Operation Nursery: Wavy Walls

Warning: this is going to be a picture-heavy, text-light post--

because this is all about colors and design!

So, when last we left the nursery, it looked something like this:

Awesome floor but somewhat awful mint-green walls--that were there before we arrived but that we never bothered to paint. However, the little Button on the way is just the right impetus for color selection to begin, so we headed back to Home Depot and Ace Hardware to pick up some samples.

We knew we were going to need two colors, one for our "sky" and one for our "ocean," so we got a couple pairings we liked. (Really cool trick we learned from the designers at FLOR: rather than painting your wall itself, paint pieces of poster board. Not only do you not have to paint over your wall later, but you can also cut off little pieces of the color you like best and bring it around for you as you continue designing. It worked incredibly well for us!) Finally, after staring at the wall for a couple of days, we decided on the blue in the upper right corner as the base for the "sky" and began painting.

Or, I should say, that amazing man I'm married to began painting as I sat downstairs with chocolate and a marathon of Royal Pains. He's incredible, isn't he?

It's hard to see the color in the photos above because it's such a subtle blue that shows up better in natural light, but we love it! For the next week, we enjoyed wandering by the room and peeking in, soaking up the huge difference the change had already made. Of course, since Thursday marked 24 weeks (a huge milestone, as it means that now, even if Button were born super-preemie, hospitals would be equipped to handle her!), we did our photo in the nursery.

(Please note the extremely angry little girl in the lower left corner. She's not having anything to do with her mother focusing on any little girls but her.)

Now it was time for the next paint color: our ocean. Initially, as you can see in the photos above, we'd been leaning towards blues. However, once we spent our Thursday night at Home Depot, we started to realize that turquoises and teals might be a bit more girly and would lighten up the room more. So, out came the poster board again...

See how our blue walls almost look white with an overhead light on?!

Initially, we were really drawn to the subtle color on the left, but, by the time Sunday rolled around and we needed to make a final decision, we were sold on the brighter color on the right. Once we had the paint in hand, we first drew chalk outlines of our waves on the walls, and then Jeff outlined the lines we'd made.

After a quick approval, I was sent back downstairs to finish up the casserole I was making for the week's lunches while Jeff got busy making some waves.

By the time two hours had gone by, he was having just as much fun as we expect Button will playing in her oceanic nursery!

And so we arrive at the current state of the nursery, with oceanic floor and wavy walls complete!

Now, the rocker is going to magically transform into a cream-colored glider sometime in December and some shelves should appear by the end of November, but you're starting to get the idea, right?

Next up: Sailboats and Sea Creatures and Fish--Oh My! Remember J, our former student who made us the amazing table I wrote about in this post? Because she's just awesomely cool, she's coming to stay with us next weekend to get going on some original murals for our walls, and we can't wait!