We’ve had 35 weeks now to work on Miss Penelope’s room—do you think we’ve taken advantage of that time? Nope! Of course, we have pretty much waited until the last minute. Cue the anxiety attacks, and stock up on the ice cream because at this point, she can make her grand entrance at any time. To give ourselves the benefit of the doubt though, we have been chipping away little by little on the renovation of the room itself, but I figured by this point, we’d have been long done with this project.
Our home is a traditional Cape Cod style house from the 1940s. Although it’s fully equipped with cute, quaint characteristics—it’s also filled with two very small bedrooms on the second floor. Turning one of these tiny rooms into the dream nursery I built on Pinterest? Challenge accepted.
I do have just a slight obsession with Chip and Joanna Gaines, so when we purchased our home, we replaced plaster with shiplap and exposed the chimney running through the center of the house to give that cute farmhouse feel. I definitely wanted to keep the trend going to Penny’s room but add a shabby chic-ness to it as well. Luckily, this lumberjack husband of mine was not only able to shiplap the entire room, but he also created built-in book shelves and drawers to provide more storage space. What a hunk!
Aside from the major parts of the renovating—painting, staining and floor installation have been consuming the last several weeks. Now that all of that stuff has been wrapped up and finished, this small space has become the perfect canvas to create this farmhouse, shabby chic nursery.
Remember when I referred to my husband as being a lumberjack? I wasn’t kidding! This soon-to-be papa insisted on building his little girl’s crib and changing table, and I wasn’t about to argue with that. Not only would this be a huge money saver, but it’d make her room all the more special.
I’m not sure how many of you have a similar quaint Cape Cod style home, but when you’re trying to get a crib up to the second floor … those adorable curved stairs aren’t so cute anymore. After ripping out an entire stair tread, the crib was finally upstairs and ready to be put together.
In addition to my fixer-upper addiction, I absolutely love to repurpose—especially when it comes to decorating. The mason jars, faux flowers and paper flowers were all recycled from our baby shower and fit the nursery quite perfectly, if I do say so myself. While the changing table is still under construction, in week 35 I can proudly say that Penelope’s room is complete!
There have been a few times over the past week I’ve found myself wandering upstairs, for no good reason other than to take it all in. That’s not weird, right? As each day passes, it’s becoming more and more real that this pair will soon be a family of three, and I can’t wait!
