Friday, July 18, 2008

The stages of a baby room

First you designate a room in your house as "the baby's room", and then you don't turn back.

Since Nik and I have a one bedroom condo that thankfully also has a computer room, picking which room will be transformed into the baby's room was a no brainer. The computer room was it.

Unfortunately for Nik, the computer room had been "his room". In every place we have ever lived, he always had his own space, his own room. The fact that we called this particular room, "the computer room", didn't really mean anything. Sure, there was a computer in that room, in fact there were THREE computers in that room, but we also had THREE other computers throughout the rest of the house. Yes, we are crazy, psycho, computer people . . but then again, we also have every video game system known to man, four tv's (in a one bedroom condo don't forget!), over 700 DVD's, and well . . need I say more?? Actually, Nik is the crazy, psycho one . . I guess I just don't stand in his way . . . not too much anyway.

Ok, back to the baby's room.

So, Nik had to give up his precious space for the upcoming joy of our lives. I must say that even though he very much values his own space, hence the reason he had his own room in every place we ever lived, he did give it up graciously. There was no pulling teeth or screaming matches involved, AND he moved everything out of the room without me having to nag him at all. It was quite amazing actually.

After he moved everything out, we were left with this empty room . . . a very tiny empty room, because did I mention that before it was a computer room, it was actually a hallway with a closet?? Oh yes, it's true, it's true. Someone (before we bought the place) actually tore down the walls to the closet and added doors on the ends of the hallway, so as to make it a sort of "room". It is like 8.5x8.5 (I think) and because it has no windows, it can not even qualify as a bedroom. Poor Christina. But, I know you've heard me complain about that before, so we are moving on.

Ok, so we are left with this empty room and it is painted a neutral tan-ish color. It was nice enough. The walls were . . . ok, I guess. But my mom and step dad convinced me that the room should be painted to be more baby appropriate. In fact, they offered to do it themselves, so of course I couldn't say no! (I'm so glad I didn't, by the way)

From painting the room, putting together the crib, painting the changing table, and adding decor, the room has evolved so much. I have put sooooo much energy into finding exactly the right items to put in the room, and decorating it exactly the way I want. Plus, I've had to do it "on the cheap".

I knew I could not justify spending money on decorating the room to Nik. As far as he is concerned, if we have a bed for her to sleep in, diapers, and a lactating mother for her to eat from, then we have all that we need. Since we didn't have any money set aside for the "extra" stuff for her room, it took a lot of work on my part to get the room the way I wanted it.

I'm not quite done yet, but I must say that I love how it is turning out. I was depressed at first because it is hard to work with such a small space, and hard to do it with little to no budget, but I am proud of what I have accomplished. Plus, it was really nice to hear Nik tell me how proud he was of the work I have done as well.

I must say though, I am still DYING to have other people see the room. Unfortunately, I live so far away from everyone, that we never have company. It just wouldn't be right to make one of my friends or relatives drive an hour to my house, just so that they can see the room. So, I've just been waiting patiently until the timing works out and they are coming for a visit anyway.

In the meantime, I've taken lots and lots of pictures. They are mostly for myself though because since the room is so tiny, it is difficult to get good pictures. If it were a tiny room with no walls, I could take pictures from the outside and get the whole room. But, since it is a small space with awkwardly placed doors and walls, it is hard to get far enough away to get a good shot.

Even considering that though, I can't wait any longer. It's finally time for me to show you pictures. It isn't the same as seeing it for yourself, but it will give you an idea. And remember, it still isn't finished, but it is getting there.

I wish I had a picture of the room when it was still the computer room, but I don't. So, I'll start from the beginning of what I have . . . my mom and step dad painting the room, through the different stages of the room and finally to the pictures of how it looks now. Tell me what you think!!

Here is the color paint we chose (Hawthorne Yellow by Benjamin Moore) although I doubt you'll be able to get a good idea of exactly what shade this is. The picture doesn't do it justice and actually all of the pictures from painting day came out very dark.






Here are my mom and step dad starting the painting. Hey, Gordon, that isn't the wall, hehehe.





And here I am, see, I helped a little :-)





Finishing touches














The crib is here, yay!!






The changing table has been painted and I started putting storage bins on the shelves.





Here are a few more added items.





I was trying to find a small table that I could put on this short wall, so that it was no deeper than the excess space the crib took (jotting out from the wall). But, it wasn't an easy task and I ended up with this little plastic storage container.




But, then, brilliantly, I realized I could cover it and make it look pretty.



You can also see in the above picture that I have something hanging from the wall. Those are the letters, "CC" for Christina Corinne. They are temporarily hanging there because I haven't figured out where to put them yet. In between the letters I also have a heart that says "Little Princess". That will go somewhere on the wall also, but I'm not sure where yet.


Next, I started using my removable wall stickers. Here I decorated one of the doors.





Then, I decorated the longest wall in the room.









I also did the bottom of the other door, just like the first one.






The next big step was to put a sort of border running along the rest of the walls of the room. I am going to add wall stickers to these walls as well, but so far I'm not exactly sure where. So, this is what I have so far.





In the picture above you can also see what is on the top shelf above the changing table.



In this picture, you can see the addition of the toy bag that is hanging over the crib. The two pink shadow boxes on top of the table will eventually get hung on the wall, I just haven't gotten to it yet.





I need to add more pictures of the entire wall with the border, but since I don't have them yet, this will have to do.

Hope you like it!

2 comments:

  1. awww meg! i can't wait to see it! and you! and you're belly! i love the butterfly theme :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Megan!!!! That room is so cute! You did such a good job!

    ReplyDelete

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