Nursery pics - it's finally done!

So Hank's room is finally done!  We may add a rug (the one I ordered and waited a month to get was totally wrong, so I sent it back).  But otherwise our Richard Scarry / vintage kids' book-themed nursery is as done as it's going to be right now.

Just last week Julian finally finished the last of the Richard Scarry murals.  He definitely put his heart and soul into these paintings and it shows - they are beyond super amazing.  I love them and I sure hope Hank loves them even half as much as I do. 

We picked out the soft green wall color when we had the upstairs remodeled last year - it was sort of a premonition - just in case we did decide to adopt or have our own baby the walls would be ready with a neutral color and we love it.  The rest of the room was a blank palette and luckily was empty.

We bought all the furniture (except the crib) used, at vintage stores and I repainted them.  Julian repainted the rocking chair though, which was his parents', given to them as a honeymoon present and they gave it to us probably 10+ years ago.  We painted it horrible colors long ago, so it had to be stripped and repainted.  I also sewed the curtains (Little Golden Book fabric) and was so happy to see the color goes great with the furniture I painted a really pretty blue (it was called 'newborn blue').

The rest you can check out for yourself:

Before picture

Another before picture

Julian in action on the first painting

All done!

Detail of the Bear Band mural above crib

The Polite Elephant mural

Detail of the Lowly mural near Polite Elephant

Cute Richard Scarry bunny holding saw (no embellishments!)

Baby stuff on the cheap - the challenge

So most of you know that Julian and I are having a baby (due date is September 8th).  I've set out to try and aquire as much stuff as cheaply as possible.  Once I make something a goal I just latch onto it, kind of like when we got married so many years ago (9/02) and decided it would be a DIY punk rock wedding.  When we decided not to spend too much money on a wedding we really went for it and spent hardly any - yet had the most amazing wedding ever (thanks to our awesome friends and family that pitched in of course).

Plus used and vintage stuff can have so much more character than just buying used stuff that everyone else also has. 

Here is what we've bought so far that is used (and sometimes vintage):
Dresser (I repainted it and put new knobs from Rejuvenation on it)
Bookcase (I repainted this)
Vintage shelving unit (I also repainted this)
Elephant lamp (Julian had to replace the interior lighting, but that was cheap)
Baby Bjorn carrier
Baby monitor
Bathtub
Bouncy seat (identical to the new one already bought, will return new one)
Diaper covers (10 pack for only $35!) for new cloth diapers
Blankets (swaddling, receiving)
Hooded towels
Clothes (all sorts, plus hats, socks & bibs)

Here are things that friends/family have given us so far:
Bassinet (thank you Liby & Krystin)
Breast pump (thank you Liby)
Rocking chair (from Julian's parents many years ago, but getting repainted)
Play chair (thank you Mom) - I'm not sure what these are technically called
Many, many clothes from newborn - 4T (thank you Trang, my lovely boss)

I'm sure we'll have more used stuff to add to the list before this is over!  Plus I will be posting pics of our nursery in progress (Julian's amazing paintings are progressing nicely) and of course once it's finished.

Nursery ideas

This will be my first of many posts about the baby's room/nursery.  I hate that word "nursery".  It's like "fiance".  Anyway, I shall get past that.  Our theme is going to be vintage kid's books.  Lots of colors, mostly primary.  We decided this before we found out the sex of our baby, and loved it for either a boy or a girl.  The walls are already painted a nice, soft green (more on the pastel side), but it'll be a good palette.  Julian is going to paint some murals/pictures on the walls - this I cannot wait for!  I was a huge Richard Scarry fan as a kid, and we both love his artwork.  So lots of Richard Scarry on the walls!  We're trying to buy as much used/vintage as possible - so far we bought an old bookcase, a vintage wall shelving unit and we already have an old rocking chair - all to be refinished.  We also have the crib.  That's about it.  Here are my fabric ideas for curtains - there are 2 windows in the main baby room and one in the smaller room that will be the "playroom" or flow-over room.  I plan to have the curtains made by Hubbard's Drapery on Foster - they made our kitchen curtains and did a really fabulous job.  The top one is a Little Golden Book fabric that I plan to use for the 2 windows in the main room.  The lower is of The Saggy Baggy Elephant that will probably go on the one window in the playroom.  Cute!