DIY Nursery: JJ's Room, Volume I

I've been telling people that I will do this. I've been promising that I would divulge my secret on how I outfitted my kid's ENTIRE room for under $200. Now, I'm coming through on all of those (partially empty) promises.

It's true. I outfitted my kid's room for a serious fraction of what I could have spent (I'll explain how in another blog!). I'm not including gifts, here, but really the only thing that we received as a gift as far as the nursery goes were the crib bumpers. JJ's furniture is all handed down, with the small exception of his new crib, which I will talk about later. I will post a separate blog with instructions and tips for each piece in subsequent blogs, with close up pictures. Let's take a tour of the room!


Let's start with the door hanging, which was one of the last things that I made from his room. I purchased the guitar wooden cutouts for this door hanging and painted them, then put glitter and glow in the dark paint on them. They are mounted with guitar picks and letters on a yellow satin ribbon. The letters I cut out of cardboard and covered with decorative paper.


As you walk into his room, on your left is something interesting. Jerry had this OLD guitar (his first one actually) that he was going to get rid of. It was beat up and ugly, but I took it under my wing, worked hard on it, and this is what happened:
It is bolted to the beam right behind that wall. I always get tons of compliments on it when people come into the nursery.

Directly in front of the door is JJ's crib. His original crib was given to us by my parents, who still had it from when my 5 year old nephew was a baby. It was recalled and we exchanged it for this crib. Even if this crib wasn't exchanged, it was very inexpensive and we probably would have bought it if we didn't have a hand-me-down. It is a 4 way convertible and it cost about $89 on walmart.com. I'm not kidding. It's very sturdy and perfect for a kid that will just chew it up anyway.

Those crooked bumpers are awesome, and practically started this whole DIY nursery. I didn't want to invest in bumpers that I would have to take out of the crib anyway due to safety reasons, so I registered for these breathable ones (which aren't always crooked, I just didn't feel like taking another picture!). You can check them out at: http://www.breathablebaby.com/.

The crib skirt was made from a pattern I found online. It took about 20 minutes from start to finish. I also made the rail cover (JJ is a chewer!) from a cut up towel covered with music note fabric. I also got the idea and a pattern online. Each rail will soon have a cover, too, because I'd rather JJ not eat paint and wood as a midnight snack.

On the wall above the crib is JJ's name - the real one:

I printed the letters (big ones!) and then used them as a pattern to cut these letters out of cardboard. I covered them with the guitar fabric that I used for the crib skirt. Hot glue works great to fasten the fabric to the back of the letters. They are hanging with yellow satin ribbon.

On the other side of the room is the changing table, which was also a hand me down from my parents. It was a little scratched and beat up, but I sanded it and painted it, bringing it back to a very nice finish.

The changing pad cover was a PAIN to make, but it was worth it when I was finished. I don't know if I can even make directions for it. I don't even think I want to.

I used guitar pics and painted wooden guitar cut outs to decorate the changing table. I bought those bins at Walmart for $3 each, and they are worth twice their weight in diapers.

The next edition of DIY Nursery: JJ's Room will include a diaper stacker, curtains, two mobiles, and a rocking chair cushion.