Nursery Closet Complete

For those of you who have asked or are wondering . . . no, I haven't had the baby yet.  I'm actually due in two and a half weeks on March 24

so . . .

 . . . . my belly continues to grow 

. . . .we continue to do projects around the house to get ready for our newest family member

. . . I continue to work full-time (which is why I haven't blogged in a week)

. . .  we continue to toss around baby names

and I cherish every minute of the miracle that is pregnancy.

I am happy to say that the nursery is almost complete.  I just hope we finish it before the baby gets here, even though he'll be sleeping in our room in a bassinet. 

Our most recent nursery project was to address the closet.  Initially, Jason was just going to paint the interior of the closet white, but in my quest for storage because we live in such a small house, I had bigger plans.

I wanted a closet that was divided with two hanging bars, to accommodate little clothes. 

I also knew I wanted baskets in the closet to provide attractive storage for all things baby.

Finally, I knew I wanted a pattern inside the closet - either stenciled or wall-papered. 

And I knew I was probably driving my husband crazy with my wishes for a cute closet.

So we set out for Lowes and looked at their closet organization systems.  I almost fell over when I saw the price tag on these systems.  Some were as much as $400 and none offered the simplicity I was looking for in such a small space so I asked Jason if he'd be willing to build what I envisioned.

He said yes.

So we purchased some lumber, some hanging bars, some wallpaper, and some baskets and we headed home on a mission.

First, we had to clean out the closet that once served as a catch-all for crafts, the vacuum cleaner, miscellaneous papers, artwork and who knows what else.

It was actually much worse than this . . . but Jason had already started to clean it out and was insistent I NOT take a picture of the mess.  Fortunately, I snuck in and took the photo when he was off finding new homes for some of the junk.  Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to appreciate the transformation.

Once the closet was cleaned out, Jason went in and spackled all areas that were rough or had little nail holes to ensure the wall paper would go on smoothly.

Once that dried and he sanded it down, the wall paper went up.  I never knew how messy installing wallpaper was but it was worth all of its gooeyness. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the goo but every time Jason would smooth out the wall paper a big mess of glue would seep out from under the wall paper.  Maybe we didn't wait long enough to  put it on or it was too wet.  

In any case, I absolutely love the way it turned out.

Next, my dream maker began building shelves to house the baskets.

And before I knew it, there were a couple of shelves and a couple of rods to hang little clothes.

Finally, the shelves were primed and painted white and my vision became a reality.

I put all the little adorable clothes in there and filled the baskets with blankets, toys and other baby items we'll be using in a couple of weeks.

I love that the stroller fits in there tucked away in the corner.

Wow! I still can't believe the before and after!

                                                              Before:

After:

 I still want to get all matching baby hangers since currently some are blue and some are white but I wasn't going to wait to post this until I waddled over to Tar-jay to get matching hangars.

I'm so glad we didn't spend all of that money on the closet organization system from Lowe's!

And Jason is glad I took a "before" picture.

Stay tuned this week for more nursery updates!

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