For the past few months I have been hard at work putting all of the things for the nursery in order. I feel so happy with the result and so blessed to be able to create a fun space for our little man! I made a lot of the things myself, so I will include a few of those DIY photos at the end of the post.
Baby Askham's Vintage Travel Themed Nursery
One of our life long dreams has been to be able to go to Europe. As a matter of fact, when we considered starting our family, one of the big points was to realize that we wouldn't be able to go to Europe for quite a while longer. I would never take back that decision as having this little kiddo has already brought me more joy than a vacation ever could, but I did become tender-hearted as I thought of how my son's challenges might prevent him from seeing the world. After a few weeks of scouring pinterest for a solution, I decided to create a travel themed nursery to bring the world to him! Without further ado, here it is!
 |
| View from doorway: Baby's cradle, handmade by Great-Grandpa Leonard, vintage rose colored rocker that was used by Derek's family when HE was just a baby, beautiful handmade quilt by the wonderful Harriot Hagedorn, Grandpa Leonard's partner, vintage travel posters in Better Homes and Gardens 8x10 floating frames, and chevron curtains from Wal-Mart |
 |
| I made the hot-air balloon mobile and pennant banner myself. I love how they turned out. |
 |
| Ikea "Bekvam" spice racks painted ivory and used for bookshelves. |
 |
| Yellow 4x6 frames from Dollar Tree (originally brown and blue), Summer infant changing pad and cover in "grey lattice," changing table spinning organizer from Hobby Lobby. Dresser found on craigslist and completely redone! |
 |
| "How wonderful life is, now you're in the world" watercolor painting by me. |
 |
| View of the entry. |
 |
| Dresser and bookshelves. |
I am absolutely and completely exhausted, but also super satisfied with how everything turned out! I cannot believe that soon a real human baby will reside in this room!
Behind the Scenes: DIYs
Dresser
 |
| Original photo from craigslist add. The dresser is actually a compressed wood- here it is primed. I loved the vintage touches. |
 |
| The dresser needed a lot of work, I actually sanded a lot of it down, sealed it with another coat of Kilz, and then painted it a beautiful olive green. |
 |
| I spray painted the hardware a glossy ivory. It's my favorite part! |
Pennant Banners
 |
| I got this super cute scrapbook paper (jillibean soup, link at end of post) from Hobby Lobby. I felt like $20 was a little steep so I used a 40% off coupon. I also picked up some cute map scrapbook paper to work into the design. |
 |
| I selected the papers I wanted to use and then cut out my flags. I am no engineer so I looked up how to cut the 12x12 paper to get the flag shape I wanted. My pennant flags are 8 inches long, 6 inches wide (I got three out of each sheet of 12x12). |
 |
| I picked up some ivory ribbon from the dollar tree. At this point, I hadn't actually measured the exact length of the room, but I got three spools and it ended up being exactly enough to go all the way around the room. Isn't that crazy? I sewed them on my sewing machine with about 3" in between each flag. It ended up being so perfect! |
Vintage Travel Posters
 |
| Floating frames are one of my favorite things and they ended up being the perfect solution for the travel posters. I painted them in the same olive color as the dresser and hung them on the opposing wall. |
 |
| Travel Posters are all unique sizes, so I needed a frame that wouldn't cut off part of the photo just because it wasn't a perfect 8x10. These did just the trick! I printed all of my travel posters for FREE from freevintageposters.com |
Yellow Frames
 |
| I got these ugly frames from the Dollar Tree because I could see that, deep down, they wanted to be painted sunshine yellow. Up until this point I hadn't included any yellow in the design (and I am not a big yellow fan)... THAT is how much they spoke to me. |
 |
| Ahh, so much better. I love going to the Dollar Tree for my frames, it's just about knowing what to look for and be willing to walk away if they don't have it. I knew I wanted something with visual interest (love the molding!), that also had a thick frame. Some Dollar Tree frames are easy to spot because their molding is strangely thin and has almost no depth, so if you want your frames to look expensive, find something with a fat, happy frame. |
 |
| I used more of the jillibean scrapbook paper to create some art for the inside. Each frame features the place where Derek, Me, and Baby were (or will be) born, as well as where we met. Here we have Butte, Montana (Derek's birthplace), Rota, Spain (my birth place), Pullman, Washington (where we met), and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (where baby will be born). I love how they turned out! |
Watercolor Art
 |
| I knew I wanted some sort of map/globe art for the baby's room, but I was shocked when I went on etsy and saw how expensive it was. Instead, I elected to make my own watercolor. |
 |
| Here it is almost finished, just needs the sharpie! |
 |
| Here is the final product picture (again). |
I had so much fun! Thank you for checking out our reveal and being so supportive throughout this pregnancy. We couldn't do it without you!
As promised, here are those links for some of the products we used:
Scrapbook paper: http://www.scrapbook.com/store/js-jb0651.html
Vintage travel posters: http://www.freevintageposters.com/
Ikea Spice Racks: http://www.amazon.com/Ikea-400-701-85-Bekvam-Spice-Birch/dp/B00PNKZ0DO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460170028&sr=8-1&keywords=ikea+spice+rack
Curtains: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-Graphic-Chevron-Panel-Set-of-2/37212677
