His First Room

As I mentioned previously, around about the time I painted the bathroom, I was having something of a mental/emotional breakdown about the baby's room. I knew there was plenty of time to take care of it, I knew he wouldn't have a clue what he was looking at in there anyway, and I knew there was no reason to get bent out of shape. I knew all of this, and yet the unfinishedness of it was just eating away at me. You know how they say pregnant women can sometimes be a tad irrational? Yeah, that's a thing.

In the weeks following our move into the apartment,
the room was reduced to a storage unit. Naturally, the room we had no everyday need for was the best place to shove anything we didn't have the patience to deal with.

So long as we kept the door closed, I remained in stable condition. But whenever I opened the door and saw this:


...I wanted to cry.



It took time, but eventually we managed to make our way through all of the clutter and get the rest of the apartment in working order. Then Devin took the time to Tetris all the boxes of brand new baby gear into the closet, where they could be temporarily out of sight and mind. And then, we worked together to assemble the crib with only minimal arguing and with only one "extra" screw that we may or may not have failed to put in.



Ah, ok. That's better.

Now I could at least think of things like layout and furniture and color schemes and decor. You know, the fun stuff. Or what could've been the fun stuff if hormones weren't rotting my brain.

Instead, I spent all of my free time at work looking at dressers, changing tables, cute lamps, wall decals, animal themes, sea themes, space themes, bold colors, pastel colors, neutral colors. Whenever I thought I was onto something I would email Devin pictures and links, and then he'd counter with something else that I'd also like and it'd undo all my progress.

There was one point where I was going to leave the walls the dark green color they were when we moved in just because it wasn't a horrible color and it would save some effort. But then I realized another way to save myself the trouble was just to have Devin do it. So when he was on a break from work he carefully transformed the room to baby blue. Classic.

Once that was taken care of, things started to fall into place. I realized there was no way I was ever going to get everything to match as one perfect scheme, so I concluded that the room's theme would be "stuff I wanted."

And, here 'tis!


There are a few elephants dotting the room, and they match the elephant bedding set (still in its box) that was all going to be a part of the elephant themed nursery that existed in my mind at some stage along the way.

But then I wanted to add this decal.



So the elephant thing got sort of displaced. Isn't that darling though?


The bookshelves were the cheapest thing ever, from Target. Only $30! They came with instructions someone should have paid me $30 for having to work through, however. These shelves were all we needed to start making sense of the piles of baby supplies crammed into the closet.



On the wall there is a trio of canvas prints with stenciled robots that Devin made himself as decor for our hallway in the old house. I liked the colors and decided I'd throw them into the mix. Then R2D2 wanted in on the action as well. And since he literally is a toy chest, it made sense for him to live in a kid's room and not in the dining room.


The futon is still a subject of contention. It doesn't really belong here and it's taking up space I would otherwise be able to use for a rocking chair. But we didn't buy it that long ago and it is the only place we can give guests to sleep and when unfolded it can be a good place for lounging around and naptime. So I'll just make some new pillowcases (sewing project!) and make peace with it.


I'm incredibly excited about the changing table/dresser combo.


These can be quite pricey and I really wasn't sure how we'd fit it into our budget. But clearly, it was necessary. I was on the Babies R Us website admiring this one and thinking it would match our other furniture. Then, on a whim, I turned to Craigslist and did a search for nursery furniture.

And wouldn't you know it? There was the very same dresser! $100 cheaper and already assembled. I immediately sent a possibly psychotic-seeming email to the seller and by that night it was mine! Mine! I mean, Oscar's!


The closet is still stuffed, but now appropriately so. If you're wondering about that contraption on the left, don't worry it's got nothing to do with infant care. It's actually made for the much bigger baby who hangs upside down on it for spine alignment... or something.

Last night I hung up the final touch, this print that Devin ordered of a picture he'd seen somewhere around the interwebs. Since we're naming our little guy Oscar, he may as well have a pic of someone who shares the name. Isn't Devin so cute and clever for thinking of that?


And now *deep breath* the blue-green-owl-robot-elephant-tree-droid themed room is complete.

Oh, except for the baby. :)