Our changing table is just a changing pad set atop bookshelves with doors. The pink flower knobs help the unit look like it belongs in a little girl’s nursery instead of an office space (which is what it’s meant for). Also, I’m glad my mom recommended getting a lamp with a dimmer. I can have just enough light to change and nurse Eleanor when she wakes in the middle of the night, but I can keep it dark enough to signal that it is still nighttime (and that she should be sleeping!).

Behind the bookshelves you can see the closet and its little built-in shelves. Quite a while back, I had decided to fill those shelves with wooden blocks and spools. I’ve also added a vintage pull-toy that I picked up at a garage sale and a name train that we received as a gift. We’ll have to remove some of these toys once we really start baby-proofing, but for now they all look cute.

Here’s a view of the other side of the room.

Both Brandon and I slept in Jenny Lind cribs when we were babies, and now our daughter does too.

I bought the mobile that’s hanging above the cribthe mobile that’s hanging above the crib a few months ago with the intention of altering it slightly because it was far too big. It’s now much better suited to the small scale of our nursery.

We have some paper suitcases from my shop on top of the dresser that we painted pink. There’s also a big metal ‘E’ and a pink vase from a garage sale, along with Brandon’s childhood stuffed bear. He loved that bear so much he hugged the stuffing out of the middle! It’s incredibly sweet, and we hope Eleanor will love it as much as he did.

The little sunken alcove next to the dresser will be a play space for Eleanor once she’s old enough. I wrote a little more about that back in January.

And now I’ll leave you with this parting shot, the view from the doorway…

I’ve listed all of the nursery resources in a previous post, so take a look if you’re wondering where something in the room came from. Thanks for letting me share Eleanor’s nursery with you!

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“What? I’m supposed to do what all day? Uh, no.”

The nursery photos are forthcoming, I promise.

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We need a new window in Eleanor’s room.

The one that’s there now is actually falling off of the house — yikes! While it isn’t quite at the point of being dangerous (it’s still sort of attached), the gap does let hornets and other bugs in. If we had a proper functioning window, we could actually open it for some fresh air. What a concept!

And I know, I know. I really need to post the finished nursery.

We would like a new light in the library.

The one that’s in there now is just plain ugly, and it doesn’t even cover the hole in the ceiling for the junction box. The ceilings in the library are only 7.5′ tall, so we need something that doesn’t hang down very far.

I’ve had my eye on the Chase Ceiling Mount for a while now, but they keep pushing the availability date back. I’ve been patiently waiting, but perhaps it’s time to find another option.

Our bathroom needs some serious help.

It was bad when we moved in.

We did do a minor update about a year and a half ago with paint and accessories for about $300…

And while it’s much cuter than it was, that was just a temporary fix. We want to make some structural changes and relocate the toilet a few feet over into what’s now a closet space. Oh, and um, maybe we could have a white tub and toilet instead of blue?

The outside of our house also needs some serious help.

At the very least, we need to paint the trim. We also would like to resurface the dormers to match the stucco on the rest of the house, change the color, and add some landscaping. Basically, I want our house to look like this:

Matching seating out back would be nice.

I talked about this not long before the whole BHG 48-Hour Challenge started. Basically, we have a mish-mash of seating around our table.

While I can appreciate that look when other people do it, I would prefer a matching set of chairs.

Eventually, we would like to refinish the basement.

This will probably have to wait, but it’s definitely on our list. I won’t post pictures because it’s too scary. Well, maybe just one picture. Would you like to see our indoor outhouse?

Yeah, we’d like to remedy that (and the rest of the basement) at some point.

*Sigh.*

A girl can dream, right? Wanna help out? We’re in the running for a $5000 bonus, and I’d really appreciate your vote every day from now until June 12!

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Yes, but this makes me so much happier. ;)

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I chose black, though everyone else seems to pick white. I didn’t want the room to get too pastel and girly, so I figured a few dark brown/black elements would be nice.

Here are a few other Jenny Lind cribs and beds I’ve noticed…

Knock, Knock: Chic Sophistication in Ohio, Finn’s Soothing Sleeper

Sunrise Ruffalo’s Home, Marie’s Memphis Apartment

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And then of course, we have the gorgeous new Eames rocker for the living room. The rocker is an 80/20 mix of style vs. comfort (though it is still very comfortable), and the glider is an 80/20 mix of comfort vs. style (though it’s not bad for a glider). Form and function for each, just in different ratios.

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I had painted the woodwork white and sewn white curtains to close the space off when we had the room setup as a guest room. It looked much better, but there was still no purpose.

When we talked to the girl that grew up in this house, she mentioned that she had kept her bed down there. We thought that was a good idea for a kid’s room (what kid doesn’t like sleeping in a fort?), but we still wouldn’t be able to use it for several years. Then I started thinking about how well the TROFAST system from IKEA would fit, and I realized that the area would be great for toy storage.

I was lucky enough to have a toy closet as a kid for a few years, and I remember spending hours in there playing. It would get hot and stuffy, but I didn’t care because it was my secret little world.

I carpeted with FLOR tiles, but I could see adding a fluffy little rug and a bean bag chair down there for comfort. I had planned to close off the left half of the opening and build shallow shelves for books, similar to the Catalina Magazine Rack.

Now that we’ve built the crib though, it blocks that whole side. Maybe we should still do it and just leave the shelves empty for now?

I know we won’t be able to use it much at first and we’ll have to put up a child safety gate, but I hope our daughter will eventually love her little play area.

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The doors in the front open to reveal two more drawers. They’re still the original wood color for now, though Brandon thinks they’re a good opportunity to add another (brighter/bolder) color.

I lined the drawers with the crazy lady floral wallpaper that I bought for the dining room (and did NOT use). The teeny tiny baby clothes look really sweet against the lining.

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I’m the more handy one out of the two of us and I felt bad that I couldn’t help, but we didn’t think it was a safe job for a pregnant lady. Oh yeah, I’m also a wee bit of a perfectionist… It was really hard to not go in there and obsessively sand and smooth and do things myself. After priming and painting though, the ceiling looks really good.

The new light looks great, though we did have to run out and grab a ceiling medallion. I’m not really a fan of them, but Brandon had a hard time smoothing out the ceiling near the light, and the medallion was an easy solution to hide the remaining popcorn texture. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll leave it white or if I’ll paint it the same color as the rest of the ceiling.

Now, I know people get a bit nervous when dealing with electrical projects (we do too), but changing a light fixture is EASY. We’ve done it six times so far in this house (in the living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, studio, and nursery). You just make sure the power is off, take down the old fixture, connect like wires to like wires, attach the ground wire to the little green screw on the mounting bar, and then attach the new fixture.

We decided to keep the room the same color (Wheat Bread by Behr), but it needed a second coat of paint. Really, it’s always needed that second coat, but I think I was too tired when working on the guest room before and I just figured ‘good enough’ (which is so uncharacteristic of me). It has bugged me ever since. So now we’ve painted the ceiling and walls, and even did some touch up work on the trim, and the guest room is officially ready to be switched over to a nursery.

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