I was hoping to get after transforming our second guest room into Marcus’s nursery when the biannual six-week One Room Challenge was going on in April, but obviously that didn’t happen. Fortunately, the ORC happens twice a year, and I’m jumping on the next one, starting October 3rd, to get this nursery transformation going!
The One Room Challenge happens twice a year, in October and April. During that time, 20 design bloggers – along with hundreds of guest participants – take six weeks to undertake a transformation on one room in their house. It’s a great way to stay focused and motivated to finish one room, and the actual One Room Challenge is a great place to find ideas, materials, sources, and encouragement. Sound awesome? Of course it does! So over the next six weeks, we will be transforming the second guest room into a room ready for our Baby Bean, one that will serve him well as a baby but he can hopefully grow into, and will grow with him.
So let’s go back to the “before” for this room…
Okay, that’s a little far back. That’s the waaaaaaaaay before. This is what it looked like before it became our second guest bedroom. Let’s take a look at what that looked like, post transformation.
The plain room you saw before became our second guest room with the addition of some of our favorite Behr paint in Clary Sage, board and batten, and furniture. The red oak furniture pictured had been Scott’s since his days as a brand new lieutenant and we used it ourselves until his folks gave us their furniture while downsizing. That went into our master, and this furniture came up here. We love how the room turned out, and it hosted a lot of friends and family for us.
Even though, when we put this room together, we knew that this room would eventually become a child’s room once we got around to having kids, I really didn’t think about having to post pictures of it as a “before!” It just seems so…done!
For the longest time, we made almost no movement toward converting the room, since we knew little man would be living with us for a goodly amount of time after he arrived. However, with these first weeks and months going by quickly and time for projects being tightly constrained, I knew that if we didn’t get started working on the room, little man might be in kindergarten before we get it done. And I’m pretty sure we’re all going to want our own spaces by then!
We’ve gotten a kick start on moving out all the furniture we won’t need for him – the bed and mattress and a large upright bureau. We gave these to our friends who live up the street, who needed them for their teenager. Then we started clearing out the extra junk that took up residence in the room when we displaced it from our second floor.
From there, it’s just a question of inspiration. Here are a few of my favorite inspiration pictures that we’ll be using to shape the room.
Every nursery or kid’s room needs a big overstuffed rocker. And since I want to keep the 150+ year old one we have down in our room {and yes, one day replace the ugly yellow vinyl someone covered it with during a “restoration” with real upholstery}, we’re looking at getting one for Marcus. And hopefully it lasts long enough for him to take it with him.
You’ve got to love Etsy for great custom décor, and I’m in love with the sign selection from Rusticly Inspired. These three really speak to me, and my hopes for our little man, that like his mama, part of his heart will always remain a little undomesticated.
What really drew me to this one was the neutral palette, the board and batten wainscoting, and the letter name sign. We’ll have a little more color in our Baby Bean’s room but I’d love to showcase more of the board and batten we did, and I’d love to add some shelving and a name sign of some kind for him.
I get inspired by beautiful neutrals, in my heart of hearts, I need bold color and natural wood tones mixed in with them. Bre’s gorgeous nursery reveal gives me all of those great things and more! So many natural materials and so much texture! I will be taking a lot of inspiration from this room!
So here’s what you’ll see us doing to this room over the next six weeks or so, if I can stay on the One Room Challenge schedule.
- Clear out all the clutter
- Assemble the crib {gift from my parents}
- Assemble the changing table {gift from my parents}
- Purchase glider, chair, or rocking chair
- Build bookshelves
- Purchase hamper
- Build toy chest
- Hang curtain rod and curtains
- Hang artwork
- Closet organization solution
- Name sign
- Woodland area rug
Anything else you guys can think of that we’re missing or might need for a baby’s room? Let us know, and we’re interested in hearing your ideas for how we can keep improving this room through the One Room Challenge duration!
