a tale of THREE (and a half) nurseries

here i am - jacob is three months and i am not nearly done, or almost done...i am DONE with his nursery {ok save one tiny item that should be in within this next month...but really i am DONE}

and so i thought it would be time to share the metamorphosis this room has undergone over the past three years. 
three nurseries in three years.
three coats of paint.
three sets of bedding.
three BABIES
whew!

first up there was bennett...back in 2007.  we had the whole crib debacle {company was going out of business and it took somewhere around eight months or so for crib and dresser to arrive.  so by the time it did i everything but HATED it.  so many stressed out petty memories surrounded that crib but i am proud to say they dont anymore! its my babies bed and therefore i love it.  and it is extremely sturdy, which was number one on stephens list ...aka i was to have no jenny lind or small scale, drop side crib.  this husband of mine would NOT pay for it ;)}

the walls in the room were already green so we just kept it like it was.  the glider was teal chenille bc out of the four choices we had at our local baby store it was the least offensive! ha {its so amazing how my taste has changed over the past five years...}.

i painted whales to go above the changing table and hung his name in letters off ebay above his crib.
{and btw i had SO much fun looking through thousands upon thousands of old pictures of my babies...i have no earthly idea how to store these so that we can view them regularly...i mean how do you print 8 million pictures?...not to mention put them in photo albums...}

i made his crib bedding and pinched my sciatic nerve in the process. it was KILLER

we bought a bookshelf from target and it was never decorated, just stashed with stuff. {see back right}

i never felt like this room was complete, but i still LOVED being in there.  it was so peaceful and cozy, everything a nursery should be {in my opinion}.

then emory came along and i wasnt feeling the pink thing {in decorating at least...her closet was UBER pink}.  pink has never been my thing.  even when i was little i gravitated toward blue and green. i loved coral-ish pink, but everything i looked at that had coral AND matched our teal glider was way too loud and crazy.
so, after much husband coaxing i decided to slip cover the glider. {he hates slip covers...and if you can tell neither of us really enjoyed the cries at bedtime ;)}

 

emorys room was much more "decorated" but at the same time was never complete either.

oh i loved those nursery rhymes...they definitely werent up long enough

i never found anything i liked to put over her crib.
and yes, i realize how sad this is that these are my only pictures...random {old!!!} camera phone pics and this one while we were staining our hardwood floors:

{also notice the dead corner over there to the left of the crib...this is one reason i changed things up with jacobs room}
i was still toying with ideas on what exactly to do over her crib when i found out i was preggo with baby number three.

which brings me to jacob...and the fact that i told everyone there was no way i was "doing" a nursery for him.  i made promises to family and husband and myself that i would stress myself out doing anything other than re-using bennetts stuff, so no new nursery for third baby, second boy.
so...
i LIED

and i like this nursery best

{and if all these pictures look a little different its because they were taken on a series of days...
and with all of us constantly using this room, its appearance changes daily}

 

these bookcases are inspired by this fabulous nursery.  and it took me nearly the entire pregnancy to find them.  do you know how hard it is to find 24" wide, tallish white WOOD bookcases that arent $700 or more??? these were on craigslist for a steal and i had my painter spray them white.  completely meant to be.  LOVE them.  i had all these visions of everyone using this room as the library, and it did not disappoint.  we always spend most of our time in this room anyway, with all our babies, so i wanted to give the room some purpose for the older two.  kinda a double edged sword, tho...we may or may not have found emory in this room looking for some book WHILE the baby was sleeping... like five different times.

sunburst mirror from ballard designs a few years ago and has been all over our house:

in the past ive made my babies' crib bumpers...this was one promise i DID keep and opted for store bought brand.  i love the simplicity.  the crib sheet is from target, fabric for crib skirt from calico corners

this little guy was a gift from my sister erin and i think he is GREAT:

slip covered glider and same window treatments as emory's room. i usually am a stickler for pinch pleated drapes, but these were in the budget and their casual slouching doesnt bother me :) owls were vintage and purchased in hope for use in emorys nursery.  you see how far that got me.  two years later and they finally have a home.

the ONLY thing missing, as mentioned earlier, is an orange and white chevron cotton throw for the glider.  believe it or not, it was EXACTLY what i wanted and is probably one of the only times in my life that i make something up in my head that i want and ACTUALLY FIND IT.  i saw it on the today show and bought it on their online daily deal thing.  it was originally like a million dollars but i got it for thirty :)
this small table stays hidden beside the dresser and houses his noise machine and cd player/clock:

this is where this room gets interesting.  one of the first things i purchased for jacobs room was this old ship painting, from a local consignment store.  it came already framed and i paid 25% of what they were asking for it. {im all about a deal if you cant tell...dont you dare say cheap...}.  i had seen it and almost bought it forever ago and after painting his room this dark dark gray blue, i kept thinking of it and hoped and wished it was still there.  thankfully it was and when i hung it in the room stephen said "i really think im going to like this."  the lamps {with new target shades} were my inlaws and were in stephens apartment before we got married.  i never liked them and have almost thrown them away a million times but kept hoarding i mean storing them thinking i would paint them one day.
and look at me now.  i absolutely love the shiny brass.
the baby below was a Gift.

...and another baby shot for good measure

the picture in the frame is of bennett but i think it looks so much like jacob:

in the other two nurseries we had a bookcase on this wall.  i thought it chopped the room up too much and when i saw these prints from berkley illustration on etsy when i was looking up inspiration for jacobs nursery i knew the bookcase had to go.  i needed room to hang these bad boys.  i pinned a few on pinterest and kept trucking through the pregnancy.  it was crazy bc then a few months later i started seeing their stuff everywhere.  my sister showed me a nursery she found with the prints hung there and different blogs i love mentioned using other items from this store, like pins and clips and the like.  i just love the hilarity of the little fellas and the color they add to the room.  they are hung in ikea ribba frames. 
emory insists we go through every animal sound before leaving the room.  which is fine and all but someone please tell me what sound a giraffe makes.  she already thinks a koala BEAR growls like a BEAR bear does.  i dont correct her...?

 {again...thankful for "sturdy" crib...}

and now for the "and a half"...my sister erin is preggo and due later this summer.  im helping with her nursery and am really excited to be working on a more neutral, lighter, widely-desired nursery look.{he-haha} my nurseries have all been a little... different, or maybe just not main-stream {especially compared to everyone else around here who all do a similar gender neutral-ish "look"...which is NOT bad at all i just have always had some crazy itch/vision to do something different in my own home.}.  i cant wait to show yall {and erin} what ive thrown together, but i wont be able to show erin until later this week so that will be a post for another day!

and if you are still reading this, kudos to you...give yourself a pat on the back...bc this puppy was LONG and probably not that interesting to anyone but family!