This week for the One Room Challenge, some big stuff finally made it into the room. I’m talking shelves and furniture, including a crib. Plus I hung my DIY modern mobile. It’s looking like a real nursery!
Someone commented last week that Juniper must be a good sleeper for me to be getting so much done with a newborn baby, so I wanted to make it clear that I’m barely getting anything done right now! As I mentioned in the first week of the challenge, we worked ahead and finished the nursery weeks before her due date, April 10. Though she is currently sleeping next to me, I feel like I’m spending most of my time feeding her. Just finding the time to finish editing the photos and write this post between nursing sessions was tricky. I don’t want any other new moms to feel like they should be able to find the time to put together a nursery while caring for a newborn, because I definitely wouldn’t be able to do it!
If you’ve just arrived at DIY in PDX via the ORC blog, welcome! I’m Rachel, and I blog about everything DIY, from fixing up my old house, to making accessories and decor, to growing plants and cooking. For the Fall 2020 One Room Challenge, I’m sharing the gut renovation of the most-used bathroom in my house.
The Crib
We had originally planned to get this crib, but it was out of stock in white when I went to order it. So we got this one instead, which is basically exactly the same except with a trundle drawer. They’re both relatively inexpensive 4-in-1 convertible cribs with excellent user reviews, so either seemed like a good choice. It seemed wasteful to get something that would only get used during infancy, but they can both be converted to toddler beds, meaning that we can keep the same bed for years.
More storage seems like a good thing, right? The only downside for the one with the drawer is that reviewers pointed out that you can see all of the stuff in the drawer, especially with the mattress at the highest height. So I was prepared for that, and they were right. But it was pretty easy to fix.
A store-bought crib skirt would have solved the problem, but I sewed my own with fabric from my stash. It’s actually leftover scraps from hemming my favorite Ikea curtains (this is why I can never throw anything away). I cut the fabric into three strips, one to go along the long side, and two shorter ones to go along the short sides. Since the crib is against the wall, that side didn’t need a skirt.
To attach it to the crib springs, I sewed ribbon ties on the corners and middle of each strip. I think I did four or five ribbon ties for the longest strip. If you have a crib with a solid platform instead of springs, I saw instructions where someone used sew-on and stick-on Velcro strips to attach their crib skirt. The nice thing about either of these methods, though, is that if you end up lowering the crib, you can shorten the crib skirt length by moving the ties or Velcro.
Much tidier, right?
The Shelves
For the shelves, I knew I wanted to use these natural wood shelf brackets. But I think I got unlucky with my timing when I was buying the shelves themselves, because all of Ikea’s plain white shelves were showing up as out of stock at my local store. They seem to have been switching over to these new shelves, which weren’t available a couple of months ago when I was putting these up. After a couple of trips to Ikea and Home Depot, I eventually settled on these shelves. Just a warning, though, I had to sift through every shelf in stock to find the nicest ones. Most of them were pretty scuffed or poorly-assembled.
You can see that we also put up my DIY modern mobile here, which is over the head of the crib.
We actually only intended to put up one shelf at first, but then we decided it looked too empty behind the hanging chair. So I went and got another set of brackets and another shelf.
It still felt too empty in the corner by the hanging chair, so I also added these cute little circle shelves. They help bridge the gap between the gallery wall and the shelf without adding too much clutter to the space.
So that’s where I am for week 5, and I’m so excited to share the finished space next week! It’s all done, and it’s even cuter than I had pictured.
