Saturday, February 9, 2013

Designing a Nursery: Golf Style


Recently, I committed to blogging more.  As soon as I did that, I started perusing OTHER blogs for inspiration. By that, I mean that I looked around, trying to find an answer to the burning question of "How in the world do these people have so much to write about?!"

What I found in all my browsing is that, apparently, a key component of a successful blog is an entry that contains a description of the decor in one (or more) of the rooms in the blogger's home - complete with pictures of the process and a description of how it came to be how it came to be.

I can do that. 

But which room to feature? Since all but one of the rooms in my home are decorated in some combination of "Stuff I had in Grad School" and "Things Jeremy Collected from his Ninety Year Old Aunt," the logical choice is to post pictures of Jones's room.

That's what this entry is all about, and "because you asked (didn't you?)," here's how it came to be, how it came to be:

I fully expect a "cease & desist"
letter from Hootie Johnson
any day now.
1) Select a Theme and Color Palette. Thanks to way too many years of theatre training, I can't help but approach everything as I would approach directing and / or designing a play. That means themes and color palettes that will both unify the whole room and, in turn, help me narrow down my choices in the design process.  You'll see what I mean, as this post goes on.

For me, the theme came easily.

My husband is a lifelong golfer, and though our "Robert Jones" was named after Jeremy and my great grandfather, a Masters theme seemed a logical choice for a little boy who shares a name with the founder of Augusta National.

Significantly less easy, though, was selecting a shade of yellow paint. Not that anything's wrong with either, I didn't want Big Bird, nor did I want John Deere, so we tried out several shades and finally ended up with something we could both live with. More specifically, we ended up with FIVE COATS of something we could both live with. Thank God for very helpful in-laws with very sturdy upper body strength.

Using this palatte, we were also able to come up with a couple swatches of coordinating fabrics, including my favorite - green fabric with white polka dots that I tell myself are actually golf balls, though they clearly are not.

Sue me.

It was actually harder than I
thought it'd be to find Jenny Lind.
We had to order it online.
2) Pick Your Furniture. This was easy, too. I've always loved the classic (inexpensive!) simplicity of Jenny Lind nursery furniture. I went with white (you can get Jenny Lind in oak and black, as well), because it's the same color as the cabins on the course at Augusta (see what I mean about the theme?!).

So, there ya go.


Jones's room is really small - 10'X10'. As a result, I knew we didn't have room for a lot of furniture, so I just got the crib and a changing table. I also knew, however, that I wanted my baby to love books as much as his mama does. Enter this book rack, designed by Ana White and built by my super-handy father-in-law ... as soon as he put down his over-worked paint brush.

The books in this rack almost all came
from McKay's in Knoxville. This
used book superstore is a MECCA
for book lovers ... and the bane
of my friend Leslie's existence.
Furniture-wise, all that was missing was a rocker. The original plan was to go with a white, wooden one. And then I walked down into the basement. And then I saw not one but two of the cutest (if I do say so myself), retro, BRIGHT YELLOW, circa-1960s swivel chairs. Thank you, Jeremy's ninety year-old aunt.

I will grant you this: that IS a LOT of yellow.
Before I discovered this cache of random rockers, I'd never considered putting two in Jones's room. Now that they're both in there, though, I can't tell you how glad I am that they are. Every nite, Jeremy and I each sit in our own, one feeding Jones his bedtime bottle and the other reading to him his nitely Bible story. It's turned into a really special, completely unexpected little "family time" that I totally look forward to every day.

These were just solid bins.
I used fabric glue to adhere the
green & white ribbon to them.
This may very well be as crafty
as I am capable of being.
That's really all the furniture in his room: a crib, a changing table, two rockers, a small ottoman (Hobby Lobby!) and a small side-table that holds his monitor, a lamp, and a picture of the Greatest Woman Who Ever Lived (that would be my Mayme).  There's a chest of drawers in his closet, but I store most of his clothes and other extras (sheets, blankets, diapers, etc.) in bins (Hobby Lobby! Or was it Old Time Pottery, Mom?) that fit in his changing table.  This is SUPREMELY convenient.

Annnnnnd ... now, I'm thirsty.
3) Accent-uate the Positive. They say that "the fun is in the finishing." Don't they? Regardless, that was MY favorite part. To keep costs down, we used a lot of things we had around the house - Jeremy had a couple of framed collectibles from some of his trips to the Masters, so they're in there. There are also pictures of Jeremy as a baby, as well as one of the ORIGINAL "Jones," Philip Jones Leslie.

Two of my favorite things are his Coke crate toy bins, uncovered at an antique store here in Asheville, and his bedspread. This was the biggest splurge of the entire room. I mailed a lady on Etsy some of our fabrics, and she made this, and I am crippled by its cuteness.

AND WE DO NOT EVEN USE IT.

We went with the generic "Pressley"
in case Jones ever has a brother who'd
like to not use this blanket, too!
But we WILL use it, right? When he gets bigger, and I'm not too paranoid to put a blanket in his crib, we WILL use this. Surely? If not, I'mma make a tablecloth out of it.  Or a wallhanging. Anything to prove that Jeremy wasn't right when he said that we would not even use it.

So that's that!

Add in some curtains my mother-in-law made, a floor full of toys he's still too small to play with, and the obligatory name in letters over his crib (I wish I could've come up with something more creative, but, on the up side, if we ever forget the name of the little chap who's taken up residence in our guest room, it provides a nice reminder), and you've got yourself a golf-themed baby nursery.

And, gratefully, there's not ONE piece of the "Stuff I Had in Grad School."





Posted by Kristin at 2:09 PM

11 comments:

  1. ertlnetFebruary 9, 2013 at 2:44 PM

    Don't forget the rug that looks like grass!

    ReplyDelete
  2. KristinFebruary 9, 2013 at 2:52 PM

    Daggonit, Miss Jenni, you're right! How could I leave that out?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownFebruary 9, 2013 at 5:19 PM

    Now it makes sense! I saw your pictures before Jones was born... and I didn't get the color theme... now I see it. So cute!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KristinFebruary 9, 2013 at 6:57 PM

      Yes! I definitely should've explained myself sooner:) Glad you like it!

      Delete
  4. AlisonFebruary 11, 2013 at 8:09 AM

    Yes. You can use the blanket / comforter eventually, but before he's 2yrs in all likelihood. Ethan sleeps with his all the time now. As a matter of fact, he jumped the gun on my putting it in there by pulling it down off the crib on himself earlier than I would have put it on him. The hardest thing to adjust to is that it gets terribly wrinkly this way now...because he'll ball it up in the process of moving around in the night.

    ~Alison

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KristinFebruary 11, 2013 at 9:35 AM

      So Jones is still sleeping in one of those sleep sacks, which I love, but I have no idea at what point it'd be okay to put a blanket in there? It sorta scares me to death, the idea of it. Any suggestions?

      Delete
    2. AlisonFebruary 11, 2013 at 9:18 PM

      Had Ethan in sleep wrap type sacks until he kept breaking out of them. Moved to the footed pjs that are all one piece after that (they have them in fleece for the cooler months). And, once he was big enough to move around and move things off of him (turning over and such had already come and gone, but we're talking he had moved to the point he could know to get out or cry loudly to get free was probably the time he started stretching to pull the blanket (which is very light and airy) down over himself. I kind of went from there, but I checked on him regularly and pulled it back off his head if he had buried himself in it.

      Delete
  5. AlisonFebruary 11, 2013 at 8:16 AM

    Oh, and while I'm still "hiding" my blog really...only using it sporadically (but "sporadically" is more frequent than where I've been in the last few yrs!), I am trying to think of a sense of purpose or flow to my blog. It is so haphazard although it generally houses random thoughts (and sadly complaining or venting) from my own life. I may start using it as a journal of my own devotions, book reading, and our ladies' ministry developments to keep me accountable on those points. Still not sure and still not too optimistic about my ability to stick with it for a real pattern to develop. I'm not after any readership, but I like to think that I don't just add to the clutter on the web out there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KristinFebruary 11, 2013 at 9:38 AM

      I'm trying to do the same thing. I don't want to just blog about nothing, but I'm having a hard time coming up with how to make it unified, targeted, and sensible. Like you, I don't want to just post pics - isn't that what Instagram is for? - or stupid little, "We went to Chick-fil-A today! The End" posts, but I enjoy blogging and would like to do it more. If you figure it out, let me know!:) I've started a board on my Pinterest called "blogs" where I'm putting ideas, but I haven't taken the time to actually read any of them:) Again, if you figure it out, let me know:)

      Delete
    2. AlisonFebruary 11, 2013 at 9:25 PM

      Well, some days it is very likely all you'd have time for is a Chick-fil-a post, so don't sweat that too much.

      All I can think of is along the lines of Mommyhood lessons. Could be funny and/or serious. Could be an extension of the deeper insights into God's love for us as His children (just as marriage gives insight into Christ's love for the bride) - both from positive and negative angles, I suppose. And, you could document simple lessons learned...like sticking to schedules or naptime or whatnot. The child definitely has helped "train" this mom that never even changed a diaper before his! Oh, other points learned for me...prime parking is NOT the closest parking at the grocery store. Instead it is the parking next to the buggy return, because what do you do if you loaded the baby out of the weather first and now are wondering what to do with the empty buggy? I now have a measure of grace for the unknown person that leaves the buggy out randomly in a parking lot because I've had to do that myself. :)

      Delete
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