nursery plans

The boys are at small group tonight {and I'm stuck at home with my "germs" as Reese kindly told me} so I thought we'd do a little nursery update.

Reese's nursery was bright.  Very bright-- with lime green walls, traditional crib bedding from Pottery Barn, and a green chenille rocker.  At the time it was just what I wanted.  My tastes have evolved a bit in six years, though, so we're moving in a less baby more classic direction.

The first step in creating the nursery, however, involved creating a room.  Our house is a very long ranch style with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.  Plenty of space for us and we easily could have used one of the existing bedrooms for the babe.  For various reasons, including we like having a room with a bathroom for my parents AND the room's location at the very end of the house, we opted for a different plan.

For the three years we've lived here we have brainstormed how to better utilize the long space at the front of our house.  In 1958 it was used as a formal living room and dining room.  There was an addition to our house in 2005, though, that added a giant family room {open to the kitchen} and a huge master bedroom.  We used the front space as a dining room, alternating our table from one side of the room to the other.  It just never felt right.  And we'd eat dinner at night and talk about what we could do to change it.

One night, before the babe was a blink, Lofton jumped up with an idea to divide the space into a bedroom and reconfigure the other side into a dining room/foyer.  The plan for the dining room/foyer is currently on hold, but the bedroom idea has worked out perfectly.  The only obstacle was the fireplace which you can see in the photo above.

That took some pondering, as well, but I couldn't be happier {or more impressed} with Lofton's plan.  Bookshelves.

Really fantastic bookshelves. He built those! The detail is seriously amazing.

And while he's been constructing, I've been doing what I do best-- planning.  I've picked out a wall color, fabrics, and some accessories.  The wall color was a struggle.  Originally I wanted a light, blue gray {SW quietude, the color of our dining room}.  We painted some on the wall and I was kind of blah about it.  Then we tried lighter shades which I just hated.  So on a whim I had Lofton pick up some darker test pots and just like that we had a winner.

Benjamin Moore Black Pepper.  I love dark paint in a bedroom.  Our bedroom is really dark {Martha Stewart Plumage} and it's one of my favorite rooms in the house.  Plus, the nursery has so many light elements: the white bookshelves, a white crib, and an ivory upholstered chair.  I think that the dark will be balanced perfectly.

Lofton painted the first coat today and I'm smitten. I tried to snap a picture with my phone, but there is currently a teeny light source in the room.  Finding a replacement is on the to-do list.  As is crib bedding, art, a lamp, and all those other things babies really need like clothes and diapers.  At least we have a plan, right?