Nursery reveal! Gender Neutral "Reading is for the Birds" Nursery

After much trouble and tribulation with this room, it is finally (mostly) finished! (I would still like to get a small side table and a lamp to go next to the crib, but I couldn't wait to take pictures for a small thing like that!)

I am so in love with this room. And the fact that it was the worst room in the house when we bought it, that's saying something! I'm too excited to try to be witty or smart, so I'm just going to get on with the pictures.

My favorite part of this room is the bookshelves and bench seat that I built and installed with a little help from my dad. You can see the post on how I did it here.

Scribbles&Dabbles: Nursery Makeover -- window bench seat

I also made the roman blinds, pillows and bench cushion. The blinds were super simple, though a little time consuming considering the size of this window. I followed the tutorial from Little Green Notebook here. The fabric was a little bit of a dilemma for me. If you look at the picture above, you can see the chair I refinished a couple of years ago. I love the bold colors on it, and the pattern, but I wasn't sure how to coordinate with it without competing for visual space. It took me a full two or three weeks of agonizing over this before it dawned on me: don't compete! I went with black and off-white toile and it blends perfectly!

I was also a little skeptical of my ability to make a bench cushion that wouldn't look like a 12-year-old had sewed it. I can sew, but straight lines and zippers are a little beyond my skill. Then I found this tutorial on Pinterest from Beneath My Heart. Life saved! It was so, so, so easy!

Scribbles&Dabbles: Nursery Makeover -- bookshelves

Above the crib, I put two pieces of art that I made in a couple of hours. I had two old, used canvases that I had picked up at the thrift store. I didn't want to take the time to paint them white, then repaint them with a picture. I found an old book without a front cover (Complete Sherlock Holmes--even better!), ripped some pages out and pasted them on with a flour & water glue. It took a few hours to dry, but then I just drew my design on with a pencil and painted it in! Anyone could do this project, I assure you!

Scribbles&Dabbles: Nursery Makeover -- newsprint art

Some framed pictures of the baby and this wall was finished. I love that my kids can reach all the books they want to look at and read. And the Bench seat opens and stores all of our clunky, hard to store big toys, like the girls play vacuum, balls, and Fisher-Price medieval castle.

Scribbles&Dabbles: Nursery Makeover -- framed art

On the other side of the room, I wanted another piece of art that would go along with my theme for the room. As you can see on the pillows, I found some fabric that had letters all over it. The bookshelves hold all of our kids books. Owls are (for some reason) associated with learning and scholarship, and I loved that it all kind of went together. This knock-off version of Pottery Barn's Vintage Keys from The Charming Nest seemed like a perfect fit. This was extremely inexpensive for me to make, since I had some trim leftover from finishing the bench seat, and I found some thin finished plywood at Home Depot for around $6. I think the most expensive thing was the stain and most of us DIYers have that already. Are you astonished that this is my first staining project? I kind of am. :)