Before & After: Setting Up a Nursery is a Family Affair

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(Image credit: Submitted by Allison )

Allison stepped in to help her sister-in-law set up her baby nursery after the passing of her mother. Her act of love and kindness led to one adorable space for the new baby, with a beautifully bittersweet story.

(Image credit: Submitted by Allison )

From Allison: After my mother-in-law passed away, I decided to step in to help my sister-in-law with her nursery for her baby girl on the way. We moved all of the guest room furniture and already-purchased baby supplies out of the room and painted the walls white to give us a blank canvas.

(Image credit: Submitted by Allison )

I headed south Thursday night with my grandmother-in-law to my sister-in-law’s house with a dresser and paint supplies in tow, with a mission to completely make over the nursery in one weekend. My sister-in-law purchased the floral bedding from Target which became the room inspiration and color palette. We matched Sherwin-Williams paint colors to the quilt and got started refinishing all the furniture.

(Image credit: Submitted by Allison )

We started early Friday morning painting the walls white, touching up and emptying the room. We then started painting the crib she had from her previous children white (which was brown), the changing table she had aqua and white (which was navy) and the dresser we brought white with pink ombre drawers and refinished the hardware. After the majority of the painting was complete we headed to a few shops to pick up decor and more supplies.

We purchased most of the wall decor at Hobby Lobby. We made the sequin “S” with supplies from Hobby Lobby also. We wrapped a paper machè letter with sequin elastic and hot glued ranunculus flowers to it. We found the curtains at HomeGoods and the lamp at Hobby Lobby.

(Image credit: Submitted by Allison )

On Saturday, we finished up the remaining painting of the furniture and then headed back to a couple of stores to pick up a few more items. One item we picked up was the rocker from Babies R Us. My sister-in-law sat in every chair they had in stock and picked the one she was most comfortable in and one she could sleep in. Once we returned home, I quickly got started painting the flowers on the wall. I used the quilt as inspiration and projected the flowers on the wall to get a good outline, then finished filling in the details. I made the canvas with her name at home before we drove down, so I had that completed and ready to hang. I used a water color canvas that I purchased from Hobby Lobby. Once the flowers were complete, we started bringing in all of the furniture and hung all of the art and curtains. We worked into the morning hours, but it was worth it to see it all completed!

(Image credit: Submitted by Allison )

This was a bittersweet project with my sister-in-law, as my mother-in-law would have loved to have been a part of setting up Skylar’s nursery. We kept her in mind while we put the room the together and really love how it turned out. Her middle name was Rene so we knew we had to include Skylar’s middle name on the name canvas. This makeover was on full speed the whole weekend, but we loved how it turned out even though we were exhausted. It is so soft and sweet and we cannot wait for Skylar to be in it!

Resource List:

  • Wall Decor: Hobby Lobby
  • Crib: Reused & painted
  • Changing Table: Reused & painted
  • Dresser: Vintage
  • Bedding: Target
  • Curtains: HomeGoods
  • Lamp: Hobby Lobby
  • Wall Paint: Behr Popped Corn
  • Rocking Chair: Babies R Us
  • Flowers & Name: Custom Painted

Thank you, Allison!