We have transitioned Jackson's room from a nursery into a BIG boy room. After I was finished with the room I stood back and asked myself, "why didn't I do this sooner?!?!?!...oh yeah because new things cost money!!!!
We wanted to have a nursery that would "grow with Jackson", it was never really a "nursery, nursery" and for that I am NOW thankful as it made the transition a lot easier (and shhhh, cheaper!) When Jackson was small I would sometimes think, "how nice would it be to have a sweet little room with light colors and cute little baby blessings on the wall?" But lets face reality, that sweet baby nursery would still have smelled like the same stinkiest dirty diaper when our little man woke up with a present in his diaper for us, that same room light colors or not would have still needed to be dusted, vacuumed and organized. That same room would still have had a rocker where I spent the greater majority of my time with my top down and my child past out on my chest and my head hunched over, snoring until 3am when I was woken up to do it all again! Baby nursery or not that same room would have had the same memories as the older more mature nursery we chose to go with for Jackson.
Before we found out what we were having I found 2 Rodney White paintings and I just fell in love with them. Lucky for me, so did Justin (or should I say lucky for him!?!) We were given Amalia's beautiful white crib so that was the only piece that we were working around. I told Justin if we had a girl the room would be so ridiciously over the top shabby chic that it would make Rachel Ashwell's shabby chic rooms look empty! AND if we had a boy the room would be decorated around the 2 paintings I had recently fallen in love with.
Well obviously I did not get my shabby chic room (Sorry Rachel Ashwell...) But I did get the most handsome little prince who would melt any mother's heart.
Of course, as promised the 1st things I bought after finding out we were having a boy was the 2 paintings, I was so excited I could hardly wait to go and spend the money and buy the paintings and show them to my family. Mom and Grandma were not crazy about the paintings at all when they 1st saw them, but I had a vision in my head and knew they would change their minds once they saw the finished product.
I wanted to go with a vintage look for Jackson's room and wanted it to be a mature room with bold, rustic colors. One afternoon while looking around Home Goods, I found the next key essential item for my vintage room, a HUGE (and I mean HUGE) vintage plane propeller. With out missing a beat I loaded this monstrosity of a plane propeller into a teeny-tiny shopping cart and made my way to the check out lane. Mom and Grandma still did not vision the room as I was and again was not thrilled with my new purchase. However, I still had a very vivid photo of my sons room in the back of my head.
Soon it came time to start getting the room together, I came up with the idea of wood paneling and a chair rail to help break the room up and possibly make it look bigger. Dad and Justin were called in for this job. I still had lots to do as I did not have any bedding picked out nor a color for the top half of the walls. I was having a very hard time finding bedding to match my paintings as 98% of the bedding for a little boy was not bold or rustic in color. I was going back and forth on getting custom bedding made or trying to buy miss matched pieces to get the look that I was going for. I also had another wild hair and in my "vision" of this room it had bedding that Incorporated houndstooth.
After long hours and days of searching every website known to any pregnant lady I finally found the Aiden collection by CoCaLo Couture. Mom went over to USA baby to check it out as it was the only store in the valley that had it there in the showroom. Mom went over and to HER surprise she loved it and started seeing what I was envisioning.
We decided to go with a butter cream yellow for the top half of the walls which would brighten up the room. Finally it was time to start painting and then hanging the wood paneling and chair railing... Since I was 8 months pregnant I was not much help and was told I did not need to be breathing in the paint fumes. I still managed to get in the room and help out where I could...
Justin and Dad painting
Me 8 months pregnant
Anxiously awaiting our little prince to see his room
Work in progress
Before the wood panels
Mom and Dad bought Jackson's dresser/changer, the 1st one we ordered arrived and once we unpacked it and started to assemble it we all agreed it was way too red. Lucky for us we were able to contact the company and see some wood samples and change our order. Through this whole process we learned there are many different shades of, cherry, oak and espresso. We ended up changing the furniture to espresso and still today I am happy we did!
A few days shy of Jackson's arrival we were finished with the room for the most part, later over the next few years me being the crazy "re-decorator" I am bought more items, moved things around, took things down, put things back up and so on.
This is the exact way Jackson's room looked the day we brought him home from the hospital, the rocker arrived a few weeks later...
You can kind of see part of one of the paintings that
inspired me-
"Life needs more green lights"
View from the door, rocker later went in this corner
Full shot of the other painting-
"How great would life be if we lived a little each day"
Changer and diaper stacker on the wall to the left
"All because two people fell in love"
I love signs and sayings, can you tell?!?!
March 2011 I started looking around for ideas on new furniture and bedding to transition Jackson from his "cage" into a big boy bed. I say this because Jackson started climbing out of his crib at 15 months. I panicked and was not ready to give up nap time so I came up with plan B which was a tent over his crib. He loved his little tent and would get excited to get in at nap and bed time.
Finally I found just what I was looking for at Maddies on Madison, one of the last furniture whole sellers left in the USA. We went down one Saturday morning and was able to find, a Full size bed, night stand and dresser. I did not want to get Jackson a twin size bed, as I knew he would out grow it quickly and I took into consideration his lovely sleeping habits which are identical to mine, flipping and flopping, tossing and turning all night. I figured he deserved a little more room to do this AND for selfish reasons of being able to lay down and snuggle him at night. We picked a panel board style of bed, an eleven drawer chest and night stand. Since everything is made there in the warehouse, we had them paint it all the same distressed espresso to tie it all together since I mixed and matched the chest and nightstand to go with the bed.
I guess I got a little over excited about everything, because I forgot to measure the room prior to going down and picking out everything. Of course as luck would have it, I picked out over sized items and everything would not fit in his room. Everything fit accept the nightstand, the owner told us he could get us a smaller night stand if we wanted or we could just return it. I loved all the pieces so much and knew if I returned the night stand or got a smaller one I would later regret it, so I decided to put the nightstand in the guest room that was in desperate need of a nightstand.
Jackson's BIG boy bed
View from the bed
A shot of one of my favorite touches
"JACKSON"
I got the letters in San Antonia when I was there on business
AND
I hung them all by myself; which was NOT an easy task!
YES...the bed is very high, however no accidents yet, knock on wood AND the crazier thing...Jackson never gets out of his bed. When he wakes up he lays in his bed and plays a while then yells out "Jackson's awake, Mommy, Jack's awake". Crazy he would climb out of a crib but just says in a big boy bed until we go in and get him...I am totally not complaining!
Jackson, I hope you are able to grow with your room and appreciate it as much as I have decorating it. You are my handsome little prince and I hope you sleep like a king in your big boy bed.
I love you!!!! Hugs snuggles, and butterfly kisses- Love, MOMMY
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