Zane's Nursery Tour

Yesterday I had my 37 week appointment. I am currently dilated 3cm and the doctor seems to be very pleased with my progression. My next appointment is on Tuesday but my doctor isn't sure that I will make it to that appointment. It's crazy to think that our little man could be here in a week!

Since I am now officially on leave from work I've had some time to really start getting ready for Zane's arrival. Zac and I have reviewed over our baby registries to see what we really need to pick up before our little man shows up, I've packed up our hospital bag and Zane's diaper bag so that we can leave to the hospital in a timely manner, and we've been getting the final details of Zane's room in order.

Now that we know we could be bringing home our little guy any day now, we thought that it was important that he have a space when he gets here. We still have a few things to get in order but for the most part his room is ready for his arrival. Zac and I are proud of the work that has gone into the nursery. It is easily our favorite room in the house.

So without further ado, I'll take you on a little video tour of the room:

As mentioned in the video tour, Zane's room used to be our office. Our home has gone through a bunch of changes since we bought the house over three years ago. Zane's room is one that we are particularly proud of. When we first moved in, the closet in the room was standard with two sliding doors, the room had no paint on the walls, and for the most part there was really nothing special to look at.

When we decided to make this room our office, the closet doors were the first things to go. Zac is quite handy, and in place of the closet he built a few shelves for a built in library that completed the office quite nicely.

Once we found out about Zane and decided that we were going to change the office into his room, we got to work on emptying the library shelves to make room for all of Zane's belongings. (Our books are currently boxed up in tHe garage until we figure out a more permanent storage solution.) We also got to work on finding a new paint color for the walls. We had made the decision that whether boy or girl were on the way we wanted the room to be painted a light shade of gray. When we chose the paint color for our downstairs it took seven samples of paint before we finally chose the color we thought was perfect for the space. Thankfully, it only took 4 shades of gray before we found the perfect one. (Filtered Shade by Valspar in case you're wondering.) The inside of the bookshelf got a few coats of a teal blue shade for a pop of color.

We love how it all came together. We hope that if the former owners could take a peek into what we've done to their old home that they'd be happy with what they see.

One of our favorites from our maternity photoshoot is framed and on display on the second library shelf. Zane has very silly parents.

I have a love for white ceramic animals and a soft spot for owl decor so this little white owl piggy bank from one of my co-workers was the perfect addition to Zane's nursery.

When planning the decor for Zane's room, we knew that we didn't want the space to be overly cutesy and baby. Yes, we know that it is indeed a baby's room and he'll only be a baby for a short time so we should probably embrace it while we can. Nevertheless, we really wanted to create a space that our little man could grow into. After all, who wants to continue to redecorate a bedroom every year? We also wanted the space to go along with other areas in our house.

We decided that rather than base the decor of the room around characters or a theme we would focus on a few colors and prints that we really loved. Before we even knew the gender of our baby, we knew that we wanted to incorporate yellow into the mix as well as chevron prints. Later, when we really started to work on the nursery we opted to add various shades of blue.  

The gallery wall above Zane's crib is one of my favorite areas of the room. The colorful frames and canvases really pop against the gray wall. I picked up the small canvases at a craft store and used painter's tape and scrapbook stickers to create the designs on them. The wooden frames were all Goodwill finds that I painted with acrylic craft paint. In the bottom right corner is a yellow lattice frame that was a birthday gift from Amy (one of my bridesmaids).

Though we thought that decorating the room in a theme of colors and prints was a great idea, it was much easier said than done. After going to several stores and looking online we were disappointed in the selection of crib bedding that we found. The majority of bedding we came across had some sort of animal characters or cartoons on them. Most of the prints we found were listed under "gender neutral" and were either not in the colors we were looking for or were not the cutest of prints.

We were close to giving up the search and heading to Joann's Fabrics to to see what they had available to make the bedding ourselves when we stumbled upon this bedding at Target:

It was PERFECT! From the colors to the chevron pattern, this bedding was exactly what we were looking for. We picked up a twin sized comforter for only $20 (find it here) and Zac was able to cut it down to size to fit Zane's crib. Target also had a gray and white chevron print fitted crib sheet that we picked up as well. We couldn't be happier with the end result.

Earlier in the year we had found this adorable owl pillow while shopping at Target. It coordinates so well with the bedding and looks adorable in the room.

At 32 weeks Zac and I had maternity pictures taken by our wedding photographer, Tess from Van's Studio. We had a lot of fun with Tess and loved how the photos turned out. A few of the prints from that photoshoot are now hung on a second gallery wall in Zane's room next to a wooden 'Z' I painted yellow and a third canvas I painted with stripes in various shades of blue.  

The mirror hanging above the dresser came from Zac's grandparents' home. We gave it a few coats of yellow paint and love the bright pop of color it adds to the space. With the white dresser and the gray wall, that side of the room really needed something with a little more interest. We think the mirror fit the bill.

The chair in Zane's room is by far the most comfortable thing I've ever sat in. I sat in it for just a few moments in the store and was almost asleep. Zac and I were extremely grateful when his parents gifted it to us. It's a fantastic addition to the space and I can't wait to rock our little man to sleep in it.

Getting the chair home was a fun experience. Zac and I don't live very far from the store so getting delivery seemed a little silly. Thankfully the chair is pretty light weight and Zac was able to strap it to the top of the car to get it home. (The ottoman got to ride in the backseat.) Zac had me stay in the car while he and the sales associate brought it out from the store. From the look on the employee's face I knew that he wasn't expecting to see a Jetta as our mode of transportation when he brought out the chair. On the short drive home I caught a glimpse of the car's shadow and giggled. It wasn't until we got home that I saw why other driver's were staring at our car. It might have looked a little silly but we got the chair home safe and sound.

Behind the chair as it is now in the room, you'll notice a tall ribbon mobile. This was made from ribbon that was used as a backdrop for the candy buffet/dessert table at our baby shower.(More details on the shower later.) We loved the colors of the ribbon as well as the polka dots, and we couldn't part with project. We glued the banner of ribbon to a quilting hoop and attached it to a hook in the ceiling.

All of Zane's big gear is currently being stored in his soon to be playroom. This space is one of the main reasons we chose to turn the library into his bedroom.

As mentioned in the video, this space used to be a walk in closet until the previous owners bumped out the space. There was one large extended family that lived here before us. The grandparents occupied the master bedroom while their daughter and her husband had what is now Zane's nursery as their bedroom. They had a little girl whose room is now our guest bedroom. They also had a baby boy and this bumped out space was his nursery. As you saw in the video, they added another closet to the space which is why Zac and I didn't mind losing the closet space in the main part of the bedroom when he turned it into a library space. We look forward to transforming this space into a fun playroom for Zane when he gets older.

In the video you probably noticed two bags sitting on the floor in the playroom. One is my hospital bag and the other is my diaper bag. They are packed and ready for the trip to the hospital. If people are interested, I'll create a post about what I packed in these bags.

So there you have it. Our little man has a bedroom. We're excited to finally bring him home. It won't be long now.

Our House

Two years ago today, Zac and I got the keys to our first house. For three years we had been living in an apartment two blocks away from what would soon be our home. When we first started the search for a house we had no idea that it we would be lucky enough to find the perfect one so close by.

Since Zac and I moved in, we've made some changes; things that have made us love our home even more.

One of the first changes we made was to the coat closet in the foyer. When we moved in, it had an accordian style door, two shelves, and a hanging rod. That particular wall was painted green.

I saw a picture online of a mudroom style closet that I loved, so Zac and I started to revamp the coat closet. Zac removed the door, the shelves, and the hanging rod. We painted the inside of the closet a light shade of green while the walls got a few coats of a warm tan color. Zac built a padded bench to take the place of the lower shelf. We purchased three pillows and Zac made three more to be placed on the bench. After adding six hooks along a strip of trim, we finished the closet by adding a wall decal that reads "Breathe, you're home."

Another closet change took place in our office. We decided to transform our third bedroom into an office and since the room had more than one closet we decided to turn one of them into a large built in book case. This is what it looked like when we first moved in:

And this is how it looked after we removed the two sliding doors and added four shelves:

When we first moved in and people saw pictures of our formal sitting room, they thought that we were crazy. It was true, the room needed a lot of help. For starters each wall was a different color. The longest wall was tan, the smalled wall was red, and the third wall was a medium shade of green. What really threw the look of the room off was the dark black color of the fireplace.

Zac and I saw the potential and got to work picking out paint colors to fix the problem. We ended up with a rich, warm tan color. With all the walls sharing a color the room already felt bigger and more inviting. The room really lightened up with the final coats of white paint on the fireplace. After the wedding we plan to finish furnishing our larger living room space and this smaller room will become a sitting room.

The biggest change came in our kitchen. When we moved in the kitchen felt a little cave-ish. The stain on the cabinets was dark and the walls were painted a dark red. The only touches of light color were the white appliances.

You'll see from the photo below that we painted all of our cabinets white to lighten up the space. We also removed the cabinet hanging above the counter. Though we eliminated four cabinet spaces to place dishes it was well worth it to open up the room and create a nice flow from kitchen to informal dining and living spaces. (We repurposed the kitchen cabinets by hanging them in the garage and giving Zac more space to organize his tools.)

From a different point of view you can really see how that red color (and the green color on the larger living room wall in the background). The contrast of the red against the brown tile and dark cabinets really made the space feel small.

Though we don't love the brown tile countertops (which can also be found in all of our bathrooms) it hasn't been high on our priority list of changes to make. Eventually we'll change it out but for now we're working to highlight what we've got. Our new paint color really works with it rather than against it. The tan color of our walls compliments the tile well which makes the tile stick out less.

In the picture above you can see that the trim around the lighting is white. When we first moved in the trim was the same dark stain as the cabinets. (You can kind of see it in the photo below.) We gave the ceiling a fresh coat of white paint and then decided to paint the trim white, too. It did a lot to make the lighting less of a focal point and it no longer felt like the ceiling was going to close in on us.

Compared to the photo above our new kitchen (pictured below) is a much lighter, brighter space. That's not just because the photo is taken in the day with the blinds open. (I realize it's not the fairest of comparisons.)

The white paint on our fireplace, trim, kitchen ceiling, and cabinets have all done wonders to lighten up our space. We're really happy with the changes that we've made to the house, especially to the kitchen.

These pictures were all taken last summer. Since then we've made several more changes to the house including changing out the light fixtures downstairs, hanging up family pictures, and other decor changes. One of these days I'll have to post a video tour to show all of the fun things we've done.