reality is, it’s taking a while.
I’m the kind of person who simultaneously wants the room to be DONE- completed and perfect, and who wants to take her time to agonize over every decision.
Usually the agonizing wins out. And because I take the time to be SURE of every item that ends up in a finished room, I usually am very happy with each decision. This also means that we don’t have a single room in our house that is completely done. Hmm.
Back to Josey’s nursery.
I’ve decided to share it with you in bits and pieces. At the end, I’ll show you the “before” again, and I’ll show you the completed “after.”
The room we chose for her nursery is the second biggest room upstairs. We figured that eventually, when JoJo has a sister, we’ll put bunk beds in there and let them share the space. Or if we have two boys first, we’ll have her trade rooms with them.
This room was also completely covered in stuff. Stuff everywhere. I mean, you couldn’t even see the floor. It KILLS me that I didn’t take a picture of it before I started throwing stuff away.
But that’s what happened. I threw away LOADS of stuff that had been sitting there ever since we moved in. I divided the other stuff into piles of things to keep and use right away (smallest pile), things to keep and put in storage (aka: the attic), and things to sell/give away.
Anyone want to come pick up that big, blue lazy boy? The dogs have loved having it, but we’re ready to get it outta here.
Then I decided to come up with an “inspiration board.” I wanted the room to be gray and white, because I love those colors for boy or girl. I knew if I had a girl, I would do accents of pink, coral, yellow, and orange. I also wanted it to be super girly- think crystal chandelier instead of a fan.
I had a boy inspiration board too. It was made by July, and the girl one by the end of August. I didn’t know what I was having yet, but dang it, I was going to be prepared.
By September, we knew we were having a girl. We moved all the stuff that was still in Josey’s room out…and into the hall and the guest bedroom. Our (er…uh…Tom’s) workout room became a collection center for gifts from baby showers.
Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me. I need to have a yard sale, and I have a ton of things we’re keeping to sort through. As for the gifts, they have nowhere to go until her room is done being painted.
I went to the store and picked up samples of various grays and a couple of whites. (Next four images taken with my phone. Enjoy the grainy blurriness.)
After looking at it with some paint swatches I brought in the accent colors of the room, Tom and I decided our favorite was the gray that was second from the left, and we went with the white on top. The bottom one was way too bright.
But the paint can’t be done until the bones are up.
See, I didn’t just want to paint her room. I wanted to transform it. So Tom and I bought crown molding, beadboard, and chair rail to go up in her room.
It was interesting getting it all home (as well as about 6 gallons of paint) in our two small cars, but we did it. And we leaned it up against the wall until reinforcements arrived.
Enter the McFarlins. Tom’s mom (Patti), dad (Tommy), brother (Ben), and sister-in-law (Lana) all came over to make it happen.
We painted the top half of the walls first. Well, actually, the baseboards got ripped out first, to make room for beadboard. Then we started painting.
While we worked on that, Ben was in the backyard working on the wood for the room.
Sam and Liam supervised.
That was in September. Some beadboard went up, some chair rail, etc. We would need some more days to get it all up and finished.
But while all that was going on, Tom and I were also living in the mold removal chaos. It was mostly taken care of, and we needed to get the baseboards repainted.
We hired a painter we had used before with good results, and while his workers were there, we went ahead and hired them to paint stripes on the ceiling of the nursery for us. That was something I had known from the beginning I would want. (Back to phone shots.)
Just looking at the tape, I knew we had made the right decision to hire pros for the ceiling. That would have been a headache to line up perfectly.
A few weeks later, Ben and Tommy came back up while Patti, Lana and I were at the baby shower in Decatur. They and Tom worked on the room some more, and most of the wood has gone up now.
And while at the shower, I received something for Josey’s room that the hostesses had paid for/Jenn had made for me. It was something I had wanted for her room, and I have the perfect spot for it already!
I fully intend to raise daughters who understand that you can have a fabulous life/wardrobe/attitude/etc. while still being a classy lady. Love that quote.
Since then, I bought a chandelier, and Tom and I have installed it. That deserves its own post, so I’m not including it today.
Saturday, Tommy, Patti, Ben, and Lana are trekking out one more time to finish the nursery. I am BEYOND excited about having the walls finished, because then I can start moving all of her sweet gifts into her bedroom and putting them away! Tom is quite ready to get his workout room back too.
So that’s where we are in the nursery right now. Fabric, chandelier, etc….more posts to come!
~Meghan
