Addie's room: The super mini makeover.

Since Addie was old enough to grip things and sit up, she's been grabbing at the little shelf above her changing table.  There were always things being pulled off of it, and not enough space for the lotion, tissues, q-tips and little things I liked to keep at hand.  A couple of weeks ago I noticed it was really tilted.  I tried to adjust it, and realized that the screw hole was stripped on one side.  So my plan was to replace that shelf with something cute, something with a little space to keep a few small items, and something less heavy/dangerous.  We already lost one tooth in that corner of the room, we didn't want to give up another.  Deciding to replace that shelf made me think about how much I hate, and have always hated the maroon blackout curtain and the brown wall.  The paint colors were selected because one wall was already brown so we left it, and the tan was leftover from other walls in the house.  As hard as I tried to make the tiny room feel cute and little girly, I've always felt like it was a dark, depressing, old person room.  So I dug through my fabric bin to see if I had any lighter fabrics to make a curtain.  I went to home depot and bought two sample containers of light pink paint ($2.94 each), and I went to work.

I bought the peg board at Lowe's for about $5.00.  I already had the paint on hand, as well as the shelf, basket, bucket, and everything else on the board.  It's busy, but fun.  It has the perfect amount of storage space, and even though Addie can reach stuff, there's nothing I worry about her getting a hold of, or being hurt by.    

I measured the wall and taped the lines evenly, then painted every other section pink.  Surprisingly, two coats of this light color covered the dark brown just fine.  And I really love how it looks.  I decided against the wreath and green frame that had been on the wall, but kept the name banner.  I used fabric I had in my scrap bin, as well as embroidery hoops that I got on sale on black friday for a Christmas project I never got around to.  Really simple project and I like the fun pops of color.

I got rid of Addie's crib mobile around the time that I should have gotten rid of the shelf.  As soon as she could pull herself up to standing, she could pull on the mobile because it was one that clipped to the crib.  I was sad to get rid of it because Garrett has a car/plane mobile hanging from his ceiling and he still likes it.  So, I found a skinny wreath in my craft box (dollar store), strung pom poms on fishing line, (I also did this over the curtain and peg board, too), made a mini pennant banner out of matching fabric scraps, and strung two birds on that I took off the old mobile and I was done!  It hangs from the ceiling, and I even had my high jumper Garrett test it and it can't be reached for a long time.

I planned to paint the book shelf that held blankets, extra sheets and changing pad covers, but I broke it when I tried to take the back of it off to paint.  To tell you the truth I wasn't even a tiny bit sad about this because it was really, really old, and it was one of those pressed plywood shelves with laminate stickers made to look like wood.  The only tears that were shed were tears of joy as I watched Paul carry it to the dumpster as I planned my trip to Ikea.  I know in another post I mentioned my $20.00 budget for this room, and if you don't count my Ikea splurge, I was $1.00 under.  But this beauty was $50.00 and fortunately I'd just gotten my blow money for the month.  It's so cute.  Much smaller than the last one, but it's all the room needed.

Oh, and this fun yellow rug may have found it's way into my cart at Ikea, too.  10 bucks!  Oh how I hate the carpet underneath it.

I made the curtain out of stuff I had.  It's about as simple as curtains come, but it's close enough to the crib that it gets 'adjusted' often by little hands so I didn't want ruffles or a lot of extra flowing fabric.  I got blackout fabric at Hobby Lobby to hang behind it on a tension rod. I think it was $5.00 a yard but it was 30% off.  The banner was made by tracing a cup over and over on fabric scraps, cutting them out and folding them in half over bakers twine and gluing.  The pom poms are also strung on fishing line.  If you make these, double the fishing line so the pom poms don't slide.  I had pom poms on hand, and the fishing line was from Big 5, less than $2.00 for like a gabillion yards.

I love the brown polka dot sheet, and she has a light pink chevron one that we switch back and forth from.  Both from Target.  They have a lot of fun new crib sheets.  I bought these during our 2 weeks of hell in December when they both had coughs so bad that it resulted in gagging/throwing up.  I was happy to spend $20.00 on sheets when it saved me from literally doing laundry around the clock.

I also took off the ribbons I'd tied around the baskets and replaced them with burlap and lace, leftover from Addie's birthday.

I hung the bird houses on the wall because I lost shelf space.

I gave both kids a picture of themselves for Christmas, so I threw that above the light switch, and I was done!

I like it.  Lighter and brighter, but dark enough for nap time.

Here are a few of the before pictures that I took a couple weeks before she was born.

Now, on to the guest room...