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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Little One's Room: How to Make a Baby's Room Cute


How to Make a Baby's Room Cute

This is the cluttered version of the baby's room. The goal: ORGANIZE and SIMPLIFY!
Here are the steps:
1. Make the space. Even though they are so so tiny, babies require so so much room due to the overflow of toys and gadgets, so making sure that you have enough room for these things is necessary. In a small room like the one we have set aside for the baby/office/crafts/scrapbooking/Nick's reptiles (yes--he has turtles and a gecko), we had to be organized via tubs, crates, cardboard boxes.

my "organized clutter"

Cover the shelving with fabric like a curtain using Velcro (just a tip from a no-sew kinda gal like me!!) to hide the clutter. If clutter drives you insane, you're in good company! Even if you choose the cheapest white muslin, you can take fabric paint or felt flowers to the corners and add some personalized details! I have no picture for this because I am ashamed to say I haven't done it yet-- if you came to my house you'd see the CLUTTER!

2. Find out the gender. I know that not everyone agrees with me on this topic, so I definitely recommend you to do what YOU need to do, but for me to feel sane, I HAD to know that March 7, 2011 would bring a little boy into this world, not sugar and spice and everything nice.This way I was able to adjust my plans for the room and be fully prepared! (not that that can ever really happen...)



 3. Generous family/friends/support system who is willing to donate new and used supplies to your cause is a MUST. After spending Thanksgiving with my wonderful family, we left with quite the overflow of baby supplies, but they are all so necessary! Thank you Oranges and Browns!!!


Dear Mom, Thanks for bringing my close friends and family together to celebrate!

Playing the diaper game at my shower-- my dear friend Jamie was mortified!

This is me at about 25 weeks (just under 5 months-ish) -- Spending time with the family for a Happy Thanksgiving!

 4. Infuse YOUR style. Yes, this may be kind of difficult when it is easier to just buy, but I guarantee you will appreciate your room more if you took the time to make half the decorations in there as opposed to relying on Carter's. Your own unique style will satisfy you more than someone else's, so get creative!


The binding gave us grief but we pressed on! Literally!
I had hardly used a sewing machine before, but my great mother-in-law took the time to show me, and we ended up making the baby's bedding (excluding a fitted sheet!!! Those seem too difficult!) in one day-- we created bumper pads, a dust ruffle, quilt, and matching curtains. If I can do it, so CAN YOU!!!

The finished product!

Another way to infuse your own style into the baby's bedroom is to refurbish some old dressers according to your style. Not to mention this is a cheap way to stay organized!!! Below I simply bought some Hobby Lobby fabric that I thought was sort of gender-neutral (girly but boy colors I guess) but still matched the bedroom (in case these dressers end up elsewhere in the future) and used mod podge to cover the deteriorating wood! I am proud of our minimal financial strain on this project: refurbishing the "set" of two dressers that are now sitting in Baby Boy Brown's room cost us less than $10.00!

The bigger dresser we found our garage, left to the spiders by the previous homeowner, and I'd like to think it's now a masterpiece! The smaller dresser is a nightstand we found in the neighbor's trash. I am very proud of the transformation!!!

BEFORE
DURING

AFTER
5. Do something extra special. For me, this meant hanging a canvas that I painted of the Colorado mountains on the west wall, over the baby's crib. There's no real significance to this other than that I grew up in Colorado, and am, of course, still dearly attached to it, so I decided this must be where the painting should go! For others this might mean a picture of mom and dad above the crib, a picture of extended family, etc. When you're pregnant you're emotional and sentimental anyways, so indulge that!!!


6. Don't sweat the small stuff. Realize that the day the baby arrives is NOT the end of your chances to prepare for his or her life-- you're going to have a little bit of time to adjust to this new life before they advance to the next stage of theirs-- so enjoy it. Love your babies because babies don't keep :)

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