Rewind: The Nursery

Now that we're turning our crib into a toddler bed and getting rid of the changing table and its drawers full of cloth diapers, I thought it would be nice to post some pictures of the nursery. I put them on flickr ages ago and Ohdeedoh did a nursery tour but I never actually wrote a post about my design. I start at the crib and then move clockwise around the room. I will miss this layout but am also excited to change things up a bit.

The crib is the discontinued Tassa from Ikea. Somehow it will become a toddler bed using the same mattress. I got the sheet on ebay. I framed a beautiful handmade card that my sister in law gave to us at the baby shower but took it down once Zadie got mobile as Mr. Lemon was afraid she would reach it and impale herself. The rugs are from Ikea and Flor. I hadn't seen anything like this but there was a nice spread in Parents magazine a couple of months ago using this same idea.

We constructed the changing table from Ikea's trofast system. There is more information on Ikea Hacker and this earlier post. I've written about the alphabet before as it's been a real work in progress. We'll be moving the dresser to where the changing table is so I'm not sure how it's going to look. And what a sweetie there! About 4 weeks I think. Who can remember?

This dresser is the Anes from Ikea. I think it's been discontinued as well but I like that it's made of actual wood and not a composite. It's very sturdy and well crafted. The bed will be placed under these frames so I'll have to add some more art to fill up the space. All of the frames except for the one are black so it ties all the images together. This little scene has actually changed a good bit these last 2 years.

Although you can see it much better in the first post, I wanted to mention that the molding we used at the edges of our beadboard ceiling is braided metal cable from Lowe's. Wood molding was not working and I wanted an industrial look to tame down the cottageyness of our 100-year-old house with sloping ceilings (it's called a half story). Basically, if I have an idea of something I want to do but I'm not sure what, I'll just walk up and down the aisles of Lowe's until I find it and then I ask Mr. Lemon if it will work. We often call each other from different parts of the massive store. It's tacked up with things that hold down metal conduit.

I love that there is a lot natural light coming in the room. We just have vinyl blinds instead of curtains to keep it airy. There are little cord cleats on the side of each window frame to keep the cords out of the way and we are diligent about using them.

The rocking chair is Ikea's Lillberg. It looks good and is incredibly comfortable but it doesn't really rock. I wish I would have splurged for a nice glider or just bought an ugly one that I could get rid of without guilt. But all three of us can fit in this chair and that makes it really nice. I might recover the cushions. We'll see.

We took the door off the closet when this was my studio and intend to keep it that way. I like how it opens up the space a bit.

And finally, the closet. This has changed the most. I love the little striped socks and black shoes of that doll sitting on the shelf. Most of the stuff is from Ikea too (really?). We got the metal shelf things in their Summer sale tent and even the metal bins on the left are flower pots from there. They work really well in the space which is deep but not very wide. On the right and out of the shot are clothes hanging up. Stuff we use is on the top and the bottom rod holds stuff she'll grow into. I shop ahead to save money.

The pictures in the flickr set have been heavily tagged and commented on but if you have questions or want to know something (or make an offer on the rocker, ha ha), just let me know and I will answer it. I love this space and we spend a lot of time up there.

Zadie's nursery on the Ikea Hacker blog

I submitted our changing table hack to the Ikea Hacker blog months and months ago. Since I never saw it posted, I just figured it was a bad idea or something.

Today, it magically appeared.

We are still loving this. It works great, we love all the storage in the bins, and when Little Beastie is out of diapers, we'll be able to take this apart and make further use of it.

If it's not on your Google Reader already, you should make a point to add this cool blog. It's crazy what people can do with the stuff in that AS IS room (our first stop on any Ikea trip).

Zadie's nursery is famous

When I was pregnant, I spent hours (while I was at work) drooling over amazing nurseries on flickr and my favorite blogs. I really liked the nurseries featured on Apartment Therapy's blog for baby/kid stuff, ohdeedoh. When I finished up the space, I sent some photos to them and they liked it.

Carrie, the editor, sent me a list of excellent questions that took me three days to answer. The final result is up now. The link to the flickr set containing all the pics seems to be messed up so if you want to see them all, click here instead.

I really liked how she asked stuff like, "How did you incorporate so many items from Ikea without having the nursery look like an Ikea showroom?" That was really hard to answer. I don't know how good ideas come to me. I just know what I like and I'm always surprised when something turns out well.

Trofast as changing table

When I was buying the furniture for Zadie's nursery, I couldn't let myself buy a regular changing table. It was hard to find anything attractive for less than $100. A lot of the brands weren't even made of real wood. Also, once your kid is potty trained, you have this odd piece of "wood" with no other use.

So when I saw the Trofast system at Ikea, I did some measuring and came up with this idea. We bought the stair-step piece and the single unit. Mr. Lemon cut a piece of plywood 1" larger than the changing table pad. I had some teal fleece in a bin so I cut it to size, wrapped it around the plywood and stapled it to the plywood like I was stretching a canvas. So the staples wouldn't scratch the Trofast pieces, I used double-sided tape to put a layer of felt on top of the staples. Mr. Lemon was concerned about safety so he somehow attached the two Trofast pieces together (leaving enough distance between them so that the plywood would fit nicely).

This has been working great for us. The Trofast system is the same size as a standard changing table and doesn't kill Mr. Lemon's back like the pack n play does. The best part about this is that when the baby's no longer in diapers, we'll have a great storage system for all her stuff. If we're lucky, she won't crack her head too many times while she's climbing all over it.

I have more pictures of this system and the nursery over on my flickr.