One of the first inspirations I had for Emma’s nursery came in the form of vintage bedskirts I found at Austin’s City Wide Garage Sale.  I’ve talked about this show before, and you may remember that it’s more a vintage and collectible show than it is a “garage sale.”  In the piles and piles of old linens that one vendor always carries, I found white bedskirts edged in lace and crocheting for $4 each, so I bought four of them to turn into Emma’s new cribskirt.

I also used some pre-made curtains that I cut up for the brown layer in between the white (the curtains were cheaper to buy than it would have been for me to buy the actual fabric yardage).

I needed to piece together the bedskirts and curtain panels to fit the crib.  I simply made three panels in each fabric (one for the front and two for the sides – I didn’t worry about the back of the crib, since it would never be seen) that were about 2.5 times the length of each side.   I made the height of each panel exactly the same – 19 inches.  It was enough for a few inches to tuck under the mattress and the rest to hang down and just touch the floor.

After I had my panels pieced together and hemmed, I ran them through the ruffler on my sewing machine.  If you don’t have a ruffler and have some extra money lying around, you should TOTALLY get one.  I used to pull all of my ruffles by hand, but that was just too much work for the length of each of these panels.  I would marry my ruffler if could.  Anyway, after the fabric panels were ruffled, there were just about the length I needed for each side of the crib.

I found this genius idea to make your skirt panels with ties on the top so that you can just tie them onto the mattress frame for easy adjustment.  I love this idea, because there’s nothing I hate more than a cribskirt that drags on the floor once you have to lower the mattress when the baby gets bigger.  Zack’s cribskirt was too long once we had to lower his mattress, and it drove me crazy!

But, here’s where I got completely lazy.  Instead of sewing all of those little ties onto the top of my panels, I used safety pins and ribbon that I already had on hand.  I just pinned a length of ribbon onto the panels and tied it to the mattress frame.  I started with my bottom layer, and tied it so that the bottom of the skirt just touched the floor.

Then, I took the 2nd layer (my brown layer) and did the same thing, tying it a little higher so that the lace from the bottom layer just peeked through.

It looks like SUCH a mess, I know, but you can’t see that when the mattress is in the crib.

Then, I did the same thing with the top layer, again tying it a little higher so that the brown layer just peeked out from the bottom.

Now, I have a tiered, ruffled cribskirt that can be easily adjusted and took very little time to put together.  Go me!

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I’m very excited to announce the winner of the Xpresiv Designs vinyl giveaway!  Our winning commenter was #52, Megan from Motherhood Unedited, who said:

Today’s Moments are Tomorrow’s Memories and always remember to kiss me goodnight for my sons room.

Awww, so sweet!  Congrats, Megan!

In case you aren’t Megan, Aimee is offering a fabulous 20% off code for Living With Lindsay readers!  Just enter LINDSAY at checkout for your discount.  Thanks, Aimee!

My very favorite part of Emma’s nursery is the beautiful bed crown above her crib.  The curtains are soft and flowy underneath a vintage mantel piece.

As luxurious as it looks, the bed crown as incredibly easy to put together.  I’ll show you how to put one together yourself using a found item and wood scraps you probably have cluttering your garage.  I’m sure there are many more ways to put a bed crown together, but we “over-engineered” this one since it will be hanging over the crib.

Materials needed:

• Found wooden item to use as the front of the bed crown – mine is a vintage mantel, but you can use any wooden piece or create your own using a 2×4 and molding from the home improvement store
• Scrap 2×4 wood – you’ll want 2 pieces as long as the bed crown front and four pieces as long as the distance you want it to project from the wall
• Dowel as long as the bed crown front
• Drill
• L-Brackets
• Screws
• Paint

Directions

I won’t be using measurements here since every project will be different depending on what you use for your front and how far you want your crown to project from the wall.

1.  Using the L-Brackets, screw two of the short pieces of wood to one of the longer pieces of wood, making a ‘U’ shape.  Attach several more L-Brackets along the top of the longer piece.  Drill a hole on each of the small pieces just large enough for your dowel to slip through.

Close-up of one corner:

2.  To better secure the sides holding the dowel, put a few screws through the back of the long piece into the short pieces.

3.  If necessary, paint the bed crown front piece and the extra pieces of short wood in the color of your choice.  My mantel was already an antique white, so I just spray painted the short pieces in a similar color.

4.  Remove the dowel for now.  Using the L-shaped brackets that you installed on the top of the long piece of wood, screw the ‘U’-shaped piece onto the back of your bed crown front.

5.  Screw the two short pieces you still have left over the two short pieces of the ‘U’-shaped piece.  This will serve as a plate that keeps the dowel from sliding around.  When you want to remove or add curtains to your dowel, you just unscrew these pieces and the dowel slides right out.

6.  Screw your last piece of long wood (that should be slightly smaller than the length of the bed crown) onto your wall where you would like to hang your bed crown.  PLEASE, make sure you are screwing through the studs.  Let me repeat – screw this through the studs.  Do not just use drywall anchors, okay?

7.  Now, slide your bed crown over the piece of wood on your wall like a slipcover.  Get up on the top of your ladder (not the top-top, but you know what I’m saying), and screw the top of the ‘U’-shaped piece to the piece of wood on the wall.  Put in *at least* 4 screws so that it’s nice and anchored.

8.  All you have to do now is add your curtains!  I made simple rod-pocket panels out of the fabric I selected for the nursery, but you could just as easily use store-bought panels or sheers.  Unscrew the plates, slide the dowel into the holes, put your curtains on the rod and screw the plates back onto the bedcrown.

That’s it!  This project makes such a tremendous impact for the time spent putting it together – my kind of project!

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Time’s running out!  There are only 3 more days to order from my online Stella & Dot trunk show.  With a $50 purchase, you are entered to win a Soiree bracelet of your choice (a $29 value).  Right now, you have a really great chance of being that winner since we don’t have a ton of orders over $50 yet.  Go ahead and start thinking about birthdays and holidays, shop the sale page, and win something gorgeous for yourself!  They even have a darling selection of Mommy & Me jewelry.

To order and be entered to win, please visit Abby’s Stella & Dot website and place your order, entering my name (Lindsay Ballard) as your hostess.  Let me know if you have any questions!