Playful Rooted

Remember when this blog used to have tons of recipes, workouts, posts about living in France, and recaps of our European travels? Yeah, well. Like all serious and professional bloggers do, I accidentally let my hosting expire. So everything that was here prior to now is… preeetty much gone. Well, not GONE, but I have to restore everything manually, so. Maybe by the time Luca is in college.

Speaking of Luca! Our five-month-old little man cub finally (finally!) has a finished nursery! To be fair, I did set up his original nursery in South Bend before we moved, but since he was less than five weeks when we relocated, it never felt long-term. And we’ve already lived in this house for three months, so frankly, this seems overdue, but… life with a baby and all that.

Before I jump into the new, let’s take a look at the old, shall we? Because it was pretty bad. Here’s the photo of this room from our house’s Zillow listing:

The color in person was even louder and it was honestly a little bit stressful to be in this room! Also, look closely behind that canopy thing, and there’s a quote in big black vinyl lettering on the wall. I can’t remember what it said because I peeled it off stat, but something about attitude and motivation (insert eye roll). Note also the window covering, which the previous owners left behind when they moved out. It doesn’t look that bad in this photo, BUT. The curtain was this plasticky stiff material that I could not handle, and the blinds… oh the blinds. Yellowing, ripped cellular blinds. So bad.

Such a breath of fresh air to go from that to thisss:

Ahhh! Now that is a nursery. 🙂

Because I have a slight obsession, I love that our cloth diapers are first up when you walk into the room. Ironically, these are not the ones we use most (flats and prefolds are my jam; post on that coming up soon!). But they look so cute and I love them!

So when I say his nursery is “finished,” I guess I mean “ALMOST finished” because of this section. Several things need to be done here.

• The bunting. I need ONE more t-pin to finish it up on the right side, and I didn’t want to buy a whole box for just one. My mom said she’d send me one, and …. well, tick tock, Mom.
• The ubiquitous turquoise IKEA cart. I’d like to repaint it in a matte gray to go better with the rest of the room. It’s fine for now.
• The dresser. This thing has been in my family for generations, and it used to be this heinous dark brown color with brass hardware. Ben’s parents got it stripped for us as a baby gift, and while it looks so much better, we’ve still got a long way to go. Ben polyurethaned the top as a stop-gap, but it didn’t really stop anything, so there’s some water damage on the top and some other various blemishes. Eventually, we’ll resand and restain it. Summer project?

We got the crib as a hand-me-down from my sister’s kids, and Ben painted it white from its original dark brown. And by “crib,” I mean “giant laundry basket,” because that’s essentially how it functions right now. I think Luca’s slept in it for like two hours combined over the past five months. 🙂 Someday, baby!

Before we both knew the gender of the baby, we deliberated for a long time over whether the woodland prints were too boyish. For the record, I do NOT think they are boyish, and we’ll very likely keep this exact decor if we have a girl in the future! 🙂

Because I’m Madame Safety Police, those woodland prints are not just hung willy-nilly above the crib. I made sure to securely screw each of them into a stud, meaning that they’re not going anywhere on their own. Once baby is in his crib more (hahahaha), I’ll pull the crib out from the wall several inches so he can’t reach up and knock them down.

We were going to make a wooden mobile ourselves, but it didn’t get done since Luca made his entrance earlier than expected! Luckily, Ben found this perfect little fox mobile instead, and it works so well in here. (There was a wind-up music box that came with it, but Ben wound a little too vigorously, so it’s now mute. And we’re all fine with it.)

Since I had to screw the woodland prints into studs, centering the crib underneath them meant that it wasn’t centered on the wall. I thought that was really going to bug me, but I LOVE it because it lends a little bit more room for the glider in the corner. Before, it was kind of smashed in there, and now it feels like its own purposeful space.

The blinds! Honestly the biggest upgrade (besides the paint) in the whole room. I wish I had taken a before picture of those horrible cellular blinds, but just believe me when I say they were terrible. I think the only word to describe them accurately would be: janky.

I’m so, so thrilled with these white wood blinds, not to mention the beautiful (and soft!) curtains. They darken the room like crazy, which is perfect for naptime or just-waking-up time. 🙂

This was my second time hanging these IKEA spice racks/kids bookshelves, and let me just say: one hundred million times easier this time around, thanks to Ben’s purchase of a laser level! My new favorite tool.

The “Oh Baby!” hanging was a baby shower decoration, and it makes me so happy to see it in his final room! As well as the stack of handmade blankets from friends and family. This little nugget was so long awaited and so very, very loved. ❤

(And if you look closely, you can see the horrifying Pepto pink the guest room is still painted. That’s next on the list!!)

xo,
kim