We have been keeping busy with lots of mini projects in the nursery! Now that we’re super close to finishing up, I thought I’d update here. If I don’t, my nursery room tour post might be 6 years long and who really wants to hear about our outlet choices during a room tour?? First up on our DIY agenda is reupholstering the glider ottoman from C’s woodland themed nursery!
The gliding ottoman that went with our chair was originally $200+ and therefore we deemed it totally unnecessary. I picked up this modern ottoman from Target on clearance! I can’t even remember what the original upholstery looked like because I replaced it with this cotton tribal printed fabric.
We moved the set into the new nursery and, though it would have worked, I decided I wanted to do something a little more bold with the ottoman. (Who doesn’t love a bold ottoman, ya know??) For the first time ever, I ordered fabric online. Shopping for fabric with a toddler is just… not a great time. I found this Duck canvas fabric on sale at JOANN for $6/yard and ordered one yard in “mineral yellow”.
The ottoman legs come off pretty easily by removing a few screws. I didn’t bother removing the old fabric and stapled the canvas right over the top because this is peak third trimester effort. And, by the way, our electric Arrow staple gun bit the dust (after only one use, I might add) so we had to pick up a new DEWALT manual staple gun and it worked super well! I’m not sure I’d ever buy another electric staple gun unless I had a project that required hours of stapling. My grip strength is horrendous and I still had no problem with the DEWALT gun!
I can’t wait for you guys to see this yellow in the teal nursery!! It maxes out on the super fun color combinations scale!
Next up, let’s talk about our favorite blackout shades (again). We bought another one to replace the dusty old corded blinds! Not only is it safer to not have corded blinds in a nursery, but they also darken the room for better baby naps. Check out the difference!
Mini project #3- replacing the hardware on this mid century modern dresser! Don’t get me wrong, I love the original hardware and will definitely keep them for future use but the brass just didn’t go with the color scheme. Plus, they’re really fun to spin around and leave crooked, just ask C :-). We envisioned ourselves straightening the handles everyday for the rest of our lives because that’s just who we are at a cellular level. We knew we’d be better off with a classic knob.
So I found these black, textured cabinet knobs for $1 a piece at Home Depot! (P.S. We also added a few washers to the backs for better tightening and stability.)
Last but not least. The moment you’ve all been waiting for. Without further ado. Replacing the outlets! *crickets chirp*
No really, guys, it’s pretty exciting! Whenever we redo a room, we replace the outlets with these tamper resistant outlets and screwless wall plates. It’s quite expensive to replace all of your home outlets at once, so we’re just slowly working our way there. These tamper resistant outlets are becoming more standard in homes. They have internal shutters that block things (forks, sticks, spaghetti noodles…) from being inserted into the outlet. We still use baby proofing outlet plugs, but it’s an extra safety measure that we think is more than worth it! If you look closely at the two prong holes, you can see the white shutters blocking the opening.
And yes, we did install it upside down. We are just trying it out. You’ll see this a lot in offices and hospitals. It prevents the outlet from shorting out if something falls onto a partially pulled out plug because it will hit the ground prong first.
And that does it for our mini DIY nursery projects! It’s certainly a long journey to a finished room but it’s fun to see the progress as we go along! We’re still waiting on the closet organizer to arrive so we can install it and start organizing baby stuff (EEK!!). I should say *second* closet organizer because I ordered the wrong size the first time… Oops! Our nursery tour is right around the corner!!! See you on Thursday with my DIY pegboard shelf! Thanks for stopping by 🙂