Nursery Makeover: Before and After

This makeover began a month before the little fella was born in September.  Yeah, that is SO me: leaving things until the last minute (can you relate?).  As it was I had to recruit my mom and sister to paint for me seeing as I was pregnant and all.  While they did a great job, my mom has since flat out refused to ever paint another ceiling again (oops!).

Note: photos = too much light + old camera.  When will I get that gorgeous Nikon I've been dreaming about forever??















This is the way the room looked before we bought the house.  Reminds me a little of Pepto Bismol, don't ya think?  The room was then painted beige (my total default colour: when in doubt, paint it beige) during its' stint as a guest room.  Can I say "boring" here?!  Sort of like how the six year old's Train themed bedroom started out!















Now, I'm no expert painter, but things I do normally work out just fine - like the top half of the walls (yay Martha Stewart!).  The bottom portion of the walls turned out just plain weird.  W.E.I.R.D.  Has this ever happened to anyone else?  Any insight?










It was a nice thick paint in the can, but went on the wall like it was a water colour!  We thought that perhaps a second coat would fix the problem, but no such luck.  It was really discouraging.  I ended up taking the paint back to Home Depot where they tried to sell me the paint again but with an added primer, but I wasn't taking it.  Back to my ever faithful Benjamin Moore.

With Ben on the walls, the room finally started to come together!  Now, it is a nautically (is that a word?) inspired nursery.  "Inspired" because the only real nautical things about it are the colours on the walls and the art canvases which I talk about here.














I like how the red hardwood floors really warm up the cool blues, the shutters add a touch of rustic-ness (another made up word for sure!) and the sheers add some airiness (ok, definitely not a word.)

The round mirror and the tall white shelf were discounted finds at the grocery store.  The metal stars were a rustic burgundy when I found them.  I spray painted them white (thank you Rust-oelum!) and then distressed them while they were still wet using a paper towel.























The change table was my university desk that I had found at a garage sale for $10.  I had my dad put an edging around it to hold the change pad and diaper supplies (of which there are plenty when using cloth diapers)!  The Beach sign I made quickly out of scrap wood (detailed here) and the two "Es" were purchased at Michaels.  Eventually I would like to add a cute area rug and a few more display things to the built-in but for now it is just the way it needs to be.