Mere days before my due date, I’ve finally finished the nursery for the new baby, at least as much is going to get done. I have another print from Etsy on the way to hang up above the rocking chair, but other than that, I’m finished. I really love the room – it’s peaceful and fun and I got to do lots of sewing projects, which always makes me happy.

The inspiration for the nursery was this “elefete” fabric. I’m pretty sure I got the fabric idea from Ellen, because my pregnancy induced brain sent her a link to it even though she had pinned it on Pinterest. I’m flighty these days, what can I say!

I decided to paint the room aqua and light gray, with mostly yellow accents. The nursery is teeny tiny, so I didn’t want anything too overpowering. It’s really challenging to take photos of a room this small, so hopefully you get the idea.

View from the door. The crib, rug, and chandelier are all from Ikea. J’s mom actually bought me that chandelier a few years ago, and I’m glad I finally had a place to incorporate it.

Close-up of the crib. I made the elephant parade, the sheets, the pillows, and the art in the frames. The knit blanket was given as a shower gift when I was pregnant with Charlie, and we’ve been passing it down to each baby.

The Hemnes dresser from Ikea. We actually took this from our bedroom because we had way too much furniture going on, and I didn’t want to buy something new if possible. We did get new drawer knobs from Etsy.

This glider is the same one we’ve used for Charlie and Gus. I made the pillow, and the throw is from Meijer of all places. I love the pom poms!

This isn’t a great photo, but this is the wall next to the doorway. I made the kite!

Here is our little diaper station area. This nightstand was also in our bedroom, and was sacrified to the nursery. I have some small changing pads in the basket and I plan to just do diaper changes in the crib. It is low enough and I’ve changed enough diapers that I believe this will work. Fingers crossed! I had the basket already from Charlie’s old nursery, and used some extra fabric and trim to line the basket.

More about the DIY and sewing projects:

I wanted to incorporate as many handmade projects as possible into the nursery, starting with the felt elephant parade. I did not have a pattern for this, I just got the inspiration from a bunch of mobiles I’ve seen using animals. With the chandelier, I didn’t really want another thing hanging from the ceiling, so I got the idea to string the elephants between two frames above the crib. I made an elephant pattern, and made the stuffed elephants out of wool felt. I didn’t take photos of the process, because that sucks all the joy out of sewing for me. It wasn’t difficult, just time consuming because getting precise stitching around the elephants was important. I used several strands of colored bakers twine to string the elephants together.

In case you’re wondering, the art in the frames say “Good Night” and “Sleep Tight”. I didn’t get a close up shot of the art. I should probably do that.

Here is a close up of one of the elephants. For the ear, I used pinking shears to cut out the fabric and used that Steam a Seam stuff to attach it. I was going to sew them on the felt, but I wanted the jagged edge, and with a zig zag stitch it was too much. The tail is made from multiple strands of embroidery thread.

The pillow on the chair was one of the first piecework projects I’ve attempted, and I think it turned out well. Minus a bunch of ripping out of seams and cursing and yelling. I was going to attempt a quilt with pattern, but I think I need a break before I undergo that endeavor. I used this tutorial and modified it to make a 20 inch pillow.

These two pillows are just plain old 14 inch pillows with an envelope back that I used from some of the coordinating fabrics I had leftover. Don’t worry, I’ll take them out of the crib when the baby goes to sleep in there. I also made the yellow sheet you see here. Crib sheets are super easy to make, and I could only find pastel yellow and I wanted vibrant yellow. Here’s the tutorial/pattern I used.

The other thing project I made was the kite hanging on the wall. I had no pattern for this, and I’m not sure I could recreate it if I tried! I may have to try though, because Charlie wants one of his own now. Basically, I used Illustrator to figure out a kite pattern, enlarged it, and stitched the various fabrics together. There is a layer of batting between the front and the back, and I topstitched around the edge and down the seams. It’s actually pretty thick and sturdy. The tail is made from embroidery thread strands, and the bows are just rectangular fabric pieces I stitched together and tied on with coordinating thread.

Other miscellaneous details:

The elephants on the top of the dresser are actually Gus’, but I don’t think he’ll notice since he has one million stuffed animals. I think the planters are from Wal-Mart, the clock is from All Modern, the elephant I ordered from some place that I now can’t remember the name of, and I made the kite print in the Ikea Ribba frame.

That lamp was from Charlie’s nursery, and I believe I got at Urban Outfitters. I just recovered the lamp shade with some extra fabric I had.

Close-up of the drawer knobs from Etsy seller Dreamscape Designs . I love them!

The artwork hanging next to the kite is an elephant print on wood from Petit Collage. It makes me so so happy every time I look at it. I also have this print coming, to hang on the wall above the glider.

So there you have it, the new nursery. The full set of photos can be found here, if you’re not sick of looking at my projects yet. Now we just need a baby!