323 Life

Our Little Explorer

Nursery Reveal for our Little Son

Ever since finding out we were having a boy, we began dreaming about decorating his room. Someday we will have a beautiful house of our own where we can customize, paint, rearrange, and remodel to our hearts' content. In the meantime, we have a little two bedroom apartment where we are blessed to be able to paint and put up pictures. With a new arrival on the way though, it was time to go all out.

We love to travel. Both of us had traveled extensively before we met and since being together we have taken trips together to Thailand, India, and the Caribbean internationally, while stateside we have explored Boston, Southern Washington, Houston, much of Minnesota, and our favorite - Colorado Springs, CO.

Looking online for inspiration, I fell in love with this nursery set by Doodlefish at Rosenberry Rooms:

But at $580 for just the bumper, sheet, and crib skirt it was just a bit out of our budget of, well, just above penny-pinching.

Instantly hooked on the explorer theme, I did some research and found the exact same fabric for $7/yard at Hancock fabrics! So using the map fabric as our base, we creating an adventurous colorful room for our little explorer. Here are some features of our most involved DIY projects and upcycling.

Valance, Quilt, and Pillow

This was my first ever quilt! It took a long time but I love how it turned out. The valance is a simple rectangle with brown ribbon, and I am SO happy with the pillow!

Dresser/Changing Table and Night Stand

The dresser and night stand were given to us by my mother-in-law. Free was awesome but they didn't fit the theme very well beforehand.

Before

But with some fresh white paint and wallpaper on the drawers they are perfect!

Lamp


Before

After

This little lamp was 50 cents at a garage sale. All it needed was some spray paint and travel themed silhouettes that we printed on sticky paper and then removed from the lamp shade after painting it.

Ship Wheel

We found this ship wheel clock at Home Goods


The Inspiration

While we loved the idea, we thought this one was a bit underwhelming with ugly paint. So my incredibly talented husband decided to make one of his own. Much better

It turned out so cool and so much better than I could have imagined! Definitely my favorite piece of the whole room

Here are some views of the whole room as well as a few more details. It was definitely a time consuming labor of love, but we did it together and the result is far better than anything we could have bought. Now that our little explorer has arrived, it has been so rewarding to see him enjoy and interact with his mobile and so many other colorful aspects of his room that we put so much work into.