The Nursery: Progress Part II

Do you mind if we talk about the nursery some more?! Its just that I finally have something done, so I'm excited to share:) Thanks for bearing with me!

So, the other day I showed you what had been done so far to the dresser wall. (Thanks for all your great comments, you guys are the best!) Remember when I posted about the two different options for the floor plan for this room? Well, we decided to go with B, this one:



So, so far the wall on the right as you walk in houses the IKEA 8 drawer Hemnes dresser with our changing pad:

{still need to frame antique botanical prints for above dresser}

Now I can show you the crib wall:



We did one of the big no-nos of nurseries and went with a used crib!!! One of our best friends just moved their 2 1/2 year old to her toddler bed and offered us their crib (for free). After checking the model online and making sure it was safe, we decided to take them up on it (originally from Babies R Us). We set it up and were happy with the stability and condition (if we weren't, we would have bought a new one). If it had been another color other than white, I might have turned it down as I knew I wanted white furniture in here, but I think we lucked out. Has anyone else done this and been happy? Or are you guys cringing as you read this, shaking your heads and thinking we're going to be terrible parents?! (PS. We did buy a new mattress!)



My sister-in-law and mother-in-law were generous enough to get us the crib bedding we wanted as part of their shower gift! Yay! I love it! Its the Sophie Nursery Bedding from Pottery Barn Kids and inspired the color palette in the room (I knew I wanted blue walls but to also incorporate some pink and green). Remember when I posted about it here?



I decided to put up the Cavallini Alphabet Cards I bought for BG above the crib, since this wall is really tall.


I went with a 5 x 5 grid of cards because that seemed to suit the space best...this leaves just the "Z" card to put somewhere else in the room. First step was to lay out all the cards on the ground and kind of get a feel for how much negative wall space I wanted in between each card. Then I really began by measuring out the overall dimensions that the grid would take up and marking those measurements on the wall (so the top edge of the top row, bottom edge of bottom row, left side of left column and right edge of far right column). After that I figured I would need to do a lot of math and lots more marks, until I remembered the Strait Line Laser Level that we had bought but never used (you know, the little guy that you adhere to the wall and that shoots out a laser line). This thing made the whole project so easy!



I did the bottom row first and then moved on to the middle row, based on the mark I had drawn at the complete center of my grid. From there I filled in the in between rows and top row. In each row, it was super easy to first put up the left hand card (used my laser level to project a plum line up the wall also so that I had a vertical edge to align it to), then the right hand card (with another vertical line), then the middle card. After that I just eyeballed the position of the 2 in between cards (in this case the V and the X, so that they seem centered in between the U and W and the W and Y), all the while using my horizontal level line for the bottom edge of each card. Not nearly as hard as it sounds!





I was not sure how to attach the cards to the wall until I posted about it and you guys had some great ideas. Emily of Jones Design Company suggested 3M's mounting strips which is what I ultimately used - thanks, girl! (If this hadn't worked, I was going to move on to Glue Dots like Kaylie and Nicole recommended.) I found the Scotch 3M removable foam square mounting strips at Target for like $2.19 a pack (I needed 3 to do all 25 cards - I cut each square in half, and used 3 halves per card). They worked perfectly:)



In the next post I'll show the you back wall of windows as it is now. I'm so excited to have this room somewhat ready to go for her if she comes early (38 weeks today!)!!!