A New Baby Means Only One Thing: Redecorate

As I was working on the middle bedroom, it was brought to my attention that every time a new baby is on the way, I redecorate the room. I started thinking about it and it turns out it's true. When Reid came, we added the baby bed, changing table, I made all the bedding, bought new curtains and added new art on the wall. While we were waiting on Helena, I changed curtains again, changed out the furniture and added a twin bed, with new bedding to go with it. With Bonus coming in about 5 weeks, we are just finishing up baby #3 redo, the new expanded version. This included new furniture (again) in the baby room, but also changing out furniture in the family room and doing the switcheroo in the dining and living.

This is the room before. Twin bed, lost of toys, mint green walls.

I've never been happy with the bed situation in our house. We had a full sized bed in the baby room, but it was so cramped, I decided to change the bed to a twin. That worked as far as roominess, but that left no place for adults to sleep. Reid slept in the twin and Helena slept in the crib, but Meg and Eddie slept on the couch and a chair that makes into a bed. We previously had a hide-a-bed in a couch, but we sent that to Meg's. With Bonus needing the crib and now an extra place for Helena to lay her head, measures had to be taken.  So began project Murphy Bed.

I had been searching for one online for quite a while. They are NOT cheap, about $2,000 for a basic full setup, without the mattress. I found one on Craigslist for $600 and got it for $550, with a new mattress. Woohooo! Unfortunately it was in a knotty pine. Not my style, even if I lived in a lodge.

Not my bed, but a lot like it. ugh.

In addition to places for people to lay their heads, I was in need of a place to sew. Setting up 2 sewing machines (regular and serger) on the kitchen table was a pain. I either had to finish fast or leave my kitchen a mess for a sewing marathon, there was no stopping and starting projects. I found a great sofa table at my neighbor's garage sale that worked perfectly. I had originally bought it for Meg's family room, but as my vision for the bedroom changed, the table became a part of it. It was long enough to handle 2 machines and also had a fold out leaf on either side to make it wider when I needed it. It was also in a beee-utiful knotty pine finish. I came across a great stool at a flea market that was just the right size for under the table. So perfect! Except that it was an awful blue.

pine sofa table 

cute stool with weird, lumpy blue paint

I wanted people to be able to sleep in the room, but I also wanted to use the room as a play room for the kids as they got older. With the Murphy bed up, there was plenty of floor space to play. My neighbor gave me a child size card table so I was on the hunt for some chid size folding chairs. I've never seen a set of 4, but at the Antique Alley yard sale, I found them! They needed quite a bit of TLC, but since I was painting A LOT of furniture anyway, I just added them to the list.

loved the red card table for my kitchen, but it wasn't going to stay there.

tiny folding chairs

We move the large armoire to the garage, sent the twin bed to Meg's to redo for Helena's big girl bed (that's a whole 'nother post), gave the shelves away and the tiger went to live in San Antonio. That left the room pretty empty and since I never really liked the color I painted it the last time, we went ahead and painted the walls a soft gray. 

So, even though I'm not the one having the baby, I'm in full nesting mode. I'll post the after pictures later and you can let me know if you like the transformation. It really doesn't matter, though. When the next baby comes, there's sure to be a change.