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You are visiting: Home » Decorating/DIY » Page 209

Our Serene Nursery

by Lindsay Ballard on June 14, 2010 1,956 Comments

Miss Emma is going to be one lucky girl.  She has a big brother who cannot wait to share his life with her, a daddy who would hang the moon and stars for her, and a mama who cannot wait to welcome her into our family.  As I’m sure every mother would attest, words can simply not describe the way I already love our 2nd (and last) child.

After 3 months of planning, work, and stringing you along, I’m finally ready to reveal her serene nursery to you.  It was truly a labor of love – and we honestly saw blood (Tom’s), sweat (Tom’s), and tears (mine) throughout the process.  The room has turned out so perfectly, though, that we wouldn’t have had it any other way.  Be warned that this post is very picture heavy, but I knew that’s what you’d want. 😉

You may remember the inspiration photo that triggered my entire vision.  I still don’t know who is responsible for this photo, but I’d like to kiss their ring!

I absolutely fell in love with the beige and whites in this photo.  Since I was having my one and only girl, though, I wanted to add a touch of pink into the room.  I found this sweet, powder pink Angel Toile fabric, and the vision of my room was set into motion.  I sketched out my plan for the room months ago, and I’m overjoyed to say that the final room turned out so much like my original vision!

I’ve never claimed to be an artist, but at least it got me headed in the right direction!

Introducing, Emma’s nursery:

The view when you walk into her bedroom.

The Piece de Resistance – a bed crown made from an antique fireplace mantle.

I found this mantle at a local antique shop.  It was already painted this shade of cream, which is a perfect match to the rest of the room.

Another view of the crib.  Tom, who lovingly over-engineers everything, did a fantastic job securing the crown to the wall.  He said she could do gymnastics on it and it wouldn’t come down.  I’m going to put together a tutorial on how to turn a vintage wood piece into a bed crown.  It’s a lot easier than it looks!

Have no fear, the curtains are tied back to the walls, so Emma won’t be able to pull them into the crib.

The three tiered, ruffled cribskirt was made from vintage bed linens.  It was really easy to put together.  I’ll do a tutorial for this, too.

Close-up of the crib skirt.

The changing table, with my chalkboard fabric labels, sits on the wall to the left of the crib.

I framed some family heirlooms, and they hang above the changing table.  From left to right, my old Easter bonnet, my mother’s baby dress and newborn shoes, my old toddler shoes, and Tom’s baby bib.

My Easter dress, from when I was 5 years old, adorns my child-sized dress form.

Continuing to the left, you’ll find my slipcovered rocking chair.  Won’t this be a lovely place to rock a new baby?

You can also see part of the angled wall/ceiling we were dealing with when putting up the crown molding.  It was a difficult task, but Tom mastered it and it came out beautifully.   He did such a great job!

On the next wall is an Ikea cabinet that used to be in my sewing/craft room.

The shelves are filled with a mix of old and new – some of my stuffed animals, some of Zack’s stuffed animals, my favorite baby picture of Zack, my first Pointe shoes.

On the wall between the bedroom door and closet, I hung this shelf I picked up at Goodwill.  On the top, you’ll see an antique oval frame (which will soon be filled with something very special), my sister’s toddler shoes, and a photo of Tom’s grandmother (who we recently lost) and his father as a baby.  On the hooks, the white dresses were my mother’s baby dresses.  The pink dress will be what Emma will wear home from the hospital, and will then she’ll be able to pass it on to her own daughter.

I couldn’t forget to picture this little doggie.  We let Zack pick out the first thing we ever bought for Emma, and he picked this dog the day he found out he was having a sister.  The little dog’s tag says, “Best Friends.”  I hope that they are.

Thank you so much for joining me in this little nursery tour.  It’s been so hard keeping this all a secret from my readers for so many months, but I wanted to reveal it all at one time, instead of in little, unfinished pieces.  I hope you think it was worth the wait.  I do!

Okay, let’s look at it one more time.

Yay!  Just 10 more weeks and the room will have it’s finishing touch – it’s very own princess.

Fun with Chalkboard Fabric

by Lindsay Ballard on June 7, 2010 2,383 Comments

I’ve never met a person who didn’t love chalkboard paint.  With this ingenious invention, you can turn anything – from glass to walls – into a chalkboard in mere minutes.  Now that it comes in an array of colors, you can easily match any color scheme or decor.  What will they think of next?

Well, I’ll tell you – chalkboard fabric!  I’m sure chalkboard fabric has been around for a while now, but I’ve just discovered it as of a few weeks ago.  I saw it in the JoAnn circular and rushed to the store to pick some up.  It must be new to them, too, because the ladies at the cutting table had no idea what I was talking about.  I eventually found it in with the utility fabrics.

For $5/yard (before my 40% off coupon), I had my hands on something new that I couldn’t wait to make into a new creation.  I made a few placemats for Zack so that he could use his sidewalk chalk indoors without us going into the 100-degree Texas heat this summer.  Then, I decided to use it to make some tags to label the baskets on the changing table in the nursery.

Like a chalkboard, the chalkboard fabric is easy to use.  You have to “prime” the fabric, by rubbing the chalk on the surface.  Then, you erase that rubbing with a soft cloth and you are ready to write or draw!  You continue to erase with the soft cloth.  If you want to clean the surface, you can wipe it with a wet cloth or even put it in the washing machine on the delicate cycle.  Once it’s dry, “prime” it again and you are good to go!

My tags were incredibly easy to put together, so I thought I’d share my technique in case you wanted to replicate it:

1. I ironed some fusible fleece interfacing onto the back of a large scrap of accent fabric I am using in my room.  I had some of the thick craft interfacing left in my stash (yes, after all that, I still have a stash!), which gives the fabric enough thickness to lay flat without curling on the edges.

2.  I decided to make the finished size of my tags 4 inches by 3 inches, so I drew out with a pencil and straight edge as many squares of that size that I needed for my baskets.  I cut them out with my pinking shears (zig zag scissors) so that I didn’t have to worry about fraying edges.

3.  I cut the chalkboard rectangles to be 1/2 inch smaller than the first rectangles, so that made them 3 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches.  I used my rotary cutter and straight edge to make sure that my cuts were straight.

4.  I put a touch of glue from a glue stick on the back of a chalkboard rectangle and applied it to an accent fabric rectangle.  The glue helps hold it in place so that it doesn’t shift when I applique.  I then used my sewing machine to zig zag stitch the chalkboard fabric onto the accent fabric.

5.  Because my handwriting on small surfaces with chalk is so horrendous, I used a white ChalkInk marker to write out the labels.  ChalkInk is a new-to-me product, but I know lots of you already have it and love it.  It looks like chalk when it’s dry, and you can wipe it off with a wet cloth when you need to, just like chalk.  I’m so glad to have these markers in my craft room now.

6.  I simply pinned the tags to the lining of my baskets and used a bit of 50-cent a spool ribbon (I used white and cream) to tie little bows to hide the safety pins.

I’m so pleased with how the tags turned out, and they were SO easy to create!  I love that they are fabric, too, and I didn’t have to go through the hassle of actually needing to use messy chalkboard paint.  Chalkboard fabric is definitely a no-fuss, no-mess solution.

(This is as much of a nursery sneak peak that you are getting for now.  I promise that it’s almost done.  I just need another weekend to tie together a few loose ends, so hopefully I can have a big reveal for you next week!  Although it doesn’t seem like it from my blog posts, I have been so busy working on it for months now.)

What would you create with chalkboard fabric?  And are you running to the fabric store to pick up some today?

********************

We have TWO winners from last week’s Fantsy Facade giveaway!  The first person to win a $100 gift certificate to Fantsy Facade is commenter #29, Michelle B in Florida!

The second winner is commenter #26, Kay H in AZ!

Congrats to both of our winners!  I’ll be in contact with you soon to get you connected with Susan.

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About Makely

Lindsay Ballard is a former college mascot turned political geek turned roller derby playing, DIY fanatic.

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.


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