Room Reveal: Luke's Nursery

So today I was thinking that waiting to reveal pictures of Luke's nursery might build up more anticipation than could possibly be good. I don't want to set anyone up for disappointment. Although Luke is really the only person who should really care all that much.

Anyway...

Drum roll please....

Here's a link to the photos. I put a few in this post just for fun.

I was going for a retro-mod feel, with simple shapes, colors, and designs.

If you know me at all, you know I love a good deal, and love to do the work myself to save money. And this room is particularly triumphant because Ryan was unemployed for most of the time I was working on it.

$20- It was hard to find bedding without a theme. I got the bumper, crib skirt, and changing pad cover on Craigslist. It's super soft, made out of that minky-type stuff.

$9- My friend gave me the cute curtain rod and rings. I spray-painted them brown. The curtains are made from inexpensive sheets. I lucked-out big time, because they were just changing the shade of green for the season, so I grabbed one old and one new. So I bought one light green, one medium green, and one brown sheet, each twin sized. The mod dots are adhered with Stitch Witchery or some other iron-on product.


$6- I spray-painted the glider that I had so meticulously hand-painted white for baby Jared, and recovered the cushions with more of the sheet fabric. I had to appliqué the mod dots more securely on the cushion, knowing that it would have more wear than curtains. The chair was $30, the ottoman $1, the foam for the ottoman $8, but those were purchased for previous babies, so I'm only counting the price of spray-paint this time.

$12- The lamp's biggest expense was the fact that I can't break up a set. There were two matching brown lamps at Deseret Industries for $5 each. I couldn't not buy both! The lamp shade was a previous DI find. It was a self-adhesive shade that no one ever got around to using. I covered it with more sheet and edged it with some seam-binding. The ribbon for the bow was salvaged and therefore free.
$1- Yes, I'm including the tissue box cover. It was peach with pink wooden tulips glued to the sides. I like hiding tissue boxes so they blend in and you don't even notice them. 'Cause seriously, who wants a tissue box to be their room's statement?

~$40- Poor Ryan scooped up this dresser for $20, sight-unseen, from a less-than-desirable neighborhood on his way home from work. He says he doesn't want to do my Craigslist errands anymore! It was stained avacado green, with some strange finish that I can only assume was pickling. Pickled avacado. Yeah. Don't want to eat it, don't want it on a dresser, either. I stripped it sanded it and repaired it. I had quite a time with the gorgeous acorn/oak leaf patter below the first top set of drawers. And super scary, I grabbed a can of two-in-one stain from the mis-tint shelf that looked about right. The first coat looked red, the second coat looked purple. But I was in too deep by then, so I put on a third and viola! It matches the crib perfectly. I mean perfectly. It's a miracle. A miracle I didn't discover until a few days before Luke was born, when my dad helped Ryan finally carry it up to the nursery.

Note the beautiful oak/acorn detail

$8- The wall paint is mistint paint from Lowe's, artfully remixed in the boys' bathroom because it looked nothing like the finger-dot of paint on the lid! The gallon of paint looked like it matched the darker green fabric perfectly, but it was really a dark yellowish olive. A pint matched the lighter green (or so I thought), but when I opened it up, it was aqua!!! Hmmm...one was too yellow, and one was too blue...yellow and blue make green, and with a little luck I got the perfect shade. The paint for the mural is mostly 50-cent cans of mistinted samples.

The crib is brand new, the only brand new furniture we own, I think. It was an insurance replacement from our Uhaul incident.

The mirror was just around the house, and repainted.

The magnet board (the circles above the dresser) and big letters are going to take their own posts, so I won't explain them here. But the magnet board is basically trash artfully arranged, and the letters cost about $3 (for all of them, not each.)
Add $5 for incidentals and my total is under $100!!!

I just remembered that I'm not quite done. The original design included a baby deer, also retro-mod. I have the 50-cent paint for it, but I never could decide where to paint it on the wall. It seems like it would always be hiding behind furniture. So I have recently decided to cut it from foam-board so I can move it if need be. So I'll take pictures of that when I get around to it.

I hope you like this in-depth tour of Luke's room!