In Week 3 of the One Room Challenge, I focused on making a few DIY decor items.  As with the first two weeks of the ORC, it was a struggle to work on the nursery to-do list.  I managed to tackle a couple of my goals and learned how to wear the baby to help accomplish these goals while simultaneously snuggling.

To quickly recap the project, I’m creating a gender neutral vintage toy themed nursery (with a few easily reversed girly touches) for our seven-week old daughter and any subsequent children.  We moved into our house less than three months before she arrived, so our main focus for her bedroom (and the rest of the house!) was to create a functional space without worrying much about how it looked.  Now that she’s here, I’m taking it from functional to fun!

Make

The main goal I set for myself this week was to make a few items for Little Miss’s bedroom.  The tasks I hoped to accomplish were:

• Make DIY photo ledges – I didn’t make it out to Lowe’s for the wood, so this item remains undone.  I also don’t have a clear vision for where to put them, so this particular project is on the backburner at this point.
• Arrange and hang the hairbow wall in her closet – Check!  (but it took about 12 times as long as it should have, thanks to frequent interruptions)
• Add pink or navy ribbon trim to a plain white lampshade – Nope.  I hadn’t thought much about how to attach the ribbon to the shade until I was about to begin…and then I realized I was missing the right adhesive.
• Make the DIY toy lamp (if I could locate the toys with which to fill it in our unpacked boxes) – Nope.  Didn’t open a single box in search of said toys, so this item remains undone, too, and probably will for a while.

I was able to tackle a few additional items:

Spray

I bought this cross-stitch alphabet the day I found out I was expecting a tiny human.  I’d seen it several months before and decided that if it was still at the antique store, I’d buy it.  It was my lucky day.  Not only was it still there, but the booth was having a 50% off sale!  I never loved the yellow frame, which was also scratched, and decided to spray paint it navy.

The second item that received a new coat of paint was the cross-stitch my mom made when my oldest brother was born.  Now, 40 years later, it hangs in Little Miss’s room.  I wanted it to coordinate better with the rest of the room and also thought the cross-stitch would stand out better against a navy frame than the bright blue.

I recruited the Mister to hang a few items, including the cross-stitch, but I’ve yet to pull off the paper protecting the glass.  In the meantime a scary sideways lady stares at us every time we change a diaper.

Glue

I pulled out the glue gun and some hot pink ribbon to add two fun girly touches to the room.  Both are easily moved to another room with Little Miss in the event we ever use this room for a male child.

The first touch of pink will be on a lampshade.  I realize before I got started that hot glue would probably show through the ribbon, so decided to hold off until I could get to the fabric store for some peel’n’stick adhesive.  I went back and forth between pink and navy ribbon and in the end chose the pink.  I preferred to use grosgrain for this project and since I could only find satin navy ribbon in by stash, I went with the pink grosgrain.

The second touch of pink is on the board I made for the hairbow wall in her closet.  I didn’t have a clear vision for what the board would look like before I got started.  While digging through my fabric stash, I found the navy gingham cafe curtains I made in a sewing class I took 9 years ago.  I decided they were perfect to cover the foam memory board I salvaged from the garbage on move-out day my sophomore year of college…in 2006!  It now has four layers on it from various changes I’ve made to it over the years.

The fabric had faded strangely from years of late afternoon sun exposure, but somehow it doesn’t really show on the finished board.

Hairbow wall in closet

No little girl from the South can get away with not accumulating a ridiculous collection of hairbows.  Ours is no exception to that rule!  Already, before she reaches the end of her second month of life, she has more hairbows than I ever did – and less hair!

I made the board in such a way that we can use it as a memory/photo display board when she outgrows hairbows.  This thing is like a cat – it has nine lives!

In addition to the board, we hung two Ikea spice racks – one upright and one upside down.  I’m not 100% sure how I will use them, but they’re up!  Headbands will likely hang from the upside down one, and we’ll see what winds up in the right-side up one.

A DIY project from last year’s Haven conference caps off the wall.  Three knobs and a slat of wood came together to create the perfect place to hang baby girl’s next outfit each day, right down to the cute little headband.

Goals for Next Week

I’ll keep plowing drifting through the to-do list in Week 4… In the meantime, take a look at the other great One Room Challenge projects!

Pretty much everything still remains on the to-do list:

• Paint and reupholster (or slipcover) glider – purchased for $15 at a neighbor’s yard sale years ago
• Paint and re-cover window bench; add pretty bins to store toys, books, etc.
• Hang art and photos, including art/pages from old children’s books I intend to get to a thrift store to purchase…
• Create an oversized piece of art to hang over crib
• Buy or DIY a ladder to hang blankets
• Buy or DIY picture ledges
• Find a pretty keepsake box to store special papers, hospital bracelets, etc.
• Possibly add a rug to the center of the room
• Replace light fixture with either a ceiling fan or prettier fixture
• Select paint color; paint wall (keep eyes open for rebate at Lowe’s – often offered around holidays like Columbus or Veterans’ Day)
• Create rubber ducky themed bathroom featuring souvenir rubber duckies and décor items left over from my college bathroom
• Use blank wall in closet to create hairbow storage/display
• Better organize the large but cluttered closet
• Use DIY Medal Display Shelf from old house as a curtain rod to hang old curtains from master bedroom at our old house
• Various other small DIY projects, including
  • creating a vintage toy lamp,
  • adding ribbon trim to lampshade,
  • lengthening curtains (ceilings here are higher than at our old house),
  • sewing a changing pad cover

In Week 2 of the One Room Challenge, I made a tiny bit of forward progress.  This week was a tough one for getting much of anything accomplished. Little Miss had some congestion and was fussy. As a result, I spent a lot of time just hanging out and holding her instead of putting her in her swing or bouncy seat so I could do things. I kept reminding myself that she won’t be tiny forever and has no idea what her room looks like – she doesn’t even sleep in it yet – so whether I get photos framed or curtains hung or decide on a paint color on a certain day doesn’t truly matter.

To quickly recap Week 1, I shared that I am creating a gender neutral vintage toy themed nursery for our six-week old daughter and any subsequent children.  We moved two and a half months before she arrived, so our main focus for her bedroom (and the rest of the house!) was to create a functional space without worrying much about how it looked.  Now that she’s here, I’m taking it from functional to fun!

Gather

The main goal I set for myself this week was to gather items that I plan to use in Little Miss’s bedroom from around the house.  Gathering various bulletin boards and curtain rods from within my own house seems like a pretty lousy goal, but so many boxes remain unpacked and things are a little hard to find.  We stashed so many things  in closets or in the garage to get them out of the way, but I found nearly everything I set out to find! It felt like a pretty big accomplishment.  Only a few items have eluded me so far and will require further searching.

order Photos

Another goal I set was to order photos of her first month.  I won’t use them all in her room, but I want to start out on a good foot keeping up with photos of her life.  I’m so far behind on the photos of our first 10 years of marriage that it seems overwhelming to even start on them – and I plan to do a better job for her!

When I placed that order, I also selected a 5×7 to put in the pretty silver frame that has remained empty since I received as a gift for helping to host a wedding shower four or five years ago.

Clear out the Closet Clutter

That said, I did make a little bit of progress.  A good friend and my sister-in-law lent their daughters’ outgrown baby clothes to us, but I hadn’t had time to look at anything beyond the Newborn sizes.  It was like Christmas morning looking through those bins! I organized the 0-3 month items in her dresser and closet, leaving the larger sizes stowed away to discover when the time comes.  I further cleared out the closet by moving most of the huge stash of diapers into a dresser drawer for easier access.  Several large items we don’t need to use regularly fit under the crib, creating even more floor space in the closet.

While the closet is fairly large, the space is underutilized.  I also strongly dislike wire shelving and would like to replace it with wood.  One afternoon while sitting on the couch holding my girl, I used my free hand to sketch out how I would like to reconfigure the shelving.  In my former life, I would have been able to knock this project out in a day or two, but our current situation will make it take a bit longer unless I’m able to bring in some reinforcements.  I have low expectations for completing this project during the 6-week time frame of the One Room Challenge.  Just organizing the space will probably have to do for now!

Goals for Next Week

The word to sum up Week 3’s goals is ‘Make’.  Among the tasks: make DIY photo ledges (if I can get to Lowe’s to buy the wood!), arrange and hang the hair bow wall in her closet, add pink or navy ribbon to a plain white lampshade, and make the DIY toy lamp (the toys are among the items I haven’t found yet, so this might not happen!).

Here’s to getting a little more done in Week 3… In the meantime, take a look at the other great One Room Challenge projects!

Pretty much everything remains on the to-do list:

• Paint and reupholster (or slipcover) glider – purchased for $15 at a neighbor’s yard sale years ago
• Paint and re-cover window bench; add pretty bins to store toys, books, etc.
• Hang art and photos, including art/pages from old children’s books I intend to get to a thrift store to purchase…
• Create an oversized piece of art to hang over crib
• Buy or DIY a ladder to hang blankets
• Buy or DIY picture ledges
• Find a pretty keepsake box to store special papers, hospital bracelets, etc.
• Possibly add a rug to the center of the room
• Replace light fixture with either a ceiling fan or prettier fixture
• Select paint color; paint wall (keep eyes open for rebate at Lowe’s – often offered around holidays like Columbus or Veterans’ Day)
• Create rubber ducky themed bathroom featuring souvenir rubber duckies and décor items left over from my college bathroom
• Use blank wall in closet to create hairbow storage/display
• Better organize the large but cluttered closet
• Use DIY Medal Display Shelf from old house as a curtain rod to hang old curtains from master bedroom at our old house
• Various other small DIY projects, including
  • creating a vintage toy lamp,
  • adding ribbon trim to lampshade,
  • lengthening curtains (ceilings here are higher than at our old house),
  • sewing a changing pad cover
• Paint room