The Baby's Room

       The Making of a Nursery, or....  How I spent My Christmas Vacation

Yes, folks, a new Shassere is on the way.  Having way more vacation left at the end of the year than I should (14 days - I gotta learn to take more vacation), I took some time to turn one of the spare bedrooms into a nursery.  Cindy found the colors she liked, and gave me a rough idea of what she wanted.........  A border around the middle, with a textured dark blue/light blue above, and taupe below.  

The process took a little longer than expected.....  OK, a lot longer. 

Paint Attempt #1:  Off to Home Depot....  They had a book that describes lots of techniques.  Found one that looked like the textured effect Cindy wanted - "Bagging".  Bagging involves painting the wall with a base coat of a 50/50 mixture of paint and clear faux finish glaze, then pressing on a grocery bag and pulling it off.  In theory and in the book this looks easy.  Yea, Right!!  Sticky, gooey paint from head to toe.  Oh well, take a shower, and let the walls dry.

Paint Attempt #2.  Off to Home Depot to look for another way.  Back at the book......  There is a similar technique, taking the same paint/glazing mixture from above, but this time cover the wet paint with a sheet of newspaper.  Rub it smooth, then pull it off.  Easy, yes.  Look good, no.  The folds of the paper show up on the wall.  OK, I can fix this - use smaller pieces of paper without the folds.  Wrongooo.  Sticky gooey paint from head to toe.  Hmmph, take a shower, and let the walls dry.

Paint Attempt # 3:  Off to Home Depot, again.  I'm so glad they just opened a new one a few blocks away.  Forget the book this time, let's just look around.  Found a sponge.  OK, this can't be too hard.....  Sponge on a texture color.  But wait, I'm tired of sticky gooey paint from head to toe.  There's got to be a better way.  There is!!!!!  You can get a "Sponge Roller Cover"......  Pop this thing on your paint roller, and sponge away, without having to get your hands all in the paint.  And guess what, it really worked.  Here's how it's done.  First, I painted a base coat of pure blue paint (no glazing mix) and let it dry.  Next, I took a mixture of 4 parts glaze, and 1 part paint to create a lighter hue of the base color.  Using my new Sponge Roller Cover with just a light amount of paint on it, rolled the wall to create the textured effect.  Finally, got the walls painted. This picture really doesn't show the detail, but I'm pleased (and so is Cindy).

Now, it was time to tackle the border.  Another easy job, so they say.  Actually, it wasn't that bad.  The hardest part was the 14ft wall.  Like I said before, I'm doing this on my vacation, so.....  I'm all alone.  Have you ever tried to put up a 14ft long wallpaper border by yourself, and get it straight?  After 3 or 4 attempts (and a few choice @#$# words), I got it.  Well, I thought so.  One end or the other kept peeling off the wall, then the whole thing came down.  Answer.....  The real mans cure all - Duct Tape.  Not really, just a few strategically place pieces of painters masking tape, and it was done.  Another day's work down.

Next, the chair rail molding.  Not in Cindy's original plan, but I added the wooden moldings, painted to match the burgundy in the border, as an accent and to keep little fingers from pulling the border down.  This was an easy task, well, after a trip to Harbor Freight, for a new low volume paint sprayer it was, I didn't feel much like painting 100 ft molding with a brush.  Thinned down some of the burgundy paint Cindy bought, poured it in the sprayer, and sprayed away.  Dang, gotta remember to open more doors and windows..... aren't those colors so pretty.........  Couple of coats later, all done.  Let them dry, then hack away with the miter saw. Here's the completed wall.

On to the changing table and dresser.  We looked everywhere for some good quality child's room furniture.  All we could find was either cheap junk, expensive junk, or ridiculously expensive junk for a child's room.  We finally settled on some unfinished pieces from Neal's Unfinished Furniture.  Nothing special, just good solid pieces.  The finishing process was not hard, just way time consuming.  Started sanding, and sanding, and sanding, and....  well, you know.  Since the furniture is pine, you need to apply a conditioner, so the stain soaks in evenly.  Decided I'm running out of time, so to speed up the process, I had an idea, "Hey, I've got a paint sprayer in the garage, and can quickly get this done by using the sprayer".  So I put the conditioner in the sprayer, fired up the compressor, and pulled the trigger.  Guess I should have paid closer attention to the sprayer directions.  You need material a little thicker than water, else, you make fog..... a rather, uh, mind altering fog that is.  Note for next time - open the doors and windows.  Hmmm, heard that somewhere before.  Let the fog clear in the garage (and the head), then pull out the brushes. 

Once dry, just put on 2 coats of stain, and your done. Here's the finished product.

By now, almost everything has come together.  Just need the bed linens for the crib.  Guys, if you have never considered crib linens a major investment needing a second mortgage, think again.  Cindy goes on a shopping trek for the linens, OK a several week trek to find the right one.  This stuff runs from a couple hundred dollars to well over a thousand dollars!!!!  For a freakin sheet and quilt the baby will spit up on, or worse!!!    Cindy finally found what she wanted, at a reasonable price.  Here it is.

Well, that's it for now.  Here's a few more pics, though.

The windows valance......

And bassinet.