Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Vintage Nursery: Finale!


My nickname for her is little bitty...
Mama had a little fun yesterday playing "dress up" with little Audrey!


Today we conclude our tour of Audrey's little nursery.  She will be coming home tomorrow, it will be a wonderful day! 



These are a a pair of vintage birdies that I found at a thrift-type shop and Jamie primed them with spray primer and then repainted them in more soft pastel colors, they were oddly bizarre in their previous paint scheme--70-ish and garish.  

But they were birdies after all, so they had to come to this nursery!  I knew we could work with the basics of the pieces.

Now they appear to be the little birdies right out of the movie "Bambi"...and they greet you as you enter Audrey's room--hanging right above the light switch. 

I thought Jamie did a great job with a paint brush.




This shelf was made by Jamie's aunt Mary and it hung in Jamie's room when she was a little girl.  I dug it out of the attic and Jamie primed and then spray painted it and it now hangs over the changing table to hold life's little necessities for a tiny baby girl.


The pegs will be used to hang her little hooded bath towels and bathrobe from.





On top are little buckets that came from the Dollar General, found by Jamie while they were on clearance--we just changed the ribbon out to pink gingham.  


They hold little items such as Q-tips and come in handy to reach up and take down after bath time instead of bending over to dig through the shelves underneath.  Daddy is 6'4" so these hang right at his level.


The vintage baby shoe planters on this shelf I found at a garage sale where a sweet grandma was selling off all of her own stuff.  I couldn't believe the price:  fifty cents for each pair!  They were HERS!





There's some little burp cloths I made before we even knew we were going to get a little Audrey!  


Love the blue birds, and this served as an inspiration piece, too, for the nursery colors...as well as the ones below... Jamie and I just loved the prints!  So feminine!





To save money, Jamie doesn't use the Diaper Genie for anything but the messy diapers.  The ones with no mess will go into this little fourteen quart pail like her brother has.  The plastic sacks from stores fit perfectly for liners so they can be recycled.  






These will be emptied every couple days and then the diaper genie liners last much, much longer and seem too expensive to use for the easy diapers.  So, for Audrey, we decorated her little pail with this vintage print and trimmed it out with lacy ribbon.





And you know Nana just loves that laundry line in the picture!  Too sweet!





The soft chenille change table cover came from Amazon.  The little bitty Care Bear is from a garage sale for a quarter.  I tossed her in the washer in a lingerie bag, and she's like NEW!







Years ago, I bought this decorator-weight gingham fabric for $2 a yard.  It was perfect for the drapes and bed skirt, the rest of the gingham accessories came from Target or Amazon.  

None of the gingham is carried in Target stores but they have a really great selection of colors of gingham online --what Amazon didn't carry, Target did, and between the two we got the bed outfitted with sheets, a quilt, as well as a cute diaper stacker.  Their bed skirt was ugly and their curtains were thin but we were satisfied with the bedding itself, so only the ugly items were sent back.

The weight of the fabric made gathers difficult so a nice pleat did the job on each side of the crib skirt.  It saved a lot of time, and I think it looks really nice tailored like this.




Hanging on the crib are several sweet blankies:  the one on the left in soft swirly chenille is made for Audrey by my mom and is trimmed in aqua and pink--how perfect and she had NO IDEA what colors the nursery would be!  Wait until you see the dress she made Audrey!  That's it's own post!!


The other blankies are vintage bought at yard sales for $1.  The one that is crocheted is the perfect rainbow addition to the room in all the colors we used!  The one on the very end on the right is too cute for words!  ONE DOLLAR!!  


The aqua bunny with the floppy ears was Jamie's!  It sat on her bed for years!









This sweet pillowcase, made from genuine vintage fabric, was given to us by my friend, Julie.  It has little bunnies, elephants and other animals, all with flowers on their heads!  Too precious!  (Thanks so much, Julie!)











Above the crib and to the side is an old plate rack we are using to store and display Jamie's own vintage Little Golden books I kept in our attic for years after she grew out of them.  They each have her name printed in them, in her little Denelian hand writing she learned in Kindergarten.  


The rack is anchored to the wall, and I bet this thing holds around forty books and it's not really full yet!  




I will dish more of the details on this little dress on the right soon! 
 My mom is still quite the seamstress at 79!  The dress on the left is a Bryant (I think) brand pinafore dress from the 1980's trimmed in tiny rosebuds, ribbon, and lace.  The tag is cut out, but these were VERY popular when Jamie was a baby in the early eighties.  I don't think I ever bought her one, they were what I called pricey even then.




This old plate rack serves as decoration because the artwork on the book covers is gorgeous and can be switched out, and it's useful to keep her vintage books just out of reach of messy hands.  Mama will have to help the little one choose which book to take down.  






When I found them, they came as a pair, the other one will be put up in Levi's retro cowboy bedroom to hold his growing collection of vintage cowboy books.






The gene has been passed in the bloodstream --it comes from two generations on BOTH SIDES of the family.  It just so happens that Jamie had this little shelf in her stash in their attic and she spray painted it and this holds her collection of vintage baby flower planters.


I bought the one on the right for a quarter at a yard sale, her cousin Autumn sent her the one in the center, and she bought that cute lil' donkey one at her local thrift store for just a couple dollars. 


AdOrAbLe!!


Such fun these little pieces of pottery are to find!  All summer, it was what I stayed on the lookout for as I went to sales.


I think Jamie enjoyed the hunt once the nursery started to take shape and she was amazed that the thrift store in her tiny little town had several the ONE day she went in there this year looking for exactly these!






The curtains are just lengths of the fabric trimmed, hemmed and then outlined with lengths of pink rick rack.  EASY!  They hang from curtain clips and darken the room to JUST RIGHT for nap
time.   RICK RACK IS FUN.  


The curtains weren't hanging exactly like I hoped they would, so I hand-sewed some good sized washers from the hardware store into the corners of each panel on the bottom.  They are hanging much better now with that little bit of weight.


I think we are all set and ready for "Little Bitty" to come live in her new nursery!


We are all excited!




Babies are sweetest way to start people.

13 comments:

Mary Jane said...

You know how "wordy" I can get, but this can be summed up in ONE word: PERFECT!

Sandi @ The Primitive Skate said...

It's absoulutely gorgeous! I Love it all! Thanks for sharing!

Audrey is ADORABLE!

Kim said...

What a cute little room for your new Little Bitty and by the way she is just beautiful. But of course you already know that =)
Blesses to you and yours,
Kim in OK

~Sara said...

Oh how sweet! She looks just like a doll in those photos. She will surely love all of the special touches in her "nursery". How special to share all of that with your daughter. The Holidays will be such a joy for you all this year. Happy cuddling! Sara

mary your sis said...

An adorable room for an adorable Audrey. Just too sweet for words, it is a room put together with love and it shows!

Julie said...

So cute as I knew it would be, I sure hope one of my girls wants a vintage nursery with her babies one day, it would be so fun to shop for, love how it turned out, the pillow case is cute too!

Anonymous said...

Love it!! Pretty baby gril, looks just like her mom and brother : )

Sandie said...

The room couldn't be any more precious! Oh and Little Miss Audrey is so sweet. Just makes me want to squeeze her! I'm sure you will do that for us! Blessings!

Raluca said...

Is just my impression or does she really look a lot like Levi?
Enjoy your first week-end at home, Audrey! You are so loved!

Tammy said...

There is nothing more fun then decorating a nursery for a new baby. I helped my daughter when our grandson arrived and it was so much fun. Baby Aubrey is beautiful! Congrat's to the whole family hope your daughter is feeling alright. Has Levi seen her yet and what does he think of her? You have 2 beautiful grandchildren Joni. Congrat's again.

Autumn said...

Everything is so adorable, I love it all!!! I'm just starting to put our nursery together, and I can't believe the similarities! We have a yellow nursery too :) So cute though, all of the little details are just perfect. Can't wait to meet little Audrey!

mary your sis said...

So tiny,
So small,
So loved
by all!

Joanna said...

Love love love it all!