Nursery DIY's

I have become a different person since I quit my job to stay home with JJ. I didn't enjoy cooking or baking and certainly never did any crafting.  I was just too tired and not interested in things like that. Thankfully, that changed when I became a stay at home Mommy.  As you well know, those are all things that I thoroughly enjoy now.

When I was planning JJ's nursery 4 1/2 years ago I wanted something simple and not too theme-y or baby-ish.  Which is exactly what I ended up with.  I loved the end result but there was not one thing in that nursery that was crafted or DIY'd by me.  Every single piece was purchased and then placed where I wanted it.  No personalization really.  I wouldn't say that I regret how I did JJ's nursery but I can say that I have changed since then and like to do things differently now.


For baby boy #2's nursery there has been quite a bit of DIY-ing going on.  And it's so much fun!  I love putting my personal touch on things and not just buying and placing.  

One of the first projects I tackled was a boppy cover.  I have my boppy from when I was nursing JJ but I wasn't thrilled about the cover.  It was just so....blah.  Nothing special.  So after finding a tutorial on pinterest I made 2 different covers for the boppy and I love them!  So much better than the generic boring ones you get at the store.  And much cheaper than buying a boppy cover, too!


Another project, and probably the biggest, is the ABC wall.  Just collecting the letters took a few months and then once I got them all I had to figure out how I was going to decorate each one and which color would look best where.  I painted the majority of the letters and then mod-podged a few of them.  So time consuming but SO worth it.  I absolutely love the finished product. 


I decided that the baby's closet needed some kind of dividers for the clothes so, using materials that I had, I made these Thursday night.  Such a simple project but I think it will make life just a bit more organized.


My latest project was re-covering this lamp.  I found this lamp on clearance for $10 and thought it would be perfect for recovering.  I thought going into this that it would be easy-peasy and I'd be done in no time.  haha!  How wrong I was.

Beautiful, isn't it?

The re-cover material.  It's actually brown, not black.

The material on this lamp does not come off without taking off the plastic behind it (which is holding the shape of the shade) and the material I purchased to re-cover the lamp with is a bit thin so I could see those lovely colors right through the material.  Not a problem, I thought.  I'll just do a coat or 2 of white paint over the original material, put on the new material and voila...I've got a beautiful new lamp!  Not so, people.  Not so.  After 4 coats of paint on the outside and 1 coat of pain on the inside of the lamp those colors still made their appearance through the new material.  Insert frustrated yelling here. The only other thing I could think of trying was spray paint.  Today I purchased a heavy-duty spray paint at Home Depot just knowing that it would do the trick.  2 more coats of paint on the outside and 2 more coats of paint on the inside and those colors still showed through.  Seriously.  I was on the verge of trashing the whole thing but instead decided to look for a thicker, less see-through material to cover the lamp with.

This is after 6 coats of paint.

I came home with plain brown thick material.  Not my first choice but those darn colors would definitely not show through so I resigned myself to boring material. 
I covered the lamp with the brown material and while it was drying I decided to layer the original re-cover material over the plain brown material.  Just to see how it would look.  And voila, I finally got what I was looking for!  A cute lamp cover and no crazy colors showing through! 

I am so happy with the finished product. It took a lot more work and time than I had originally planned but the result was worth it.  At least now I know what not to do next time I re-cover a lamp!

I believe these are all the DIY projects I'll be doing for this nursery but honestly, who knows.  I just may come up with something else!