Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The New Nursery, Cottage of the Month, and A Winner

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It has been a busy week to say the least! I was in the middle of working on our new spring designs when last Monday evening I got an e-mail from Jennifer Grey over at The Old Painted Cottage. She wanted to know if I was interested in having our home featured in her "Cottage of the Month" series. I was so incredibly excited when I read her e-mail and told her that of course I would honored. I was wondering how far away the feature would be - a couple of months, a year...? We have something coming up in April that I have been trying to prepare our house for and was hoping that I could sort of tie it in with that but figured the chances of that weren't likely. She wrote back and said that normally she was booked about a year and a half in advance but her March person had fallen through and could I possibly have everything to her by Friday. I am not going to lie - I completely panicked. Normally that wouldn't have scared me too much. Our house is generally in order and so I figured it would take a day to get everything styled and then I could spend the next three days photographing and editing. However, the week before we had just dismantled our guest bedroom and it was a mess!!!! We had stripped the wallpaper and painted but that was it! We had a dresser in there, two mattresses that were laying on the floor and the crib which was put together but just had the mattress in it - no sheets, bedding or anything! After having a momentary meltdown (I will blame that on being pregnant!) I figured we could get the nursery done Tuesday and Wednesday and then Thursday morning get everything ready for photos and then take all of the photos during Lillie's nap on Thursday and edit everything Thursday night and Friday night (Friday during Lillie's nap I knew I was going to throw together some stuff for Dana's birthday party).

Well, we did it! We got it all done (although it was overcast on Thursday when I shot most of my photos so the depth of field on the ones downstairs is pretty awful =(....oh well). I am still incredibly excited and the feature is now up! Thank you so much, Jennifer! She was so wonderful to work with and even extended my deadline until Saturday! She also has the most beautiful home. I have had her kitchen and dining room bookmarked as inspiration for forever!

The first thing we started with was the bed. As I mentioned in a previous post I really struggled with what I was going to do with this room because we had to find a way to fit a full size bed in there along with a crib, dresser, and chair (the chair wasn't a must but I really wanted to have one in there) and it is a tiny little square room. The layout that we ended up with wasn't what I wanted to do but unfortunately it was the only possible way we could get everything into the room. The goal was to save money and use all furniture pieces that we already owned and then just do some accessorizing. Anyway, for the bed we put it sideways up against the window so it would look more like a daybed. Although design-wise it isn't ideal, I am happy with the outcome because it was the best we could do with the space and I am really happy with how the bedding turned out. The best part is this room can function both as a nursery for our new little munchkin but still will work as a guest room when family comes!

First we purchased a $29 metal frame to get the mattresses of the ground (it's a long, boring story but we had to get rid of the headboard and footboard that we had originally used for this bed when it was in Lillie's room). Then Lillie and I drove all over Williamsburg on Tuesday morning trying to find an inespensive bedskirt and three Euro sized pillow forms, and some crib sheets. I was hoping to make the rest of the bedding. I had originally planned on making the bedskirt as well but knew I wasn't going to have time if I wanted it all done by Wednesday night. We found the bedskirt and two matching shams at Kohl's in the clearance section. The bedskirt was $24.99 and the shams were $6.99 each. One of the biggest splurges in the room was the three Euros that were $19 a piece. That was the cheapest I could find them but I hated spending almost $60 on something that was just going to go behind all of the other pillows. I really needed them, though, to give some height. The coverlet and white shams were what we had on the bed when it was in Lillie's room and I used some pillows that we had put away from Valentine's Day. The heart one had always bothered me downstairs even though it was just for Valentine's Day because I thought it was too "cutesy" but I love it in the nursery. I made that one, the Je T'aime one and the other ruffled pillow and then stole the knit one from our sofa in our family room (I replaced it with something else, but Jon keeps informing me he misses his "comfy" pillow and that it was the ONLY comfy pillow in the house! I haven't brought it back downstairs as of yet because I like how it adds a cozy feel to the bed because it was starting to get a bit "frou-frou").

Clearly I didn't take the time to iron the bedskirt! I would like to blame that on not having enough time but I hate ironing so even if I had of had more time I still probably wouldn't have bothered. I figure in another week or two it will smooth out.

Now for this corner. The mirror is one of my all-time favorite pieces. Jon got it for me as a surprise when we bought our first home back in South Carolina. We did a bunch of chair swapping with all of the different chairs we have and I liked how this chair looked best. We already had the side table, vase and frame. For now the frame has a photo of Lillie in it but as soon as the new baby arrives her picture will go in there.

I think my favorite part of the room is this wall. As I mentioned in the nursery inspiration post, I got this idea from Emily at Jones Design Company. I had completely fallen in love with how she did this in her nursery. In the interest of saving money I used frames and fabric that I already had. The large frame was a goldish color and had a print in it that had gotten destroyed in our last move so it was just sitting in the garage. I took the print out and covered the cardboard with some of the fabric that I use to make the pillows we sell in our Etsy shop and popped it back in. That was actually easier said than done. In fact the large one took forever! Plus I had to spray paint the frame. I spray painted the two smaller ones as well to match and then covered the cardboard that was in each of them with the extra fabric as well. Those two were MUCH easier. Then on Wednesday, with my sister and brother-in-law here visiting we all went to some local shops and I was able to find this vintage dress on the half off rack at a place called High Cotton. (They have tons of beautiful vintage linens). I paid $19 for it and then added the buttons and lace trim to add interest. Seeing how I only had one afternoon to look I couldn't find a vintage bonnet. I looked but didn't have any luck so I went with a new one that looked kind of old. I cringed at the price - $24 but I figured seeing how we didn't have to buy any furniture or anything large that it was worth it. Plus I was out of time. My mom gave me the little shoes when I was pregnant with Lillie. They were one of ours when we were little, which makes them extra special to have up there. The little french sign was a gift from Jon's mom when I was pregnant with Lillie as well. In fact, many of the items in this room were gifts from before we had Lillie and now that they don't really go as well in her "big girl room" they go perfectly in here.

We had the lamp base out in the garage and the lampshade was a nice shape but had gotten all bent up in our last move so we never used it. I saw this GORGEOUS lampshade made from coffee filters by Sarah at Northwest Hospitality and had planned on making one for the nursery but knew I didn't have time for that anymore. I think I am going to make one for Lillie's room though as soon as I do have some time. Anyway, I had to do something to cover the beat up shade so I thought I would see if some ruffles would work. They did and it seriously took about twenty minutes. It was the easiest project ever! I made a second one in black for our master bedroom. I will try to do a tutorial for it soon, but really all you have to do is make some ruffles and glue gun them onto a shade and that's it!

I didn't have time to do anything too elaborate with the text but here is what is in the larger frame. If you click on it it will open much larger in another window so it should print pretty crisply.

For the crib I had planned on making a linen bedskirt and a linen bumper and then using white sheets. However, I found a twin sheet set in this beautiful damask pattern at Kohl's for $6.99. I was able to make the crib sheet, pillows, bows on the bumper and the ruffles on the lampshade with it and still have more fabric left over. Once I found that I decided to just got with the bumper and skirt I had made for Lillie. I just removed the pink bows and buttons and added some damask bows and then some wooden buttons to help dress it down a bit.

I swapped the mirror that had been in this room into Lillie's room and put it above her dresser (which looks so much better, this little frame was WAY too small) and moved this oval frame into the nursery. I removed the pink bird silhouette I had painted for her, and replaced it with this design that I cut out with my Silhouette Machine.

More handmade pillows. We will hopefully have a similar version to the "doux bebe" one available in our shop next week. I was hoping to have some finished by today but no such luck.

And then over on the far wall we hung three simple silhouettes. These frames were the only other items we had to purchase for the room. They were $12.99 each and we got them at Target. Again I used my Silhouette machine (I told you I was addicted to it!) to cut out three simple silhouettes in tan and then just used double stick tape to attach them to white cardstock.

And in the corner is the little mini dress form we use to shoot our children's items with when Lillie isn't in the mood to cooperate for pictures. The Calla tutu is on it now.

And that's it for the nursery tour. I mentioned in a previous post that we did this for under $150. Whoops - I lied! It actually came to just over $200. I completely forgot about the Euro pillows and the bonnet when I did my first calculations - I will just blame it on pregnancy brain.

Our Etsy shop is now reopen. I am hoping to have a few Je T'aime pillows for sale later today or if not then hopefully tomorrow. Then hopefully next week we will have some Doux Bebe ones and some Reve ones as well.

We also have a couple of Je T'aime totes back in stock.

And a few new Audrey Hepburn ones:

And I have one Audrey pillow ready to go but hope to have several more either later today or tomorrow, as well. And then I am hoping next week along with more pillows we will start having our spring apparel ready to sell. Pretty much everything is in they are just now all in the process of being screenrpinted.