Nursery - All Finished!

The Martin Nursery is finally finished! We hung our curtains and wall hangings yesterday and made a trip to Babies R Us for some last items we needed so we now have a fully-functional, fully-decorated nursery. There's still plenty of wall space for some additional photos and pictures if we decide to add them later, but for now the room is entirely complete. I've been busy washing his little clothes and filling the dresser drawers and closet so now we just have to wait for Baby Martin to arrive!

Nursery - Furniture Arrives!

Our furniture has finally arrived and now the nursery is just about complete. We received a glider and ottoman, a dresser that will double as a changing table once we get the changing pad, a nightstand, and a bookcase. I spent the last hour organizing toys, books, diaper caddies, lamps, etc. and now feel as if I need a nap on our comfy new glider! Everything fits perfectly in the room and the dark wood looks great with our lighter walls and carpet.

This weekend we'll get our Alphabet Soup quilt and some other pictures/wall hangings put up, we'll hang our curtain rod and valance, and we'll work on getting the closet organized with the baby's already-extensive wardrobe. We'll also be making a trip to Babies R Us very soon for some final accessories that we'll need to use right away when the baby comes home. Enjoy these photos and we're excited for all of you to see the nursery in person very soon!

Nursery - The Decorating Begins...

Tonight the decorating of the nursery began and we are really pleased with the final product! As we get through these last two days before our furniture gets delivered, when we'll be able to decorate the nursery entirely, we decided to go ahead and setup some of the accessories we were able to move at this point into the new room. We do have our crib already so Andrew assembled that, I washed all of the bedding and we relocated it to its new home in the nursery. Below are a few photos of the crib outfitted in our Alphabet Soup bedding. Barney was quite nosey as we set up so many new things and so that we don't forget about him, he made it a point to star in many of our photos!

We also were excited to finally be able to lay out our Alphabet Soup area rug. It really adds a nice touch to the room! Again, Barney seemed to be under the impression that we had bought him a comfortable new mat to lay on, as he made himself at home directly on top of it within a few minutes of our laying it out!

Finally, we placed the big frog chair and some other cute stuffed animals around the room:

We'll be able to get the rest of the decor placed around the room once the furniture arrives on Thursday - curtains, baskets and accessories, lamps, pictures, quilts, etc. We'll be uploading the final photos later this week so check back again!

Nursery - Almost Finished...

The nursery is on its way to being complete! This weekend we painted the molding and although it was sort of tedious, it came out great - exactly as we had pictured it. Tomorrow we will add the second coat of antique white paint, which will mark the end of the "home improvement" phase of our nursery and prepare us for the part I've been looking forward to for months: getting our furniture delivered and decorating the room with all of the cute accessories that have been taking up temporary residence in our guest room these past few weeks.

Below are some "action shots" of us painting the room. It was an extremely cold and windy February day so we bundled up, cracked the windows for lots of ventilation and worked hard all afternoon.

What an accomplishment it was to see the finished product...and to have no major painting casualties such as spills on the carpet or smudges on the already-painted yellow half of the room. We did, however, nearly have a run-in with a wildly excited Labrador Retriever tail on wet paint when we had a weak moment and let Barney come into the room while the paint was still tacky. Luckily we were able to banish the beast before any damage occured :)! Below are some photos of the "finished" room after the first coat of white paint:

Tomorrow we add the final coat of paint, after which we will be finished for good with painting. Stay tuned for more photos later this week after Bellini delivers our furniture and we begin accessorizing. We expect the entire room to be complete by Friday of this week and are very excited to share the final product with all of you!

Nursery - Painting Begins!

This weekend we began painting the nursery and all of a sudden it seems more like a baby's room than a construction zone! Andrew finished the molding, put up a chair rail, and we placed some wooden pegs just below the chair rail for an added organizational and decorative touch to our custom look (but really as a means to satisfy my sudden nesting instinct!).

We decided to paint the walls a cheery yellow above the molding and will next paint the molding an antique white, to match the rest of the woodwork throughout our house. The yellow half of the room is now finished and looks GREAT with our bedding ensemble and the green and red gingham accents we plan to incorporate throughout the nursery.

Below are some photos of the nursery as big brother Barney poses for the camera after weeks of moping because we wouldn't allow him inside the room while it was under construction! This week we'll mix up our antique white paint for our next step: painting the molding...