Mandy and Chris: Baby Girl's Cherry Blossom Nursery!

I'll be honest: I've been planning out the perfect baby girls' nursery for years and years. Something peaceful, bright, feminine but not girly - and even in all my dreams, I couldn't have imagined a room that turned out more perfectly! I'm so happy with it!

This room used to be Cole's room. In January, we moved Cole into Chase's room so the boys could share. We did this for a couple reasons: First of all, Cole had been begging to share a room (even his bed!) with Chase. He loves his brother! Also, we thought it would be easier to transition Cole to a new room than Chase (being older and slightly more flexible with a new routine). Lastly, since I just painted Chase's room two years ago, I super didn't want to paint it again, and Cole's old room really needed new paint. The boys have loved sharing a room together and I had an absolute blast making Baby Girl's room perfect!

Ok. So photo overload ahead of Baby Girl's cherry blossom nursery.

I first repainted the dark gray walls to a lighter gray. When you walk in the doorway, the first thing you see is this canvas painting I did. Don't look too close, I'm a total novice painter, but the effect is good and it was free (I already had the canvas and paints):

The ornate frame on the opposite wall to the door was a $1 yard sale find. It was originally silver with a broken mirror, I tossed the broken pieces and spray painted it white. And Baby Girl's name starts with an "I" :)

The empty frames behind the crib were all hideously ugly frames I purchased from thrift stores for $.10-$1.00 each and spray painted.

The crib was a very generous hand-me-down from my sister and her family! Our old crib was 18 years old and really starting to show its age. I love the white on this one, it's so fresh and clean!

I sewed the pillow (it might be one of my favorite things in this room!) and ordered the crib bumper offline. Ok, so the bumper was a fiasco. I have had my heart set on a cherry blossom crib set from Restoration Hardware for years and years...but unfortunately, they discontinued the line last year! And I could not find ANY fabric that matched even a little. I scoured ebay for months, searching for sheets or pillow cases, anything I could finagle to make the bumpers. Ebay had a couple sets for sale occasionally, but the bidding would go up to $65 +, without shipping! I was trying really hard to do this whole room for less than $50 if possible. Just as I resigned myself to making do with plain pink, I found a set for sale - for only $20, on a Varage Sale website in Louisiana! It took forever and a lot of persistence to get in contact with the buyer and convince her to ship it to me, but I think it was totally worth it!

I sewed the bed skirt from some plain pink fabric, then added a painted on cherry blossom design. The original Restoration Hardware version had it embroidered on, but I took the easy way out!

I made the mobile from fishing line, a couple sticks from our yard, and some scrapbook paper birds. It's hard to see well, but it looks really beautiful in person.

Paper lanterns! To be honest, I've had the paper lanterns so long I don't even know how much they were. They were super cheap from the paperlanternstore.com. The other hanging balls I made - one pink tissue paper, one silver lame, and one with pink flower cutouts pinned onto a Styrofoam ball. All hung with fishing line.

Oh! this chair. I am so so happy with this chair! I still had our old rocker from Chase and Cole, but it is getting OLD. That thing was like 19 years old! It squeaked and didn't have padded arms - so I really really wanted an upholstered rocker. I spent SO many hours rocking Chase to sleep and nursing him in the rocker, I wanted something really comfortable and luxurious. But again, everything I liked was so expensive! Finally a couple of weeks ago, someone posted this leather rocking recliner for sale on a Facebook site - she was only asking $25! After I made arrangements to come pick it up, the seller let me know that it was actually in worse shape than she thought with some marker marks, tears in the back, and small holes in a couple places - so she let me have it for free!

After a scrub down and some super glue hole patching, the chair was looking better. I didn't love the cream color, but I didn't want to reupholster, so after a lot of research I came back to my old standby - spray paint! Rusteoleum brand makes a vinyl upholstery spray paint - I took a chance on it and I absolutely could not be happier! The coverage was great, there's no cracking or peeling, you can't even tell it's been painted. It's so comfortable and I'll be happy to even take a few naps or spend some nights in that comfy reclining chair!

Across the room from the crib is the changing table and mural I painted. I originally found a vinyl wall sticker of a cherry blossom tree I loved and wanted to copy, but couldn't figure out a way to project it onto the wall. So, I did it freehand. It took forever, but I think it turned out ok.

I couldn't find pink blackout curtains ANYWHERE! But I did some measurements and a flat queen sized bedsheet was almost the perfect dimensions for the window. I hemmed them, added the blackout lining, did the grommets, and decided at the last minute to paint on the cherry blossom design on the curtains as well so they would match the bed skirt. I think the total cost for the curtains was around $20 - $9 for the sheet, and $11 for the blackout fabric and grommets (I used a coupon at Joanns).

My mom found this adorable bird cage and bird cage hook hanger for us!

This lamp I found for a dollar at a yard sale when I was pregnant with Cole! I had painted the pink stripe blue while it was in his room. I quick repainted it pink and added the cherry blossom ribbon around the lampshade.

There's a built in desk and shelving area in the room - I mostly used things from around the house we already had to decorate here.

Some things I purchased - the white vase was an ugly one painted white from the thrift store. All Baby Girl's hairbows and headbands are in the basket!