Nursery reveal: A shabby chic nursery fit for a princess

We found out we were expecting our miracle on March 24, 2015- one day before my husband's birthday, and five months after the loss of our precious second baby. I knew almost instantly that she was going to be a girl. At the end of June, we found out for sure that we were having another girl.

Nursery progress: Cornice shelves

Hi, all! I hope your Wednesday is off to a great start. Here at Organized and Simplified, we are celebrating the nearly finished status of our daughter's nursery. Monday, we showed you her new nursery chair and some really cute art work we hung above her changing table. Today, we will show you how we decorated her cornice shelves and tall dresser.

Nursery progress: DIY art

We are almost finished with our sweet girl's nursery. This weekend, we were finally able to get a nursery chair- we bought it off Craigslist and it is wonderful- so comfy and so cute. I was a bit concerned about the color until I saw it, and then I realized it was perfect.

DIY Fridays: Nursery table and lamp

Hi all! Due to the link party posting tomorrow, I am posting my DIY Friday one day early.

As you know, the husband and I have been feverishly working on our baby girl's nursery. Although she'll be arriving in November, I am going back to work in two weeks and we are trying to get it finished before I go back. So far, we've painted, bought bedding, bought (but not hung) art for the walls, and unpacked and put away all the baby clothes and gear. Last week, my super handy daddy came over and built a closet organizer shelf for her closet.

That being said, I found a very cute black turned leg end table at Homegoods. It was on sale and appeared to be well-made.

 The nursery furniture is all white and the table was black, so I figured I could paint it and make it match.  I put three coats of semi gloss white paint onto the table, and I'm pretty happy with the end result.

Getting organized: Small-spaces nurseries

This summer, we are working hard to get our baby's room finished. She will not be here til November, but I am going back to work soon and we want to be finished before then. One of the most important things to me was that we get organized in an effort to make things easier for us. 

One of our first courses of action was install a closet shelf to give our large but poorly utilized closet some additional storage space. 

The baskets contain shoes, baby pajamas, plain white onesies, socks, hats, and some toys. The white baskets across the top shelf contain clothes that are organized by size (to conserve space in the dresser drawer). The baskets are organized like this: 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, some miscellaneous items, and a basket for my breast pump items. 

DIY Friday/Monthly organizing project

Hi all! If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw this post on Wednesday:

That is my baby's closet, or what I liked to refer to as "organized chaos." Just like all the closets in our house, this one was a nice size but very poorly laid out. Lots of wasted space!

DIY Fridays: A Shabby Chic Lampshade

We have begun working on Baby Girl Boone's nursery, which right now, looks a bit like this:

We are getting ready to start painting in there soon, so it's kind of a hot mess. OK, it's definitely a hot mess. I want the finished product to have a shabby chic theme, so I have been working hard to secure or make items for the room. I purchased a gorgeous handmade quilt from Etsy, which I love! It really does look like a vintage quilt and there are so many beautiful colors in it. I can't wait to show it to you. 

I wanted a lampshade with rosettes, similar to this one:

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I quickly went to our local big box store and bought a plain cream colored drum shade for $5.00. I also bought five rolls of this ribbon: 

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I hot glued the ribbon to the shade, making sure not to let any gaps form. I didn't want the shade to be visible through the lamp shade at all. When I finished, here is what I ended up with: 

Since the nursery is in the shape that it is currently in, I am staging this lamp in my oldest daughter's room. I kind of like it there- I may have to make a smaller one for her vanity :)

Thanks for stopping by! I'll post another DIY Friday project next week. 

Four week "Wait No More" Organizing Challenge: Week Three: My daughter's closet

Hello all! If you haven't noticed yet, I am participating in the Four week "Wait No More" Organizing Challenge with Jen Jones at I Heart Organizing. If you've never been to her blog, you need to. You'll be blown away by her home and her talents. While you're there, be sure to check out some of the other bloggers participating in the challenge as well. I'm glad to be included among so many talented and wonderful people! You can find Jen's blog here.

Here are the other parts of the challenge I participated in:

Week one: my daughter's dresser
Week two: the pantry
Week three: my daughter's closet, baby's closet, and master closet
Week four: playroom

I am intending to re-organize our master closet, and the baby's closet as well, but I am not quite finished with those. I might have to cheat and post those next week :) I did finish my daughter's closet, and boy am I glad! A few months ago, we moved her out of the nursery and into a new "big girl room."  Up until last week, her clothes were still in the baby room closet and the closet in her big girl room still looked like this:

Total. Monica. Closet. The mess you see here consists of clothes that won't fit in the master closet, paint, and junk. Lots of junk.

Needless to say, we put this stuff in the baby closet (for now, until we can add that extra rod to the master closet) and got to work organizing her big girl room closet.

I'm pleased to be able to share this "after picture" that is such a huge improvement:


We added a vertical closet shelf and one lower rod. My dad made this wonderful closet shelf for us using an Ana White plan, some lumber and nails. The lumber ended up costing us about $120 (we used actual shelf lumber instead of plywood), but we already had the closet rods and rod flanges. I purchased them over a year ago for about $10 total.

I already had the boxes, which I made over a year ago using diaper boxes and $7 fabric. You can read about them here.  The Rubermaid totes were already here, and the baskets with the pink liners are from her nursery closet. We also already had the white paint. Altogether, this project cost about $137 dollars, and the closet is so much more useful.

Let me give you a bit of a tour:

The top left corner houses a Rubbermaid tote that holds her baby blankets. I am planning to cover the side of it with contact paper so you can't see the mess inside.

The baskets on the top shelf, which are left over from her nursery closet, house winter hats and gloves, tights, extra coat hangers and leggings.

The top rod holds outfits, while the lower rod holds pants and skirts. Some lesser-used, but still possibly needed items (like a few long sleeved shirts in case of a cool morning) occupy the back of the lower rod, and dresses occupy the rod on the right. We wanted the closet to grow with her, so she has plenty of room to hang her dresses when she's older. 

Because she is a growing kid who regularly outgrows things, I created a "hamper" for donation items. The hamper is made from a cardboard box which I covered with cloth. Nothing wet is going into this hamper, so it doesn't matter that it's cardboard. Her memory box is stored beside the hamper and her weekend bag sits on top of the memory box.

The shoe rack was in her previous closet, so we reused it. 

Well, that concludes Miss E's closet tour! I am not quite done with the baby closet and master closet but I am working on them. I will post those soon. Thanks for stopping by! 

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/" title="TDC Before and After" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/beforeAndAfterButton_thumb1.gif" alt="TDC Before and After" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

A quick and easy DIY: dresser tray

I am a bit obsessed with trays. I have a silver serving tray in our bathroom to corral our glass canisters. I also have a wooden tray in our kitchen with a grain sack print, an apothecary jar and some spring decor. 

Reveal: Emorie's Big Girl Room

We have been working on my sweet girl's "big girl room" for over a year. What started out as the "junk room" actually morphed into a cute little room. When we first moved in, we stashed everything we didn't want to deal with in that room and shut the door.

My kiddo is outgrowing her nursery and when we got pregnant with our second baby, we really started to work on the room. We miscarried, but we talked up her big girl room so much, we had to keep creating it. We've finished the room aside from buying her an area rug.

Spring Crafts for Kids: "Foot birds"

I found the cutest little Spring craft for my kiddo on Pinterest this week! It came from a website called "C.R.A.F.T.: Creating Really Awesome Free Things!" This website contains massive amounts of cute activities for kiddos, and the title contains three of my favorite things: creative, awesome, and free!