nursery | This Old Colonial Home

August 6, 2015
by This Old Colonial Home 1 Comment

DIY Nursery Decor

In my last post (see it here) I showed you the finished nursery.Now I want to share with you some of the DIY decor I incorporated.

Let me start with these book shelves.After perusing Pinterest for some inspiration, I decided to buy two wooden crates, which you can pick up from any craft store.

Using leftover paint from previous projects, I painted the inside of each crate. One a mint green and one a dark blue.After letting that dry, I then painted the outside white. This turned out to be a pretty tedious task. It took several coats to get the look I wanted. I also didn’t really tape anything off so I did have some bleeding, which I later touched up.If I were to do this again I would either prime it first or just buy the crate in white instead of natural wood to save time.

Since I stink at hanging things, my husband took the lead and used two anchor screws to attach each crate to the wall.

I then filled the now shelves with children’s books and toys. I love how this little nook turned out!Next, I want to share this gallery wall. (I’m such a sucker for gallery walls!)It all started at my shower where we had guests write a wish for the baby on little paper circles.Later on I laid out all the circles on a piece of 11×14 paper since I knew that was the frame size I wanted to use. But since that’s not a standard paper size I just cut down a piece of 11×17 paper. The idea was to make the circles look like balloons being held by an elephant, which I simply printed from Google Images.Once I had the layout I wanted, I glued each circle to the paper and drew lines to look like strings.After I found the perfect frame, I used this piece as the center and picked up a few more frames to surround it. Do you know what I used to fill those frames? One is my shower invitation and the rest are simply cut up gift bags!Talk about a simple, easy and affordable project! But also one that has so much meaning!

August 3, 2015
by This Old Colonial Home 6 Comments

A Sweet Makeover

Well I can’t show you the bathroom just yet, but I can show you the nursery! I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to before the baby arrived, but luckily he or she is still cooking … giving us a little more time to get things done (and putting my mind at ease)!

You may recall this is how the room used to look – reserved for guests.And here’s how it looks now – reserved for our little one. 🙂Since we don’t know what we’re having (aside from a baby of course), we went with gender neutral colors of gray, yellow, and white.

My husband took on the task of painting the room since I really shouldn’t be around the fumes. We chose the color Passive from HGTV Home by Sherwin Williams.

I wanted a little something extra in the room, so on one of the walls Jamie added the white stripes. (No, not the band!)I love how it turned out! Simple and subtle, but so cute!Now, let me take you around the room to show you some of the other details.

Here’s a little shelf above the crib that not only holds our video monitor, but also has faux flowers from my baby shower (see more about that here), a cute little giraffe from my friend who threw the shower, and a Beatrix Potter puzzle frame that came directly from the author’s hometown in England!This, of course, is the dresser/changing area. What I love most about it is the colorful gallery wall. But I’ll have more on that in my next post 😉Did you notice the rug?! We had a few issues purchasing it from Target. It kept going out of stock and then we had some shipping issues, but I’m so glad it ended up working out. It’s so soft and adds such coziness to the room. Those stars are just too cute!And this corner of the room might just be my favorite spot. I can already envision all the feeding, rocking, and reading to Baby M that will happen here!I’m so glad this room finally came together. As a mom-to-be, it was important to me to be able to create a space where our little one will grow, have dreams, play, imagine, and make memories!

May 18, 2015
by This Old Colonial Home 4 Comments

Upcoming Transformations

Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t. But the posts have been slacking as of late. (I apologize.) That’s not to say we aren’t still busily working on the house — we are. Well, Jamie is. I’ve had to take a backseat approach … because in just a few short months we are expecting our first child!I guess you could say we are undergoing our biggest home transformation yet! We are so overjoyed!

So as you can imagine that has been keeping us plenty busy. And Jamie being the good husband and future daddy that he is, is making sure I stay away from projects that involve a lot of physical labor (no pun intended). He is working so hard to get some of our outstanding projects crossed off the list. He is currently in the midst of building two nightstands for the master bedroom.Isn’t this great?! He’s still working on sanding and staining them. I’m working on finding knobs and new lamps. Decorating is pretty much what I’m left with 😛 We also just ordered a new headboard. I can’t wait until it’s all put together and I can show you the reveal. In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Instagram at @oldcolonialhome for sneak peeks along the way!

We will also, obviously, need to start working on the nursery. What was the guest room will be transformed this summer into a room for our little one. I can’t wait to get going on that!

And because we don’t have enough on our plate, we will also soon be undergoing a bathroom renovation!Yes, I’ve been saying that for months, but we can thank town bureaucracy for holding up the permit approval. And of course now the timing kind of stinks since a certain someone needs to get up a few times a night to use said bathroom, but it’ll be worth it in the end! I hope to show you a fantastic before and after once it’s done.