Dashiell’s Nursery
2009
October
23
With just under three weeks until my due date, our bedroom is finally ready for a baby!
While our condo has plenty of square feet for Eric and I to live comfortably, the space is divided into only three rooms – two bedrooms and a large combined kitchen and living space. We converted our second bedroom into an office with a customized built-in desk and we mounted our computer monitors and a television on the wall, so it isn’t a very flexible space nor is it a quiet space for a baby to sleep. Because of this, we decided to set up the baby furniture in our bedroom.
Before we selected and purchased a crib and a changing table, I modeled the furniture using Google SketchUp to ensure that they would fit in our bedroom and so that we could easily rearrange the furniture without actually rearranging the furniture. Here is an early design using modular furniture from IKEA in our office – before we decided that our bedroom would be more appropriate.
By using Google SketchUp, we realized that there are a finite number of configurations for the furniture in our bedroom that satisfied our requirements. We didn’t want our bed or the crib to be near the window because it gets cold during the winter and we wanted the changing table to be close to the bathroom for rinsing cloth diapers.
Our bed and the sofa are from West Elm and were presents to ourselves for our first wedding anniversary. We selected a DwellStudio crib and changing table because the colors and design matched our existing furniture and they aren’t gender-specific so they can be reused for future babies.
The drawers under the crib are a nice feature since we have limited storage space in our closets.
The changing table also has deep drawers and it can be used as a dresser when we no longer need to use it as a changing table. In fact, we didn’t even install the white rim that is supposed to surround a changing pad on the top surface.
The furniture, which is sold exclusively by Target, was not in stock when we ordered it and I was not given an estimated delivery date. Five weeks later, it arrived on the day that Eric and I planned to fly to Boston to visit a friend that we have known since high school. However, the trip was canceled because Eric became sick the night before we were supposed to leave, so we stayed at home all weekend and assembled the furniture in our pajamas.
The changing table, located in the corner of our bedroom that is closest to the bathroom, will hold cloth diapers in the top drawer and is already full with baby clothes in the other drawers.
Hanging above the changing table on the left is our wedding invitation in a handmade glass frame that was given to us as a wedding gift and four painted wood blocks that Eric and I bought from an artist at the Union Square-Broadway Festival in New York earlier this year. These were the first items that we purchased for our baby.
Behind the changing table are two unbearably cute pictures from Noferin printed on canvas and stretched over wooden frames .
Above the crib, I tied two strands of strong jewelry thread between two eye hooks each and then I used alligator clips to hang art that I’ve been collecting throughout my pregnancy. On the top row are postcards from a boxed set of art by a Japanese artist named Junzo Terada. The large print of a boy sleeping on the back of a wolf that is hanging in the center on the bottom row is from the delightful Etsy shop Hide N Seek. The smaller pieces on either side of the wolf print are actually note cards that I purchased from a local gift shop.
I am waiting for two more prints to arrive from boygirlparty – an artist from whom I’ve purchased multiple times. Continuing the “critters” theme, one of the prints is of a hedgehog playing the piano and the other print is of four cats in a rowboat. I’ll still have room for a few more pieces of art to hang above the crib after I receive these and I can add more alligator clips if I need more space.
This weekend, I’m excited to wash and refold all of the baby clothes and to finish packing my bag for the hospital!
