Ayla's Nursery

I know I had a baby 3 months ago and I am just now getting around to posting pictures of her nursery, but just so everyone knows the nursery has been done for a while.  Way before she was born.  I wanted to wait for Grandma Lisa to bring out her adorable bedding before I posted pictures so we could all enjoy the final completed look.  Then we still had visitors for a while and then I kinda forgot about it and became consumed with posting all pictures Ayla. 

Anyway, here it is!  Turned out pretty adorable if you ask me!

If you remember back in December I did our Christmas decor for $100 or less.  Well I did the same thing with her nursery.  I made, found and bargained all of the decor.  Challenges 1. We are renting so we couldn't do anything that would damage the walls and we couldn't paint.  2. One wall is painted blue, so I needed to find a way to incorporate blue in the color scheme while still making it look girly.  3.  This room also doubles as a guest room with a queen size bed, so space was limited.

Theme.
I debated between doing an Under the Sea Theme or a Bird Theme.  I discovered this little craft shop that was going out of business and selling a bunch of stuff for dirt cheap so I loaded up, one of the things she had was a bird cage and that is what finally made me choose to do the Bird theme.  It was a sign! Everything fell into place from there.  From the craft shop, I got the bird house, the copper basket on the dresser, the large picture frame, a bunch of ribbon, and a glue gun.  I also got a ton of other things to make all of Ayla's girly headbands.  Total spent at craft shop $20.

Crib
The first thing we bought was the crib.  That is the only item not included in the $100 budget.  All the furniture in this room was white, so I was originally thinking white crib.  But when I found this black crib I fell in love, plus we got a really good deal.  Which is important since we will be trying to sell it when we are ready to leave.  So then I needed to incorporate black accessories so the black crib didn't look out of place.

Bamboo Tree 

 I found this tree on the beach.  Can you believe that?  It was covered in fishing wire. I cut of the wire and gave it a rinse and wipe down and it was good to go.  No sanding or anything!  So easy! The tree is made of bamboo and is extremely light weight.  It was a really pretty color naturally, but I felt like it would stand out and coordinate better with the crib if it was black.  So I painted the tree black.  Then I got a cardboard box, cut a hole in the top, painted it black and put the tree in the box to use it as a stand and to add a little height.  Luckily for me there is no shortage of boxes since Chris has a whole warehouse full and they get weekly shipments.  The bird house was originally a natural wood color also and I painted it pink. Total spent on paint $20.  Then I hung some of her clothes, shoes, hats and headbands on the tree.  

 

Wall Art. 

If you remember back in October I posted this picture here and said I was going to recreate it and hang it above the crib.  Well here it is my recreated version and two others to go along with it.  I made all three pictures out of scrapbook paper.  The backgrounds are scrapbook paper and the birds, flowers, and leaves are also made of scrapbook paper that I cut out and glued on.  I drew the tree and flower stems with a black sharpie marker.  I got a deal on a pack of scrapbook paper 25 sheets for $10.  The two side frames I found for free.  All three were different colors so I painted them all black (same black paint as before). Then I printed out the Ayla's name in a large font and cut out each letter.  Yep, those letters are just plain printer paper and printer ink.  Doesn't get much easier than that. 

This is the basket I got from the craft shop, books and monkey were gifts, lamp and dresser came with the apartment.

Bedding.

Grandma Lisa made the bumper pads and crib blanket.  She did such an amazing job.  It really brings the nursery together.  The blanket on the back of the crib was a gift from a friends and the dress was Ayla's first Sunday dress handmade by her Great Aunt Linda.  The pillows I got a steal on.  Chris won a $25 gift card on the radio to this super cute shop called Beyond the Horizon.  So happens that the day I go to check it out they were having a huge sale and all there pillows were 40% off.  So with the discount and the gift card I got both these pillows for $7.  

Coconut Branch 

This is the other wall in the room.  There is this tall dresser in the center the closet to the left and the door to the guest bathroom to the right.  See that branch in the vase.  You might remember that from this post.  Yep found that branch on the beach.  It is a coconut tree branch.  I painted it black and stuck it in a vase.  I also found and collected some rocks then used the left over paint from the bird house and painted half of them pink and put them in the bottom of the vase.  The vase I found at a charity auction event for $4.  The lamp and dresser came with the room and the bear was part of a valentine gift from Chris that now holds the hand sanitizer. 

For functionality more than design I use the tree branch to hang some of Ayla's headbands. Then I added the second pink vase which originally held some flowers we received while at the hospital. Inside the pink vase holds all of Ayla's socks so they are easy to find, and then around the vase more headbands.

Storage

In the corner between the closet and the queen bed there is this little shelf guy. I added him for extra storage.  The white metal shelf was actually originally in the closet and came with the apartment. But I decided we could use the extra closet space so I pulled it out.  Then I found four cardboard boxes that were perfect size to fit inside.  Free thanks to Chris's warehouse. I painted the boxes black then glued a sheet of scrapbook paper to the front and added the large blue ribbon as trim along the top.  Same scrapbook paper I used for the Wall Art. Ribbon was included in the stuff I bought at the craft shop.  It also provides a great place to hold Ayla's bath seat and the current towel she is using.  

Inside the boxes they carry extra wipes, diapers, towels, washcloths, bath toys etc.

This is the rest of the room.  The guest queen size bed. A big window and the blue wall I mentioned earlier. The curtains came with the room and I really like them. 

Zuri loves that the window sill is low and wide enough for her to comfortably sit and lay.  She loves that she can look out the window and lay in the sun.   If ever she seems to have temporarily disappeared I usually find her here.

And there you have it, Ayla's Nursery.

So how did I do? 

I needed to buy a few miscellaneous items like glue and picture hanging stuff which added another $10. 

So that brought the grand total to $71!!  Not to bad folks, not bad at all!