Nursery Update

Remember that "to-do" list I had for the nursery?  It went something like this:

1. Paint
2. Crib and changing table
3. Wall art
4. Lighting
5. Rug
6. Organize clothes/toys

Number one has (mostly) been crossed off of the list, as of last night. Here's what we started with:

The original color of the nursery was a mustardy yellow that looked perpetually dirty. Not only is yellow really not my thing, but this particular shade was just too much for me. Not to mention that at certain times of the day it looks like it has green undertones. No, thank you! Oh, and the light you see there? That's natural, from the windows on the other side of the room.

Here's another "before" shot. I do love this little built-in bookshelf on the wall.  It took two coats of primer to cover up the yellow paint:

We didn't tape off the windowsills or baseboard, because I plan on painting that as well. The finish on it is not great and is peeling in some places. In others, it just has a bad paint job! A coat of primer and a coat of glossy white paint will freshen it up. 

We had three options when it came to what color to paint the walls. We knew we wanted a light blue, so I picked three colors, each a little different, and got samplers. (Side note: how awesome is it that you can get little samples of the colors you want to try? So much better than taping up a little piece of paper on the wall). Here are the options:

We went with the color on the far left (Cloud Nine, from Olympic). We stuck with the Olympic Premium paint because it (and their primer) is zero VOC -- better for me and Meatball! I was very impressed with both - they both went on well and there was ZERO odor from painting. Anyways, back to the colors. The middle color (Blue Booties) was a little to bright for what we wanted (after all, we're not deluding ourselves that Meatball is a boy here) and the one on the right (Elegant something, can't remember!) was a little too grey.

So then we painted... in the wonderful heat that has sprung up here in CT. And it looks wonderful! We left the trim around the ceiling white (we had to prime it -- it had been yellow as well) and of course the windowsills and remainder of the trim will be repainted.

View into the back corner.

The little bookshelf and our temporary storage area!

You can see now where all the light on the back wall comes from! The room has seven (!) windows total. I'm not sure what I'm going to use for curtains yet -- I was thinking maybe something purple, or brown to block out the sun for nap time. 

The next project? Lighting... We actually already have a bit of a start on that and plans to finish it this weekend while Dad is here to help Jared with the wiring, etc. Why do we want new lights? Well, this is what was in the nursery:

Yes, it's rather retro. But Jared was hitting his head on it all the time, not to mention hitting his head on the other one which hung even lower. So they'll be replaced, hopefully this weekend! More pictures soon!