Claire's Room featured on Ohdeedoh

After spending most of my pregnancy bookmarking and swooning over all the remarkable nurseries featured on Ohdeedoh, suffice it to say that I was more than humbled when they found our nursery on flickr and deemed it worthy to feature.

Check out their post: Claire Elizabeth's Cozy Nursery in a Contemporary Loft Nursery Tour

I hope our nursery helps inspire future parents-to-be as so many others did for me.

Vintage Changing Table

Claire has a little piece of my childhood in her nursery... my 30 year-old changing table.

This is the before, circa 1981:

I was so excited that the print on the table actually coordinated with the bright, citrusy colors and jungle animals that pop up in our nursery.

My Dad was nice enough to paint the wicker white for us, to match our motif, and here are the results:

She is not a fan of diaper changes, but she sure likes hanging out on there once the diaper change is done, so I thinks it's a hit :-)

"Real Room Tour" @ buymodernbaby

Esther, of buymodernbaby.com, stumbled across my nursery photos on Flickr and asked to feature them as a "Real Room Tour" on her blog. Of course I obliged, and I feel humbled & delighted that someone enjoys the room as much as us. Hopefully it can provide some inspiration to others beginning to build their nursery.

Check out her post featuring our nursery today: Real Room Tour: Gray with Bright Citrus in Chicago

Thanks again for the feature, Esther!

Our Baby's Nursery

I thought I'd reveal our nursery now that it is mostly complete! Good thing, since we are only 3 weeks away for our due date.

It came out pretty close to the original mood board I put together and overall I am very happy with the look. I can't wait until our little baby boy or baby girl gets to come home to his or her new space. I also uploaded it to Project Nursery if you want to check it out there.

I also want to share the sources for all of the great "stuff" to help provide ideas to others:

Furniture:

• overlapping-squares daybed, from west elm
• Gulliver crib in white, from Ikea
• Hemnes 3 drawer chest, from Ikea
• Nurseryworks Sleepytime Rocker, from Bobby Berk Home (free freight shipping!)
• Tall White Bookcase, from Target
• Wall Book Bin, from The Land of Nod

Accessories:

• Abacus, from cb2
• Woven Veneer Pendant, from west elm
• Dream Menagerie Rug, from anthropologie
• Jungle Friends-Bamboo Mobile, from petitcollage, etsy seller
• Hand Quilted Velvet Pillow in Orange, Round Pintuck Pillow in Yellow, Velvet Ruffle Pillow in Green & Hand Quilted Velvet Pillow in Turquoise, from urban outfitters
• owl lantern in light blue, from urban outfitters
• orange changing pad cover, from The Land of Nod
• Cutie Bear Print, from Delicious Design League
• Zebra & Giraffe Print, from OrangeWillow, etsy seller
• Illinois & Missouri Print, from qadesign, etsy seller
• Lime Green Ceramic Piglet Bank, from crate & barrel outlet
• brightly colored shelf bins, from The Land of Nod
• Aqua Glass Zinnia Knobs, anthropologie

And a Few Vintage Finds:

• Retro wicker changing table-circa 1981, mine from childhood. (Was brown, but my dad painted it white.)
• Aqua Mirror (found at the vintage bazaar)
• Green Lamp (found 5 years ago at a vintage shop in Chicago. New shade still being made!)

Grey Wall Color:

• Benjamin Moore Aura AF-700 "Storm"

Phew...so there you have it: Our Baby's Nursery! I searched online for months for nursery ideas, so I hope this helps someone else on their nursery decorating journey.

The Look for Less: Orange Side Table

To top off the nursery we needed something small near the rocker on which to set a book, a glass of water, etc.

I had been eyeing this Martini Side Table from West Elm for a while, but I wasn't sure about the $129 price tag:

After a little searching, I found this Sally Stool in melon, online at Target for only $49.99. I think it seems a little more "kid friendly" as well:

Better, yet I added it to the baby registry and used my 10% registry completion coupon to order it, which included free shipping. I hope it works out when it arrives!

Orange Fizz & Other Stuff

The nursery is almost complete so I hope to take photos shortly of the finished product.

One of the last finishing touches will be this awesome orange fizz clock coming my way from chiasso... at a deep discount from my sister since she works their as a graphic designer ;-)

And last night we added this cute, little white wall book bin from the Land of Nod, which we hung by the rocker for easy reading access:

And a few of these small, strapping storage bins in white, green and orange:

We're almost there!

No-Sew Fabric Project

I love fabrics. One small problem, I don't know how to sew. But I won't let that stop me :-)

Here's a sneak peak of something I'm working on for the nursery...

Six "Fat Quarters" of brightly covered fabric:

Teamed with Six Embroidery Hoops...ta-da!:

I'm thinking that these *might* one day contain the letters of our little one's name.

Although we are not sharing names before birth (mostly because we don't plan to make a final decision until then!) I do have a little clue. Right now our top boy and top girl name both contain 6 letters and they share 4 of the same letters.

Any guesses?

Snowbird Nesting

I took advantage of my first adult "snow day" and went into total nesting mode.

I'm on my fourth load of baby laundry, and as soon as the Internet started working again I also set out to search online for some finishing touches for the nursery.

We were in need of some throw pillows to coordinate with our color scheme that will line the West Elm Daybed in the room. I came across some great, brightly colored options at Urban Outfitters that fit the bill quite nicely:

I chose two of each of the pillows in the photo above: a. Hand Quilted Velvet Pillow in Orange, b. Round Pintuck Pillow in Yellow, c. Velvet Ruffle Pillow in Green and d. Hand Quilted Velvet Pillow in Turquoise.

And of course, I rarely like to pay retail price so I searched for a promo code. Right now if you spend $75 you get $15 off using promo code: "LOVEIT". Also, I got free shipping since my order was over $150. LOVE IT!

Mood Board Monday - Gender Neutral Nursery

This week, I thought I'd bring back Mood Board Monday!

It's really for selfish reasons, because I have been compiling images of everything we plan to include in our nursery and I wanted to see it all in one place before the room was actually put together.

We are planning a gender-neutral nursery since the sex of our baby will be a surprise. I knew I wanted light grey walls (Sherwin-Williams "March Wind"), white furniture and pops of bright, modern colors (read: no pastels) such as vibrant orange & aqua. The crib and dresser are purchased but it was the rug that we just bought which was the inspiration for the rest of the color palette.



Here are the sources of my inspiration...

Top (from left to right):
1. Abacus, from cb2
2. Dream Menagerie Rug, from anthropologie
3. Jungle Friends-Bamboo Mobile, from petitcollage, etsy seller
4. gion organic bed linens, from cb24.
5.overlapping-squares daybed, from west elm
6. owl lantern in light blue, from urban outfitters
7. orange changing pad cover, from The Land of Nod
8. Hemnes 3 drawer chest, from Ikea
9. Monte Alto Rocker in charcoal, from Monte Designs
10. Cutie Bear Print, from Delicious Design League
11. Gulliver crib in white, from Ikea

Enjoy!

Snug as a Jungle Creature in a Rug

We ordered this rug last night for the nursery and I can't wait to get it in my hands to see if it's as adorable in person as it is online.

Anthropologie Dream Menagerie Rug (5 ft Round) - $298

And some close-ups of the cute creatures:

Renegade Craft Fair Finds

This weekend is the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale in Chicago, so my sisters and I made our way over to Pulaski Park Fieldhouse this afternoon to see what we could find.

There were so many talented artists there, over 150, including some Chicago staples such as Circa Ceramics and Ork Posters. I noshed on a delicious vanilla cupcake from TipsyCake and also bought a few prints from a new favorite, Delicious Design League.

This print will be a Christmas gift for my sister, Jessica, the newest Chicago resident in the family. It's called "Chicago Style - 1893":

It will look cute in her kitchen next to her "St. Louis Style" print by Dan Zettwoch, which she also already owns.

The next print is one which I purchased for the nursery and is called "Cutie Bear". I think it lives up to its name:

Each 18x24 print was priced at only $20 and contains 3 colors/screens. And best of all, if you choose to frame the prints, they are a standard size so no custom framing costs will be incurred. What a great deal! Check out what other prints the Delicious Design League has for sale on their online store. All in all we had a successful trip to the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale.

Next weekend is also the Bucktown Holiday ArtShow.

It is held at Holstein Park Fieldhouse, 2200 N. Oakley Ave. in Chicago on December 11-12, 2010 from noon to 5pm each day. I hope to make it there as well and will report back with any purchases :-)

$5 Black Friday Find

As is tradition with the ladies in my family, we met bright and early the morning after Thanksgiving to go Black Friday shopping. Our meeting spot at the mall was outside Urban Outfitters so I took a peak inside with my sister as I waited for my aunts and cousins to arrive. Little did I know that I would find my best bargain of the day.

This Light Blue Ceramic Owl Lantern:

Original Price: $28.00

Sale Price: $9.99

AND THEN I learned that all sale merchandise that morning was an extra 50% off, making this a whopping... $5.00!

I think it will make an adorable little nightlight for our gender neutral nursery.