Parker's Nursery

Our Seattle Home

 We went house-hunting in Bellingham a few days ago - just a rental until we have spent a little time in the city and can decide which area we want our family to settle in.  So much more to consider now, like proximity to parks and which school district we'll be in!  Plus we are feeling a bit gun-shy after our Seattle home's value dropped considerably in 3 years. 

As we look at places and imagine them filled with our own stuff, one of the things I miss the most is Parker's nursery.  It was so much fun to nest while we were pregnant, both of us spent hours looking for ideas online and the perfect items in stores.  Our crafty sides came out (probably last seen 3 years ago at our wedding!) and together we created a warm, cute, cozy room for Parker.  We knew he would only enjoy it for a few months, but it was definitely worth our energy. 

We were originally going to go with a Narnia theme, but that proved to be a bit difficult.  Aslan was most important, so we ended up with a few common jungle animals - lion, giraffe, and elephant, with a few others mixed in.

 We found a comfy armchair from Ikea on Craigslist, then when my dad was out for a visit he transformed it into a glider.  Definitely made a difference in how quickly Parker went to sleep after a 3 am feed!  We searched long and hard for a crib & dresser set we liked, and finally found this crib, almost identical to the Pottery Barn Kendall crib, with a dresser we really love.  Thanks Grandma Christie and Papa for the crib and Pottery Barn bedding!

 The dresser (thanks Nonna and Pappi!) we decided on had lots of drawer space, but was too high to be a changing table, so we did another Craigslist search.  Then I painted this one off-white to match the glider.  Add in some baskets with liners hand-made by Grandma Christie and Parker's diapers had a home!  Daddy came across the lanterns from our wedding and hung them, and soon after Parker was staring at them instead of screaming during diaper changes!

This chest is the one item of furniture that traveled from the East coast to the West coast with us, in the Uhaul trailer attached to my Honda Accord.  My father made it for my mother as a wedding gift, and now their grandson Parker will have a home for his toys!  Until he starts playing with those toys it will house the endless supply of swaddle blankets and burp clothes an infant needs...

This was my favorite project.  We came across these paintings online somewhere, then Tyson figured out how to print out the shapes to use as stencils.  A few canvases and some paint later and I had made my first "paintings" for less than $10 - apparently they go for at least $20 or $30 each!

We came across this alphabet train at a children's consignment shop (Childish Things, my absolute favorite!) and had to get it to spell the baby's name.  We hadn't chosen Parker's name yet, the look on our faces was comical when we went to put this on the shelf after he was born and realized we needed 2 R's.  A nickname is born!

We discovered the Goodwill this year and spent MANY hours scouring many stores for nursery items.  We found these great animal figures as well as this lamp.  I recovered the lampshade to match the basket liners.  The little felt elephants on the dresser will one day hang from a mobile when Parker's room is put back together.



Hopefully our house-search will reward us with another room to set up this nursery in, though it will never be quite the same as our beloved Seattle home.  I had tears in my eyes as we drove away at the end of a long, desperate day of preparing the house for our renters.  It will always be our first home together, where we started our family.  But we must move on and the house can't come with us, so onward to Bellingham!