Nathan's Room!

**Warning: Picture overload!!*

I know a lot of you have seen this on Facebook, but for those of you that haven't, I'm FINALLY done with our little monkey's room! (Now that he's almost 4 months old, right!?)

Here is the tour. I tried to do it as inexpensively as I could. I started by picking 4 different fabrics to use everywhere in the room. I bought it all on sale in Kansas City in August 2010, after we knew he was a boy. I still have fabric left, and planned it that way, so I can update it when he's a "big boy" and not a baby anymore. I tried not to go to "babyish" to begin with!

This is the adorable door decor my sister-in-law made. I wanted something to put on his door, and she made this as a baby shower decoration, and it's lived here ever since!

This is a shadowbox frame I found at the thrift store here. It had a weird-looking ladybug thing in it so I just took all that out, recycled the green mat it came with, and made my own.


Here is the view looking into his room from the doorway:

It's a small room, so I wanted to make the most of the space and still leave room to play.
(Usually the curtains are tied back, but he'd just woken up from a nap and I hadn't opened them yet!)

Here is the first wall:
This painting was the whole "inspiration" for the room. Mitch and I fingerpainted it on our first date!
I tried to do a theme that would reflect the "starry night" painting and pulled colors from it to use in the room. Animals and fishies soon invaded, though, so it's a half-starry night and a half-bright colors theme :o)

This is the rest of the first wall:

I wanted to put a lot of color on the walls, but since we're renters we can't paint. So, I tried to use what I could find around here. I found six canvases at our thrift store over a couple months (with some of the corniest paintings you've ever seen painted all over them) and covered them with fabric with my trusty hot glue gun as I found them. Or in one of them's case, wrapping paper. You use whatcha got, right?

I fell in love with this animal fabric. (Animals are not something I'm usually fond of). I found it at a little quilt shop on sale in KC. Needless to say, I bought the whole bolt and i'm so glad I did! It's hilarious: the giraffes have blue faces and the crocodiles and hippos have little birds and chickens riding on their backs. It was a bit off-beat, and I love it!

My saint of a mother made these rocking chair pads when she was here in November, after Nathan was born. They're perfect and oh-so-cozy, and we just love them! We found the upholstery fabric at the same quilt shop for $10/bolt!!

Our little chair-side table. It's not the sturdiest table, and we hope to find a cute little nightstand or something soon, but for right now it hides diapers and wipes!
The lamp was super fun to make. It started out with a black shade. I found a turquoise microfiber twin sheet set on sale and grabbed it to use the fabric in the room. I cut apart a pillowcase, sprayed both the shade and fabric with spray adhesive, and stuck them together. Then I just took ribbon i'd been using in other parts of the room and tied random knots. It definitely works for someone who can't tie bows!

This is another canvas hung behind the chair. Nathan Patrick is named after his grandpa, Patrick Larson, and his uncle, Ethan Patrick. We thought this would be a fun way to pay tribute to them. They're both wonderful men that we hope Nathan really gets to know well during his life.
(This is the one done with wrapping paper.)
I'll add a picture in the orange/yellow picture mat in April. In our church, when a baby is born they're given a name and a blessing. We haven't been able to do that yet because our families live so far apart from each other, and far away from us. But, we get to bless him in April! I wanted a picture in his cute blessing outfit when he's officially given the name Nathan Patrick Dooley.

This is his dresser & window wall. The dresser was a gift from his Dooley grandparents. It's the absolute perfect size for this room and works very well for us!
I bought the curtains at Wal-Mart. I tried to mix blue and turquoise, which I learned has to be done very carefully. So the turquoise fabric I found has blue in it to try and tie them together, and I also threw thick blue ribbon on the lampshade. I made the valance and tiebacks with help over the phone from my mom.
I found this cute wooden tree for $6 at Hobby Lobby in KC in January and it just had to come home with me!
It has three little magnets on it that I plan to stick three little picture frames on, with pictures of each person in our family. I got the metal "family" word title from a scrapbooking aisle somewhere.

This is the crib wall. Because I could never find anything with my name on it as a child I wanted Nathan's name to be in his room...so I can live vicariously...?

The crib was a gift from his Larson grandparents (see how much furniture you have to buy when you have the first grandbaby on both sides? Nothing!!) The cutest thing about it is the little door on the front. When he's older you can unlatch the door and he can climb right in. It'll be cute to watch him kneel at the little door and say his little prayers!
The frames hanging above his bed were just a collection of things I wanted to hang in the room. I tried to use oak, white, and black throughout the room. There's an 8x10 from his first JCPenney pictures, a baby footprint (I just photocopied the one the hospital gave us and cut it out), a picture of a little boy with Jesus and, my favorite, an embroidery Mitch's mom did for him. It was a Christmas gift to him, and is just gorgeous!
Still reading? Nice. We're almost done, I promise!

The NATHAN above his bed was made from six 5x7 canvases, you guessed it, covered in fabric. That was the one thing I had to buy new, but they were 50% off, so it worked out. I bought the chipboard letters for 50 cents apiece and painted them, then added fun details.

I made his quilt and bedskirt twin-sized, so they can be used on a bigger bed. (Actually, my mom made the bedskirt. I had planned on it, but after my c-section my mom was the one sitting at the machine!) Then when she put it on the bed she just folded it over in places. It's pleated anyway, so you can't tell at all! Plus, now we have twin-sized "big boy" bedding!

The bumper pads are reversible and velcro open to slip off and be washed. They're made of one-inch high-density foam, not batting, so they're "safe" (And it was cheaper...) The ties are just double-folded binding with a seam down the middle and the ends finished to keep them in one piece.
I wanted the quilt to be something he could keep for a long time. I used his daddy's work jeans (and fun pockets), the four fabrics I'd picked, and others I had lying around that coordinated. It has a turquoise border around it that's just strips of the fitted twin sheet from that sheet set, and the back is the same fabric, taken from the flat sheet. Yay, cheap fabric!

I wanted to find a poem or something that had to do with stars, that hasn't been overdone. What I landed on were two children's songs we sing in our church. I've been in charge of the children's music for over a year, so these have grown on me! I chose the songs "I am like a star" and "Every star is different". I put both up on the walls with my trusty Cricut!
I put the second song up around the perimeter of the room, by the ceiling. I wanted some color up there, but didn't want to overdo it. Oh, how I wish I could paint!

I borrowed a neighbor's ladder and did this while I was 9 months pregnant...talk about exhausting!

(I'm not showing the whole thing, just bits and pieces...you poor people have been through enough!)

Wave hello to Mitch doing our taxes, and check out our classy fire hydrant screwed right onto the wall...oh, apartment life!

I have one empty gap that I wasn't anticipating. I have green and black vinyl...I was thinking putting his full name in green with stars on either side...? What do you think?

Finally, the little man's closet, shelf, sign, clock, and toy box (which we use for older kids' books that he's not ready for and blankets). The sign reads "For I know Heavenly Father loves me", which is the last line of the "I am like a star" song. I found the wood plaque at the thrift store and went to town with paper, mod podge, and vinyl.

The stuffed animals are special to us. Mitch's dinosaur from his childhood, and my teddy bear from mine. Our parents wanted them out of their houses, so we found a nice home for them in ours :o) (You can't just throw best friends like these away!)

If you look closely you can see our "lifesaver swing" sitting by the crib. On nights where he thinks 3 am is a perfect playtime, this guy can get him to sleep when no one else can!

Well that's it! Thanks for looking :o)