Gabe's Nursery: Part 1

Hands-down, one of my favorite parts of being pregnant was dreaming about and creating the nursery. I have a huge respect for parents who have everything ready and tied up with a bow before the baby arrives, but that definitely wasn't us. Here we are six months after Gabe's 1st birthday, and I finally have his room the way I want it, though I feel like it will always be a work in progress. I'll share photos of his finished room tomorrow—today I'll be talking about the process it took to get us there!

While I was pregnant, a lot of people asked about the theme I was planning for the nursery. It was hard for me to answer that question, since Kyle and I aren't really theme type people. My plan from the beginning was to find crib bedding I loved, and use that as a jumping-off point for inspiration for the rest of the nursery. Once we knew we were having a boy, I found the perfect blue buffalo check bedding, which lent itself to adventure/outdoorsy decor for the rest of the room. It couldn't have been more perfect for Kyle and me, since we both grew up loving to spend time outside (and still do!). 

In order to get things going in the nursery, we actually had a long list of things to do before we could even clear out the room. At the time, we were using the nursery as a guest bedroom, so we had a bedroom suite and a large bookshelf in there. We decided to move everything to the guest bedroom upstairs, but that room had become the catch-all space when we first moved in and the floor was covered with unpacked boxes. Having Gabe forced us to finally go through all the boxes, have a yard sale, and haul the leftovers off to be donated. I loved getting that done! After Kyle put a fresh coat of paint in the room upstairs, we were finally able to clear out Gabe's room and have the blank space we needed.
        

The first project we (and by we, I mean Kyle) tackled was to install board and batten on the walls. This Pinterest board is full of inspiration and tutorials if you're interested in doing board and batten as well (our favorite was this one from Shanty2Chic).   

Next up was paint. Kyle spent an entire Saturday painting the board and batten white to match the trim color, and the upper half of the wall navy blue. He went a solid week convinced he hated the blue color, while I loved it, and then it slowly grew on him and he eventually loved it too. The color we ultimately decided on was Benjamin Moore Van Deusen Blue.   

We were fortunate to have the crib, dresser, and rocker all delivered within a few days of each other, so Kyle was able to tackle putting those together in one afternoon. I don't know why, but having the crib assembled made everything so much more real to me. That was such a fun day! 

The last projects on our list were the shelves and side table for the nursing/reading nook. For the shelves Kyle simply stained two pieces of 2x4 and used industrial piping hardware from Hobby Lobby for the brackets. For the side table, Kyle used this tutorial that included a bottom shelf so I could have a place for a basket next to the rocker.

Last but not least, the gallery wall! We pretty much kept Hobby Lobby in business last year as 99% of the artwork in Gabe's nursery came from there. I love their selection for nursery decor, especially since they have so many pieces with Scripture on it. I wanted a strong reminder of God’s word so we could see it and speak it over Gabe as he grows, and I just love how the gallery wall over his crib turned out. 

   To see photos of the finished nursery, be sure to come back tomorrow!  

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