A refinishing job 3 years in the making.

When Chris and I first got married and bought our house I made the ‘new homeowner’ mistake of beginning about 50 projects simultaneously. Some projects were a necessity to us actually being able to live and function in the house {like fixing up a table so we didn’t have to eat on the floor and painting over the blood red walls in the kitchen – if you saw the walls, you’d realize it was a necessity}, other projects were just my creative genius getting away from me. The chair in our office was one of the latter. I had taken it apart before really knowing what I wanted to do with it. It sat in a dilapidated state in our garage for almost 3 years until this past week as I was getting our house ready for our resource parenting home study.

I wish I had a ‘before’ photo of the chair because it’s always very satisfying to compare with the ‘after’ photos. This chair is one that my mother re-covered to match my room when I was younger, and I’m sure she salvaged it from the thrift store. It took quite a bit of muscle to peel away the 5 layers of fabric/pleather stapled to the seat over the years.

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My apologies for the blurry photos, but here are some of the previous coverings.
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The fabric I chose is some of my favorite. I actually purchased it before Chris and I even closed on the house. I came across it at the fabric store, fell in love, and bought every yard and scrap they had. I am very selective with which projects I use it on. It’s currently on our kitchen chairs as well. I also added additional padding to the chair – a necessity since the previous padding was practically nonexistent {or so old it had been squashed into nothingness from the weight of 10 previous owners}.

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The chair itself was originally white but was very easy to spray paint a pretty teal color {it looks blue in the photos because of the poor quality of the pics but really has more of a teal/green tone to it}. I honestly don’t remember the name … ‘sea’ something and I don’t care enough to go digging in my trash to recover the canister, but if you want to know I’m sure I can find it online! image-62

I am loving the finished product and am so glad this space is starting to come together.

Finally, a look at Charlotte’s nursery

So it’s been almost a year since we started working on Charlotte’s nursery, haha. I guess it’s about time I posted some photos. Sorry for the quality, I used my iPhone {I’ve even read several tutorials on how to take better iPhone photos and I still can’t get it right!}

At 28 weeks the walls were painted gray and I hand painted polkadots on one accent wall.

Surprisingly, looking at this photo makes me miss being pregnant

– All other pregnancy photos make me instantly queezy though, ha!

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I can’t seem to find the photos of Chris putting the crib together :/ hopefully they are just misfiled.

The view from the doorway. Just last week we had her crib to the left of the window and the rocker to the right of the window, but now that she is sitting up, which will snowball into crawling, which will snowball into pulling up… I decided it was time to move the crib away from the curtains.from door 2

Bow organizer {made from an old thrift store frame, spray painted, then fitted with some chicken wire provided by my dad}

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A look at her closets. Yes, she has WAY too many things already! I wanted to have as many things showing as possible, though, so that I can easily take inventory. We got a lot of hand-me-downs and were gifted with so many adorable outfits that I didn’t want to accidentally  pass over any and find them when she’s already outgrown them {that was something I read is very common with baby clothing}.

To prevent this, I have a system that seems to be working well – all clothing sorted by size/season and placed in a designated spot:

  • Current sizes {size 6 months right now, still some size 3 months} are in the dresser.
  • Sizes coming up next {currently size 9 months for us} are in the hanging sweater rack.
  • Any subsequent sizes are boxed and labeled but kept in plain sight so a) they can easily be added into the rotation, and b) I can plainly see that she has PLENTY for the next month so I am not tempted to buy her a completely new wardrobe.

Once a size is outgrown, I sort those items into 3 piles:

1. Hand-me-downs from a friend {boxed away in the attic, ready to be given back or broken out again, depending on who has the next girl}

2. Keepsake clothing or clothing items gifted to Charlotte that I can’t bear to part with just yet {like her baby Vans}

576864_658890730968_1124657836_n3. Donation pile {items that, if I’m totally honest with myself, I either didn’t LOVE on Charlotte or I probably wouldn’t choose to put it on a baby again because of wear/style,etc}.

The left side of her closet:

Closet - L side

The right side of her closet:

Closet R side

Her dresser:

  • The dresser is one from craigslist that I painted white – it holds: jammies, socks and tights, onesies/rompers, pants, and shirts.
  • Diaper pail with liner for cloth diapers
  • Breast pump fits perfectly into this little nightstand and is a great place to stash all the necessities for pumping {even middle of the night water and snacks… I find that I am not able to go back to sleep until I drink a glass of water and eat something}
  • The mobile above the chair was made by a sweet friend and Charlotte loves to look at it when we snuggle.

Dresser 1

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mirror above changing table

Audio and video monitors {reviewed here}, some hair accessories in the little yellow drawers, and anything else I may need at my fingertips while changing her diaper/getting her dressed for the day. My two ‘must-haves’ for this spot are her comb {I have to comb the hair on the back of her head several times a day or else she would have dreadlocks} and a jar of coconut oil {for diaper rash, as lotion, to put on cuts… anything and everything}!

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I LOVE this mushroom nightlight. It’s not too bright, but gives plenty of light for an early morning diaper change or nursing.
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The pump is tucked away nicely in this nightstand.
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The yellow and white glider/ottoman is by far my favorite thing in her room and I am SO glad we splurged on it {with the help of my parents, Charlotte’s Papa and Honey!!}.

A comfortably nursing mama is a happy mama.

Chair and ottoman

Several quilts are tucked away in a gray and white reed basket, within reach for tummy time or snuggle time.
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The bookshelf is full of books, teethers, rattles, and puzzles
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The iPod dock for white noise is something we use for all naps and bedtime. As far as stuffed animals go, she seems to favor her hippo rattle and her pink bunny lovey at the moment.

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The mobile I DIY’d here.

And if you look closely you can see the outlets that have no covers on them {I know, BAD mommy!} – I took them off during painting and didn’t want to put them back on because they were cream and I wanted to get white ones. Well, obviously that isn’t going to happen because it’s been almost a year, but when I went to go grab the cream ones to put back on so they would at least be safe I couldn’t find them, ha!
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The view from the bookshelf corner towards the door.

I’d say the only thing I don’t like about her crib being on this wall is that it is SO close to the door {making it VERY difficult to sneak in and out of her room}
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And the BEST part of the nursery…. Charlotte

TADA… Charlie Grace!

Again, I apologize for the photo quality; while writing this post I kept rubbing my eyes and trying to blink my contacts back into place because the pics are so fuzzy!!!