The Homemade Nursery: The Final Reveal

As you may remember from my post about my Nurture Hope quilt, I am quite fortunate to be pregnant.  My husband and I had been holding off on doing much in terms of preparation for the baby until we took holidays back in November.  Then we got started and have been plugging away every since.  I'm going to share individual projects we embarked on over the past few months, and then a final blog post with the big reveal of the whole room. 

The time has come for the Final Reveal of the baby's Homemade Nursery!  I am just in love with this space, and if the baby doesn't like it, I will quite gladly switch rooms!  So, let's take a tour, shall we?

Since we don't know the gender of the baby, we decided to keep the room fairly neutral.  As usual, I took to Pinterest to help generate ideas, and eventually we settled on a mountain forest theme, mostly because I saw an excellent geometric mountain mural I wanted to attempt.  This was our first project: paint the room, and try to become artists.  I must say that I am pleased with how it turned out!

You can see a mobile hanging above the crib; I made this with feathers from my friend's chicken coop (don't worry, I cleaned them), and shellacked oak branches foraged from the park near my house.  

On the wooden crib, you can see a collection of pillows: a mountain pillow that I made, and a gorgeous woodblock printed bear that was made-to-order from Laura Frisk's etsy shop especially for this baby. 

Laura hand carves the stamp from wood, and uses it to print the bear on the fabric..... simply amazing!

 There is also a sheepskin, the knitted leaf blankie I made, and an oh-so-perfect birch swaddler from Little Unicorn.  

So many great textures in this picture

Next, we have a nice little rocking chair area.  The rocking chair was a gift from my dad to my mom from when they were early in their relationship - the same rocking chair that she used to rock me and my sisters when we were babies.  I used a nice, thick sheepskin to cover the back, and replaced the floral seat cushion with a new oatmeal coloured one.

  I found the most perfect footstool handcarved from a teak tree stump.  

Beside the rocking chair is a side table that my dad had made many years ago from my grandparent's old dining room table.  On top, a lamp and a polar bear coin bank from my sister.  

Above, is a mountain shelf that my dad made with a few woodland knicknacks, including a tiny deer, a pinecone, a potted foraged pine branch, and an owl.  

I finished the shelf with beeswax.... it leaves the wood looking natural, but with a nice satin seal

Behind the rocking chair is a growth chart a friend made for the baby: she included a fox and a Charley Harper inspired pair of birds.

On the other side of the rocking chair are the bookshelves.  

We hung IKEA photo ledges on the wall to show off the covers of the children's books.  The illustrations of picture books are so beautiful and engaging, so this is the perfect way to store and display them. 

 Above the books are the antlers, in a featured place (due to their sheer size!).  

Looking up, the wood light fixture.  It took a little searching to find lighting that suited the room.  I wanted something made from natural materials, as opposed to a typical silver and glass fixture.  

Next is the dresser area.  

This refinished dresser really reflects the feel of the room.  It is modernized vintage, natural materials, and homemade(ish).  

Inside, I made drawer dividers to help keep baby's tiny things organized.  

Above the dresser I curated a gallery wall featuring art from local artists, myself, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, and some of my favourite artists (Including Dani of Begoodnatured, Jahna Vashti, Helen Ahpornsiri, Charley Harper, Teagan White and more).  I selected art that reflected a forest theme, so animals and trees that would be found in a mountain forest. 

Including: Charley Harper, local artists, Helen Ahpornsiri.  The diamond is a suncatcher I backed with fabric.

Including: Jahna Vashti, Teagan White, Marisa Redondo

Including: Teagan White, me, local artists, my sister-in-law, my mother-in-law, Dani from Begoodnatured 

The details in Dani from Begoodnatured's work are phenomenal.  No photo does her work justice.  The texture, the colours, the details.  I (and the baby) am so lucky to have one of her pieces on this wall.  

The nest and birds are part of a decoration from my bridal shower, and the "egg" is a stone that my dad found years ago in a stream that was naturally polished to almost perfectly round.  I have had it since childhood, and have always adored it. 

We splurged and bought an autheticated Charley Harper print.  Lucky baby.

This fabulous cross stitch owl is the work of my mother-in-law.  

My vision for the room was a lot about the "feel".  I really wanted to focus on bringing together lots of natural elements and textures, like fur, feathers, wood, and wool.  I wanted to keep the colour palette pretty neutral as well.  I love the whole vibe of the room; it is very cozy and I am very excited to share the room with the baby.  I asked my husband if he thinks the baby will like the room, and he says the baby won't notice until he/she is older, and by then they will want a Spiderman or Frozen themed room.  I told him that the baby will have to move to a new room then, because I love this one so much! 

So baby, we are ready for you!  We can't wait to welcome you into this world!

Bronson loves the room, too, and is very excited about his new baby,

Other Homemade Nursery baby-related craftiness:

One-of-a-kind Diaper Bag
Baby Hat (with free knit pattern)
Baby Mittens (with another free knit pattern)
Baby quilts: Alternate Universe MALE
Baby quilts: Alternate Universe FEMALE
So much Small Sewing

The Homemade Nursery: So much small sewing

As you may remember from my post about my Nurture Hope quilt, I am quite fortunate to be pregnant.  My husband and I had been holding off on doing much in terms of preparation for the baby until we took holidays back in November.  Then we got started and have been plugging away every since.  I'm going to share individual projects we embarked on over the past few months, and then a final blog post with the big reveal of the whole room. 

In between other larger projects, I have been working on a few small sewing projects for baby as well.  

I made a pair of newborn baby hats using my serger.  This was the first time I threaded and used it, so I am happy that it all went well!  I found this fabric at Hobby Lobby a few years ago, and it is just perfect for the baby.  

I also made a good stack of burp cloths out of some flannel I had bought when we first started trying to get pregnant.  It is such nice, soft flannel, and the prints are so cute!

I made a mountain shaped pillow to decorate the nursery.  This I made from some scraps of flannel and fleece.  I think the tall peak looks a little like a champagne bottle, but it gets the idea across.  

I used my serger to make myself a little something, too.  Nursing pads are apparently an essential, and I was interested in trying wool pads, as I have read that they are very absorbant, don't get smelly like disposable or cotton reusable pads, and are nice and soothing to sore nipples, as they can be lanolized.  I purchased a half yard of wool interlock, felted it, and using a CD as a template, cut out many circles.  I made a triple layer set for at night, three double layer sets (two plain and one with darts for better contouring), and a single layer set for light times.  

I had enough left over to make a couple sets for a friend, too! 

I have plans to make some toys, bibs, and a doll later on, but I will wait until baby arrives for those.  I would like to use more gendered fabrics for those, so I will need to know the gender!  I will share those as they get made, but it may not be for a little while.  Not sure how much sewing time I will be able to get at first!

The Homemade Nursery: Alternate Universe FEMALE

As you may remember from my post about my Nurture Hope quilt, I am quite fortunate to be pregnant.  My husband and I had been holding off on doing much in terms of preparation for the baby until we took holidays back in November.  Then we got started and have been plugging away every since.  I'm going to share individual projects we embarked on over the past few months, and then a final blog post with the big reveal of the whole room. 

You've seen the Boy quilt, now let's talk girl quilt!  Like I said before, I wanted to have similar design elements for both quilts, just different actual pattern and fabric (and quilting, because I find that the pattern influences the quilting).  Selecting the fabric was easy.... Heather Ross had recently released a new fabric collection called Tiger Lily! With the cats, ballerinas and sweet florals, this is a perfect line for a girly quilt.  

Selecting the pattern took a little more thought.  I wanted something that can utilize a white background, and was similar to the pluses of the boy quilt, but different enough that the two quilts weren't just copies of each other.  On Instagram, I was inspired to make wonky star blocks with the fabrics to combine into the quilt.  I joined a quilt-along that required making one block a week until finished, and it was a great way to stay on track.  

I backed this quilt with a pink rosette minky, and bound it with white satin blanket binding.  I quilted it using a little echo quilting around each star, and stitching along either side of the seam lines between blocks.  

I am very excited to see which of the quilts gets put into use.  Not very long to wait!!

Boy quilt or girl quilt..... which will it be?!

The Homemade Nursery: Alternate Universe MALE

As you may remember from my post about my Nurture Hope quilt, I am quite fortunate to be pregnant.  My husband and I had been holding off on doing much in terms of preparation for the baby until we took holidays back in November.  Then we got started and have been plugging away every since.  I'm going to share individual projects we embarked on over the past few months, and then a final blog post with the big reveal of the whole room. 

My husband and I made the decision to resist the temptation to find out the gender beforehand, and keep that for a birthday surprise.  There are so few actual surprises as an adult, so it is really nice to preserve that.  Also, it is so delightfully torturous having to wait!  Another part of the reason we like this plan is because it is fun for kids to imagine how their lives would be different had they been born in the alternate universe of the other gender.  I always found it so fascinating to imaging what my life would have been like had I been born a boy name Daniel (my parent's choice of boy name for me).  

Another part of the fun of not knowing, is that I decided to make two different quilts, a boy quilt and a girl quilt.  They are similar in their elements, but different designs, fabrics, and quilting.  

First I made the boy quilt.  I had recently purchased the Natural History collection from Lizzy House (those dinos!), and knew it would be perfect for a little boy.  Bugs, gems, dinosaurs, constellations, whales?!  What's not to love?

I took my time deciding just what I wanted to do with the fabrics, but was eventually inspired to make a plus quilt using the blue and green colourways from the fabric line.  This was a very easy, straightforward pattern to follow and make, and I think the results are very nice.  I used a white background for the pluses to allow the fabrics to really be featured.  

I backed the quilt with a soft rosette minky in blue, and quilted with a diagonal checkerboard pattern.  I bound the quilt with satin blanket binding because it is my husband's favourite, as he had a blankie as a child with the same binding.  

Up next: the girl quilt!  For now, the quilts are stacked in the closet, just waiting to see which one will be put to use!