Lucy’s Nursery

April 14, 2015 by Ruthie 5 Comments

I have always dreamed of having a little girl and the day I got pregnant I started dreaming up the most beautiful nursery.  I dreamed about a white and light pink room with frilly/girly accents.  I also knew exactly what I wanted to name my little girl.  Since I was young I adored Lucille Ball and I Love Lucy.  I loved to watch reruns on Nick at Nite and I collected anything and everything Lucille Ball.  I knew one day, when I would have a little girl, that her name would be Lucy.  Well thank God I had a little girl because I had the name and room all imagined in my mind and I’m so glad that I was able to bring it to life.

Lucy was born in California and we lived in a 2 bedroom 1,000 square foot apartment.  The second bedroom, her nursery, also doubled as a guest room.  We also were not allowed to paint the room since we were renting so I had to work with what I had.  If you missed my previous post about my Ikea Spice Rack Book Shelves you can see Lucy’s room while we lived in California.

Shortly after Lucy was born my husband accepted a position in Minnesota so we packed up and moved half way across the country.  We decided to rent when we first moved here so that we would have time to really do some research on where we wanted to live.  We rented a town home for about 8 months and during that time I didn’t do much with Lucy’s nursery as I knew it was only temporary.

Once we moved into our home, I couldn’t wait to start working on the beautiful little girls room that I had dreamed about in my head.  I wanted to incorporate elaborate detailed frames as the focal point above the crib and as I was looking I found them to be pretty spendy.  I found these adorable wooden laser cut frames at Michaels and knew they would be perfect.  I have previously posted about these frames here.  I love the simplicity of them but also how they really add to the space!

As I have said before I love Lucille Ball.  Since my little Lucy is named after her I really wanted to incorporate her into the room.  I have this beautiful photo of Lucille Ball that I framed and I think it adds such a special touch to the room.  Also isn’t this chandelier amazingly cute?  I purchased it at Hobby Lobby and love how it gives the room an even more elegant and girly feel.

Something I also have always wanted to do was frame pictures of myself, Lucy and my husband as newborns.  I love looking at it and comparing who Lucy looks more alike and now Lucy can tell who is who in the photos.

One small thing I love to do to update a piece of furniture is to change the knobs.  I replaced the normal white knobs of the changing table with glass rose shaped knobs from Hobby Lobby.  I love my changing table as it has storage and compartments for baskets.  The changing table I purchased at Amazon and the baskets I got at Home Goods!

As I’ve said before I’m not a huge fan of the color of the woodwork in my home but I just can’t get myself to paint it.  I do feel I need to live with it for a while before I take on that huge task.  Something I did to help minimize the amount of dark wood in a light and bright space was to take the closet doors off and replace them with curtains.  It compliments the room so well and makes it so the dark wood isn’t as noticeable.  Also when hanging curtains try to hang as high as possible because it helps make the room look larger and taller.  You can also hang them wider than the frame to make the window/closet appear larger.

We were fortunate that Lucy’s room had built ins in the closet which have really helped me maximize the storage space and allowed me to not have a dresser in her bedroom.  I also love being able to add special touches and decorations to the shelves in the closets.  If her closet is a little messy though I’m able to close the curtains to mask the mess. 🙂

I have also posted before about my DIY bookshelves made from IKEA spice racks.  Another great way to maximize your storage in a small space.  I am able to have tons of books stored on the wall and Lucy can easily grab the books as well.  You can see the how to here.

Probably my favorite thing in Lucy’s room is her wall color.  I believe it to be the most beautiful pink paint ever made!  I know that’s a large statement but I think it’s so true.  It is the most beautiful pale pink color and really creates that soft, beautiful, elegant and girly bedroom.  The color is White Dogwood from Sherwin Williams.  Something else I added to the paint was Valspar’s Signature Paint Crystals.  I was extremely hesitant to use them because I didn’t want it to make the room look tacky.  I’m SOOO glad I did it though because it adds just a touch of sparkle and what little girl wouldn’t want sparkly walls?!  I only added one packet to a gallon of paint.  If you want more sparkle you can add two packets.  For me, one packet was perfect.  You don’t really notice the sparkles unless they catch some light from outside or from the ceiling light.  It’s so beautiful and I love it!  (The touch of sparkle is so faint that you may need to watch the video below in full screen mode.)

It was so much fun to decorate Lucy’s room and to be able to do something different from the rest of our house!  I think it is a space she will continue to grow into and we can update little things as she gets older.  It’s a beautiful space for a beautiful little girl!

Enjoy your week everyone!  I think Spring has sprung here in Minnesota (crossing my fingers) and we are really enjoying this beautiful weather!  I’m headed outside with my little!