nursery reveal (+16 months).

We've made a ton of changes in this house since moving in almost six years ago. Some of the changes were due to security issues (windows, garage door, locks), and some were due to the age of the house (plumbing and electrical updates), but most have been just us trying to make this house fit our style and our needs. The kitchen was definitely the biggest, longest, and most dramatic makeover (and finding that link makes me realize that I never did an official "after" post for the kitchen...time to get on that), but the only other room that's had such a complete redo is Rowan's nursery. What all did we change? Well, pretty much everything except the floor! We:

• Painted the walls (they were beige when we moved in, then we painted them McDonald's yellow, now they're gray)
• Added crown and shoe moulding
• Replaced the closet door with a curtain
• Painted the closet interior and added storage in the closet
• Got new windows and added window treatments
• Updated outlets, light switches, and vent covers (from beige to white ones)
• Painted the door and added decorative moulding
• Replaced the ceiling light
• Added furniture, a rug, lighting, artwork, and shelving

I shared our progress on the nursery redo here, here, here, and here, but I never did an actual reveal of the final product - mostly because it wasn't completely finished when Rowan was born. And other than diaper and clothing changes, she didn't really use it for a few months, considering she slept in our room at first (using the term "slept" loosely here, friends). But now it's definitely her room - and we all love it. So here we go: Rowan's room, before and after! (Sorry about the lighting...Michigan in January + limited photography skills, you know?)

Rowan's bedroom is the smallest of our three (it's about 10' x 11'), so we've put every inch to use. This is our cuddling and reading corner, with a floor lamp behind the glider, favorite books stacked all over the nightstand, and heavy books (our parenting books - not her books) stashed in the ottoman. You can also see the current window treatments - Roman shades that J.J.'s mom made, complete with blackout liners.

Moving around the room clockwise...

Our Ikea HEMNES dresser (with different knobs from an Etsy shop) almost eliminates the need for storing clothes in the closet - it's that big. Even though baby clothes take up WAY more time and energy than I ever imagined (buying, sorting, returning, exchanging, washing, and updating with each season/growth spurt), I'm happy to say that, thanks to this dresser, they don't take up more space than we have. We keep all sorts of stuff organized in here: burp cloths, hair ties, diapers, grooming items, socks, tights, jammies, onesies, shirts, sweaters, pants, skirts, and overalls. I even have room to keep some of the next-size clothes in a bottom drawer. We have our diaper pail to the left of the dresser, the hamper to the right, and her wipes, white-noise fan, and a dim lamp on top.

Moving again to the right...

The closet is actually such a speshul snowflake that it's going to get its own post, but you can see that we removed the door and replaced it with a curtain, built rain gutter bookshelves, hung a canvas made by friends, and painted the door to the room (and added decorative moulding to it...the door will also get its own post soon, lucky bastard).

And finally, the last side of the room...

Rowan deemed her crib (from Wal-Mart - the only thing I've ever bought there) worthy to sleep in when she was - god, I can't even remember. Five months? But not full-time until she was eight months or something? Not sure why she was so against it, considering how much I love it. Modern, streamlined, and has a storage drawer underneath, where we stash extra sheets, blankets, and sleep sacks. Two bummers about the crib: the drawer front scuffs really easily (maybe we'll paint it for Distant-Future Baby #2? It looks pretty bad as is), and the rails are especially tasty. We had to protect the rails on all four sides with hard plastic covers after Rowan spent some post-nap awake time gnawing a chunk out of the wood. We (...meaning J.J.'s very talented and patient mother) tried to make fabric rail covers, but they were too distracting for Her Highness, who thought they were new toys brought in solely to entertain her. She'd play with the ties and snaps until the rail was exposed and then get chewin'. As for the pictures on the walls - they're from Etsy, but, like the closet and the door, more on those in another post.

Oh! Almost forgot the other "wall" in the room:

That's the HYBY ceiling lamp from Ikea, replacing the actual, for-real PORCH LIGHT that the previous owners had installed in all three bedrooms. #fancyalert

All in all, Rowan's nursery meets all of her and our needs. In a perfect world, it would be a little bigger - the dresser takes up a lot of space, and the glider bangs against the wall if you stand up from it too quickly - but it's a calm, quiet room, and I'm pretty happy with how it looks now compared to before. That said, the truth is that I'm already mentally redecorating both the nursery and the guest room for if/when another bambino comes along! (Not for a quite a few moons, I guarantee you.) (Seriously.)