Bennett's nursery

One of the most fun parts of my pregnancy was planning Bennett's nursery. We have a small, three bedroom home and had used what is now the nursery as an office. Michael also used the office closet for his clothing since I have the (smallish) master closet filled up all on my own. When we started getting the nursery ready, we moved Michael's desk and clothes into the guest room, which is now completely crammed but very multi-functional. Michael feels pretty shafted that he gets the least space in the house, but he takes up plenty of room elsewhere with cookbooks and kitchen equipment!

I picked out Bennett's bedding first, then we bought his furniture at Burlington Baby Depot. I already had the bookshelf and wanted to be able to use it so chose cherry colored furniture to match that. We got a dresser that can also serve as a changing table with a pad on top and can be used well into the future without the changing pad. I ordered the glider and ottoman from some random Walmart type store in the midwest and got free shipping. I definitely bargain hunted for everything and we were able to do the whole nursery relatively inexpensively, at least compared to what some people spend on nurseries. Michael was assigned the task of painting the nursery, putting together the furniture, and installing new blinds, curtains, and shelves. Hank-dog supervised.

We went with light aqua colored walls and somewhat of an elephant theme with the bedding and accessories. I didn't want to be too matchy matchy so mixed and matched other things. I ordered some prints from etsy and got some cheap picture frames at Ikea. Overall, I love the way the room turned out and though it's small, it's a perfect room for our little guy at the moment. We are planning on moving to a bigger home within the next few months and it will be very bittersweet, knowing that this was our first home as a couple and Bennett's first home ever. We can certainly recreate his nursery in the next house (in what I hope will be a bigger room with more floor space to play), but I'll miss rocking Bennett in the same place that I have rocked him in since we brought him home. So many precious moments have been spent in this room already. I also spent a lot of time in the nursery getting things ready for baby and just rocking in the chair while pregnant and have very fond memories of those times, as well.

no mattress yet in this photo, and we aren't using these adorable bumpers right now. maybe eventually when the SIDS risk goes down...

My sister made us this awesome book sling (after Bennett and I picked out the fabric) as we are quickly running out of room for books, even with a bookcase and the magazine holder style book rack behind the door.

I have always had a slight obsession with children's books and had plenty even before being pregnant, and my obsession may be a problem eventually as the books overtake the room! We have been reading with Bennett from day one and he already loves to be read to and to look at the pictures, except after bath/before bed when he usually gets soooo impatient to nurse and can't waste a minute looking at a book! Some nights he will allow one book read quickly, other nights I just read to him while nursing. We're working on that....

I really love how the nursery turned out and I think that Bennett does, too!