Little Leo's Nursery

Our sweet boy, Jack Lennon "Leo" Hedgepeth, was born on November 2 weighing 8 lbs 6 oz.

I can't believe it! All of the sudden we have TWO children! I can't begin to explain how much joy these little people bring me. I love being their mom so much. This pregnancy was alot more rough on me than the last (hence the lack of blog posts) but this sweet boy is so worth it. And his big sister loves him so much. GEEEEZZZ is it possible for my heart to literally explode? I think it might explode. I'm so tired but so thankful. So much love for all of my Hedges, big and small. 

A few months ago we moved Presley to her big girl bed that's been waiting for her for quite a while. She loves it. She immediately started referring to her old nursery as "Babbby Brodder's room." She understood it right away. I'm moving up so little brother can move in here. I'm always amazed at what she comprehends. In my mind she's still like 2 months old. But she's like almost 3 sooooo I guess it's about that time. I'm so proud of how excited she's been leading up till now and how helpful and sweet she's been with her baby brother.

So for his nursery I wanted it to be kinda simple and neutral. No theme really. I worked on it for months and months, starting the week I found out we were having a boy back in May. I decorated and redecorated (per my usual self) until I got it right. It took me a while. Idk why I couldn't quite figure out what I was doing. I lose a good 75% of the creative side of my brain when I'm pregnant but my nesting portion explodes by like 239023%. So like I have the desire but I don't know what I'm doing.  Anyways, it is what it is and this is as good as I could do. Here are some pics!

When I was pregnant with Pres our mom's painted her nursery while Matt and I were babymoon cruisin in Alaska. I picked out a neutral color so that if we had a boy in the future (nailed it) we wouldn't have to repaint. The focal wall has thick, tonal neutral stripes to add a little something interesting. The colors are White Clay and Sandstone Cove by Behr. The main room color is the darker one, Sandstone Cove. We did paint the closet pink originally so we had to go ahead and paint it to match the rest of the room too. So a little painting was involved but not much (thanks, Matty). I also went blue/white polka dots when I recovered the glider for her room so that it could easily transition to boy if it needed to one day (nailed it again).

So there really wasn't much to this room that required alot of skill. I basically took Presley's nursery and tweaked it and made it boy-friendly. The things that were pink (like frames, a little table, etc) I just painted blue or white or gray. I kept the same layout of everything because it worked. 

The main thing was the dresser. We moved Presley's big, pink dresser to her new bedroom and bought a new one for BOY's room. I found it on a FB resale page for $75. It was scratched up but a nice piece of furniture. Plus I knew I'd paint it so I didn't care what condition it was in as long as it was sturdy. I bought new brushed nickel hardware for it on Ebay. The spacing for the handles was abnormal so I couldn't find those sizes at Lowes or Home Depot which is why I looked online. However that turned out to be MUCH cheaper anyways. I did end up having to drill some new holes for the single knobs on the top drawers and putty/sand the 2 holes left behind. I couldn't find the right size handles that matched the handles at the bottom (they were 2 different sizes). So anyways, finding the hardware and redoing it a little was a bit of a challenge but not too bad. Just alot of internet searches. I painted it Annie Sloan's Paris Grey with just a clear sealant from Lowes. Before I sealed it I sanded the edges a little bit as well. I just love it! I also found cute contact liner paper on Walmart.com of all places and covered all of the drawer bottoms. One package was all I needed. I got the clear organizer bins at The Dollar Tree (THEY HAVE SO MANY GREAT THINGS!!!). I got the hamper at Burlington for like $10. BTW Burlington is awesome. They have weird things but if you look hard enough you can find some really cheap/great treasures. They especially have good baby stuff. The cute, acrylic lamp came from Hobby Lobby on sale 66% off for about $15. I loved it so much I bought both of the ones they had (other one was very slightly different) and put it in Presley's room on her dresser. I glued a cute, white trim around the bottom of her lamp shade to make it a little different/more feminine but I kept Leo's plain.

My mom actually got these shutters for me at a local antique mall 3.5 years ago. I was pregnant with Presley and SO sure she was a boy. I had his nursery all planned out and knew I wanted shutters. She saw these and bought them then SURPRISE it's a girl! So I've literally had them for forever just waiting to use them in my boy's nursery one day. My time has come. My father-in-law cut them into 4 pieces and I painted them blue. They were such a pain to paint because SO MANY CREVICES! CREVASSES! (HOW DO YOU SPELL THAT WORD??) I've painted lots of shutters before because I'm strangely obsessed with them and they're all over my house but these were harder because they were so dark originally. I ended up using some chalk paint I had (Hobby Lobby brand for $8...love this stuff for smaller projects because it works pretty well and it's super affordable. Plus you can use your 40% off coupon!) That provided a much easier base to paint over than bare, dark wood.

I made the name banner myself. I got the white, linen bases at Michaels. They came in a big package. To make the letters I actually used leftover linen fabric from my master bedroom makeover earlier this year. I ironed the linen fabric on to a heat bond double-sided adhesive paper (obsessed with this stuff). So now it has fabric on one side and paper on the back. I then printed "Lennon" off in a font I liked on Microsoft Word and cut them out. I flipped them backwards and traced them onto the paper that was attached to the fabric. After that I just cut them out! Take off the paper on the back then iron them where you want them. One I had all of my letters attached I folded over the top edges of the white linen banner bases and used my sewing machine to sew a tube to threat the jute thru. AND HIS NAME IS LENNON SO IT'S ALL SUPPOSED TO MAKE SENSE.

One thing I love to buy when working on smaller paint projects is little paint samples. Lowes and Home Depot have them for about $3-4 but they're pretty small. BUT you can get any color you want! For this project I actually got a Sherwin Williams coupon in the mail that was super handy. It was buy one sample tub, get one free! Their samples are $7 but they're so big! Like I feel like I've used alot but you can't even tell anything is missing. And you can pick out any color they have. So I got 2 big tubs of SW paint for $8 including tax. So much cheaper than buying a quart and much better quality paint than you can get at the craft store. Plus you can get the exact shade you want. I used this paint to redo little things around the room including the shutters.

I just changed out some things on the book shelves to make it less girly and to personalize it to Leo instead of Presley. I added a bird and new frames and some bears from my childhood. I got the cute giraffe wood art at Hobby Lobby (duh) for around $10.

LOL at my model

I bought the window curtains at Home Goods. 2 panels for $20. Of course they were too short so I had to get creative. I already had opened and hung them and so they could no longer be returned. In hind sight maybe I should've measured first...I like my curtains to be hung a good bit higher than the top of the window frame. It makes the room look taller and bigger and really does make a difference. So I removed the little hem at the bottom and re-sewed it. That added a few inches, but then the fabric was uneven for unknown reasons and looked weird at the bottom. It barely touched the floor which made it super noticeable. So I ended up undoing the rod pocked at the top to add more length and sewed pieces of ivory satin ribbon in 5 places per panel. I used a lighter to melt the edges of the ribbon so they wouldn't fray and tied them up in bows. Hey! It worked. And I ended up having a few inches of fabric to spare so it pooled nicely at the bottom. I love the pooled look so I was happy with how they turned out. And total they cost about $25.

I originally painted the little side table blue but didn't like it (too bright) so I repainted it gray with leftover dresser chalk paint. Much better. 

I recovered the little pillow on the glider with some cute white swiss-dot-esque fabric I found at Hobby Lobby.

I got the fuzzy ivory/gray chevron rug on sale at Target for $50! It's so soft. Me and Pres would pretend to go to sleep on it all the time before he got here. Well I really almost did fall asleep. Pres was pretending. She'd turn off the light, turn on the sound machine, give me a pillow and a blanket and say "Night night, Momma. Love you, Sweet Pea." She also loved to say "Got a new, soft rug for Babby Brodder!" Man I love her. I also got the new nickel hook for the wall at Target for $5. I loved having a hook for Presley when this was her room so I could easily lay out clothes for the next day, etc without them getting wrinkly. Of course it was pink so I moved it up to her big girl room and replaced it with this simple one. It's super handy.

I made just about all of Presley's crib bedding but with this pregnancy I was just so tired and weak I couldn't even find the energy to think about making a whole new set. I found this plain, pleated, white crib skirt on Target.com for less than $20 and went for it. I got some fun sheets to make it a little interesting.

I decided against a bumper. People have some serious opinions about crib bumpers these days. When I was a baby I think everyone had one but now they're considered sketchy and a hazard. I mean this did freak me out a little because if something were to happen to my baby due to there being a bumper I'd obvs never forgive myself. I went ahead and made one for Presley (yes I made it and I swore I'd never do that again) but once she started sleeping in her crib I was too afraid to actually leave it in there. So I didn't. It ended up just being for looks. Or really basically for a picture. So this time I decided not to waste money or time looking for/making a new one for his room. 

I got the frames above the crib at Ross for $9 each. My grandmother actually watercolored the animals and I'm obsessed. I really love how special they are because she made them. Kinda last minute I made the crib mobile with supplies I got on Etsy. I was inspired by one I found there but it was $50 and coming from Kiev, Ukraine. Ain't nobody got time fo dat! I loved this chick's stuff and it wasn't super pricey but I knew it'd take a while to get here and I'm impatient and stuff. So I bought the felt balls on Etsy (very inexpensively) and the rest of the supplies at Hobby Lobby (duh) and made my own! I like the pizazz it adds. It needed something interesting over here.

It took me FOREVER to settle on a new light fixture in here. The old one was pink so that obvs wouldn't work and I sold it on a FB resale site. I ended up finding this adorable drum fixture with acrylic balls on PotteryBarnKids.com. It was on sale for about $110 including shipping. I LOVE IT!

And here is a photo collage on this big, blank wall. And Presley again.

And here are a few pictures of his closet. SO MANY DIAPERS!

So that's basically it! Not much to it. I just wanted his room to be sweet and babyish but not cheesy. I hope I accomplished that. I don't sleep anymore so I don't even know what's happening and I haven't really noticed his room since he's been here. And I think there's poo in my hair. BUT I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!

Presley will be 3 in 2 short months (is this real life?) and we have an exciting birthday party planned so stay tuned!