Nursery Corner: The Yellow & Gray Nursery FINISHED

I'm finally bringing you the finished product after our gray/yellow nursery brainstorm, our dresser/changing table revamp and our crib overhaul.

To finalize our nursery corner our friend, Stephanie, made us bumper pads, a crib skirt and more accessories than we ever expected. Her handiwork was the icing on the cake for our nursery - it made everything warm and cozy and topped off our yellow and gray nursery corner perfectly.

We were THRILLED to receive her boxes to see what she had put together with the fabric we had sent her.

The nursing corner:

Steph made the blanket, the pillows and the custom arm chair covers (specially requested by me to protect our glider).

Drumroll please . . . will you look at this!

She even made a custom lampshade for our dresser/changing table:

We topped off the nursery corner with Cannon's name in letters above his crib. We simply bought wooden letters from Michaels, painted them with the same gray painted we used on the crib and then Modge Podged  different gray scrapbook paper on top.

Nursery Corner: DIY Crib

**UPDATE: Danny reminded me that the cribs are two different shades of gray below because in the first few pictures only the primer has been painted onto the crib. Okaydokey - blame that one on the pregnancy/newborn brain!**

Okay, remember the DIY Dresser/Changing Table makeover?

Here it is again, almost ready to be used, in case you forgot about our cool gray and yellow theme:

Well, we couldn't stop there, so we also decided to revamp my crib that my parents bought 28 years ago. (And, yes, we made sure everything complied with all safety regulations.)

We did our research and found lead-free, completely safe paint, Danny bought a paint sprayer and went to town . . . in our bedroom.

I received the following picture in my inbox at work one day and almost had a conniption.

Yes, that is our bedroom, and yes, I'm stilling finding small splotches of gray paint on random things (the carpet, our bedspread, the wall, etc.) Oh well, the price you pay for not having a garage.

Here are the finished parts and pieces:

And here is the finished product (somehow I did a bad job of editing and the shades of gray look very different from the above pictures and the below pictures, so you'll just have to stop by in person to see what shade it really is!)

The crib and the dresser together with a few yellow pieces of fabric thrown in. Just wait until you see the  final product - the yellow bumpers add such a fun pop!

Nursery Corner: DIY Dresser & Changing Table

The baby corner in our bedroom is taking shape. Remember the gray/yellow nursery theme I assembled?  It's taking shape little by little.

We're a little cramped on space to put baby furniture and stuff in our apartment, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and use a dresser as a changing table. Inspired to refinish a used dresser by Young House Love, we found a dresser straight from the 50s on Craigslist for $80. 

We spent the day on my parents' driveway sanding down every surface.

Then Danny moved to the garage to avoid dust and painted on coat after coat of gray paint.

After a several solid days of drying, Danny taped off the edges to paint the accent color.

And, wha-la! We have an awesome dresser/changing table all ready for a yellow changing pad and a little lamp.

Project Crib is currently underway, so stay tuned for more Nursery Corner updates.

Grey & Yellow Nursery Ideas

Okay - I've caved.

I said I wasn't going to decorate a nursery or care about baby bedding and furniture because we don't have a room for a nursery, and we can't really afford tons of brand new baby furniture.

However, I read too many blogs for my own good - friends' blogs, couponing blogs, cooking blogs . . . and yes, design blogs.

And so, I've been sucked in to dreaming about nurseries.  This grey crib started it all. I LOVE IT! Unfortunately the brand new version is hundreds of dollars over our budget at Pottery Barn. However, we LOVE do-it-yourself (DIY) projects - so why would we let a big price tag get in our way of creating our own fun nursery corner. (I say nursery corner, because the two/three pieces of furniture we're getting for Baby Boy are going in our apartment bedroom.)

In Young House Love fashion, I created my own "mood board" with a grey and yellow color palette.

This is the tenative plan:

1. Crib
   Possibly paint my parents' old crib a light shade of grey & replace any old hardware as necessary (Yes, we've done all the safety research on crib slat width, adjustable sides, old hardware, and safe paint - thank you for your concern - we want our baby to be completely safe too!)
2. Dresser
   Purchase an old dresser off of Craigslist and paint grey with very dark grey accents and add new hardware.
3. Bedding
   Purchase/register for yellow/grey/white fitted sheets at BuyBuyBaby.
4. Glider
   Purchase yellow or grey glider (probably from BuyBuy Baby)
5. Crib Skirt
   Make a yellow & white striped crib skirt with a dark grey border (no tassles!)
6. Accessories
   Register for blue & yellow blankets to accent the room.

And there you have it - my little nursery corner, complete with trendy, gender neutral colors so we don't have to repeat if the next Baby Stiller is a girl.