Baby Z's Nook

Finally!  Baby Z's itty bitty nook is finished.  Initially, I thought my project list was a little long, but totally doable in the fits and starts I'm afforded most days, thanks to my mother's help.  But as time wore on, the nook to-do list - seen below - got longer and more complicated.  There were quite a few set-backs along the way, the first being that although I had a lot of sewing to do, I didn't have a sewing machine.  Nor did I know how to use one.  I was also unsure how I'd hang the canopy for the bassinet.  And then there was finding the blanket binding, the trial and error over the mobile, painting the rug, recovering the lamp, and more sewing.  

These projects were interwoven with others, like a full re-organization of the workshop, which was a dismal mess; the ongoing saga of purging the basement; recovering the dining room chairs (more to come on this epic battle); cleaning out the pantry, the kitchen drawers, the dog's area (ick!), the closets in the den, the Duckings' clothing drawers... etc.  Just a little bit of nesting.

So here is the final product:  the nook.  As you can see, I had limited space to work with.  The sideways shelving unit is right beside the bedroom door, and you can see our dresser and the corner of our bed on the right.  Before I head to sleep (HA!), I can pull the bassinet and babe over to the bed, as it's on wheels.  My sister very graciously donated the bassinet, and I added the skirt to conceal the wheels and baskets underneath.  

As I mentioned, both the canopy and the skirt required a lot of sewing (hee - I actually typed "swearing" instead.... not far from the truth).  I ended up buying this sewing machine from IKEA, and I was extremely pleased its performance.  Of course, I had to read the manual very carefully - the last time I used a sewing machine was in Grade 7 Home Ec, when I made a rather awful and unwearable pair of shorts.  However, this machine is surprisingly easy to use, and once I got the hang of it, attaching the brown blanket binding went quite quickly.  The only issue was that the white fabric I chose, a jersey knit from Tonic Living, was a lot thinner than the binding, so it tended to bunch up.  I also taught myself to properly stitch the binding corners, which was no easy feat.  I hand-sewed the skirt to the brown pseudo-suede bassinet material.

                                                    

A few views of the shelving unit.  It's just your basic, ubiquitous IKEA Billy bookshelf.  I papered the backs of the shelves a few years ago.  I ended up going with a turquoise and orange butterfly motif for the nook, which was a serendipitous match to the paper.  The baskets hold baby clothes and accessories.

Close-ups of the lamp.  I really lucked in with this particular item, because it's an inexpensive lamp that is dim-able to three light levels just by touching anywhere on the base.  In fact, it came as a pair from Home Depot, although I can't find it on their website anymore.  Great bargain, great lamp!  I recovered the linen shade with a scrap of fabric from my stash.

The metallic bird was a Christmas gift from Edward's sister, Jane.  He was going to be the centerpiece of my original mobile design, but when that didn't pan out, I decided he still had to be included in some capacity!  I glued him to a branch from our backyard that I painted.  In the picture on the right, you can see the blue velvet ribbon that I also rescued from my stash.  I glued it to the back of the dresser to give it a little more pizzaz.

Another picture of the whole nook.  The white fluffy rug is made up of two IKEA faux sheepskin rugs  that I cut to a similar shape and hand-sewed together.

Ah, the mobile.  As I mentioned a few times, my original design was all wrong for the scale of the canopy.  It was a hard shape to fit, because it's conical and my mobile wasn't.  Plan B was purchasing die-cut butterflies, and glueing two together with clear beading wire sandwiched between the pieces to hang them.  Here is a view of how it's put together:  the bracket comes out from the wall to hold the canopy, and a wooden embroidery hoop and a bamboo skewer attach to the bracket and/or hoop to hold the beading wire and butterflies.

I salvaged the beads I bought for the original mobile, and glued two onto the butterflies to give them a little glimmer.

And finally, how the colour scheme I chose relates to the rest of our bedroom:

Some may wonder why I'd spend so much time and energy on an area the baby will probably only use for a few months.  Eventually, the baby will move into the Jeannie Suite either by itself or with a sibling.  However, despite the time and energy involved, I thoroughly enjoyed the process of creating this little space for the baby.  I always like learning a new skill or two, and this gave me a few opportunities to do just that.  But most importantly, when I'm super sleep deprived and feeling overwhelmed, I think it will give me a lift to see the space that I created with so much love for this new little life.