After almost ten years…

 

Jon’s nursery is finally complete!  It was one of those projects that got put on hold, and then after we bought a bunk bed and he moved in with his brother around 6 years ago, the nursery became a dumping ground for all the stuff I didn’t know what to do with until we could barely get in and out of it anymore.  I always felt that I wanted to someday complete the project and take pictures before tearing it down, and I’m so glad I did. Even I had forgotten the tremendous amount of thought and creativity that went into some of this.

 

For example:  This was in the days before personalized wall phrases were available.  I printed the phrase on a piece of paper, blew it up to fit on 4 pieces of paper, and stood on a ladder painstakingly chiseling the outline of the letters in the wall with a pocket-knife.  Then I just filled in the inside of the letter with a paint pen.  The use of an overhead projector might have accomplished the same thing, but I didn’t have one..

 

The Beatrix Potter swirls were “traced” using a throw blanket I was able to stick a pencil tip through the weaving of and make a dotted line.  The characters are simple wall decals.

Oh, yeah.  Did I mention converted this room into a nursery?  It was originally my walk-in closet.  We moved our “closet” into the linen closet next to our shower.  Amazingly, nearly all traces of it ever having been a closet have been erased or are not noticeable to the point of Ashley telling me that it’s unfair for Jon to have had such a neat bedroom when he was a baby.  She had no idea that it had ever been a closet.

 

This is the window valance I made.  I’m no seamstress, so as I recall it took several hours.  I found the fabric on ebay and remember how thrilled I was that it matched the theme so perfectly.  Take a look at the “Jonathan” blocks to the left.  I actually made those myself.  I couldn’t find any Peter Rabbit nursery blocks, so I made some.  I painted some toy blocks and put scrapbooking stickers on them and then sprayed sealant on them to make sure they all stayed put.  The clothes on the clothesline were swiped from some plush toys, but fit perfectly in with the story of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. 

 

…and I didn’t stop with just the front.  I filled every side with letters and numbers.

 

This is the left half of the room.  You can see the curtained entrance on the left.  I absolutely adore this crib set.  I believe it might be the last one ever made, because it had been discontinued and I was very lucky to have found one in stock.

 

 

I made the crib sheet myself using the fabric mentioned above.  Again, I’m no seamstress, but I know enough about sewing to make a fitted sheet.  Let’s just say the fabric will fall apart before those seams ever rip.  Anything worth doing is worth doing well.  The Beatrix Potter plush toys had all been discontinued and were exciting ebay finds.  The fuzzy, curly fur had a nice antique look and it took forever to collect all the ones I wanted.  Especially Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail. . .

I had the idea to make an ottoman out of these bunnies with berry fabric.  They’re technically supposed to be picking black berries, but the red made a better presentation.

 

I love the throw that’s hanging over the rocking chair.  It was a perfect match, and was on backorder for the longest time.  I wouldn’t have stressed about it if I’d known when the room would finally be complete.

I’m so proud of this little corner.  Using the corner to tie in with something in the story was my mom’s idea.  I was lucky to have a wall decal that went perfectly with it.  Again, this was before the days of “make your own wall phrases,” so though it wasn’t nearly as painful as chiseling the borders on the wall, it was one letter-transfer at a time, and a lot of leveling.

Mr. Jeremy Fisher was another fantastic ebay find.  His colors are perfect and he’s fishing right over the fisher-price aquarium toy.  I remember it wasn’t mentioned in the auction that he was a wind-up music box thrown into the bargain.  What a fun surprise!  The throw over the head of the crib is what I used to trace the swirls onto the wall.

Right below “Mrs.” is a cottony cloud attached to the wall.  There used to be several more, but as Brandon got taller and taller, he tore them off one by one and made them into long snake-like creatures to play with.  He’s certainly been tall enough to reach the top one for several years, so I guess at some point, he forgot about them.  This plush Tiggy-Winkle is the only true antique in the whole nursery.  She honestly looked better by a mile than any of the updated versions.

 

This is the other side of the nursery.  Karlon made the changing table and I covered it with a vegetable fabric skirt.  I painted the clouds, background and drawers on the armoire, and then put Tatouage fence posts on it to make the gate Peter Rabbit is squeezing under.  I had to cut them down narrow enough to match the fence-space on the Peter Rabbit.  The swirls on the drawer also compliments of the throw.

A fun idea to cover the Diaper Genie.

A little toy box with some classic toys.

The middle basket is baby cologne and soap from Crabtree & Evelyn.  The whole nursery still smells like a baby.  I made the blankets in the left basket from some cute fabric.

 

 

I carved a duck footprint out of a sponge and sponge-painted these.

Notice the lovely brown box behind the armoire.  About 4 years ago, our security company came in and changed out the small cute box that blended into the scenery with this giant thing.  I cried.  You can still see duck footprints all above, below and behind it.  The 4 baby ducklings were bought around Easter time and were a perfect match.

I love these “elegant and uncomfortable” clothes hanging out of the chest of drawers.  Mrs. Tabatha is cleaning up Tom in the background and getting ready to dress him.

This is from “The Tale of Two Bad Mice,” which might be my favorite Beatrix Potter story.  They go into a doll’s house and are delighted with the dinner set on the toy doll table, and are so disappointed when they find out it’s not real, they make a mess of everything.  The lettering was made to look something like mouse footprints.

I love this little chair and pillow.  They look like they were purchased as a set, but it was just a very fortunate match.

The Tailor

I also made the blocks on the side table.  But I didn’t do all six sides for some reason.  Maybe some were supposed to be flush with the table?

I was so thrilled to find a little Peter Rabbit toy that was a perfect fit for inside this watering can.  The flower pot to the left has a reversible lid:

I think that’s it!

I'm amazed at all the stuff and ideas I worked into this little closet. It's got everything a nursery needs, and it doesn't have a crowded feel to it, either. I think I'll leave it the way it is for a little while before I tear it down.