Nursery Update: Rug

Here's a quick sneak peek at the nursery progress:

Sorry for the grainy photo.  My old iphone takes terrible photos and I was too lazy to look for the camera this morning to capture the room at this stage.  I promise that when I do the final reveal, I will have some good pictures to show you though!!

So we are still a long way from being "done" with the room, but it is definitely coming along.  We finally found a rug for the room last week (YAY)!!  I can't tell you how many hours I spent agonizing over colors and patterns and reviews for different styles of rugs.  I even bought one from the Home Decorators Collection (through Home Depot) and returned it to the store (they have a really great return policy) because it was both WAAAAY too rough and scratchy for my liking, and it wasn't the right color yellow for the room.  Here she is in my car on the way back to HD....

I liked the rug generally, but it just didn't feel right in the room (LITERALLY)!!  It is more of an indoor/outdoor rug, so its not very soft and cushy underfoot.  I should have known that based on the description (key words: wool, flatweave, durable construction) and the reviews, but I loved the pattern, so I blindly purchased it.  I always get so anxious about online purchases, but I knew that I could return it if I needed to, so that helped me push the button.  The price was also right at $200 for a 5x8, but at the end of the day, savings and style just didn't outweigh comfort.  Especially for my little boys' knees once he starts crawling around.  And until that time, I still have to walk back and forth across it 5 million times a day, so it best be comfortable for my tired, aching feet!!! 

So....long story short, it didn't work out and I went back to obsessively online shopping for another few weeks.  By the beginning of July, I was absolutely spent with this whole project, so I decided that I would put it off for a while, and we would just find a rug down the road when we really needed it.............. 

Until one day last week, I was browsing around Target and...ALAS...I found the perfect rug!!  I wasn't even shopping for a nursery rug, I was just browsing around for a bigger entryway mat to put our shoes on when we come in the door.  Don't you always find what you are looking for once you stop looking for it???  It's some cruel universe trick.  But back to the story.  I had been searching and searching for the perfect yellow rug (and even a white one for a fleeting moment....then I thought about poop and the moment slipped away), when all along I should have been looking for navy blue.  I passed by this beauty in the rug aisle and fell in love.....

Kind of anti-climactic huh?  It is definitely not show-stopping, but it turned out to be the "one".  It was exactly what I was looking for to tie the room together.....I just didn't know it.  I thought that the only way to ground the space was to highlight the accent color in the room and draw your attention down, but in reality, the rest of the colors in the room stand out MORE because of the grounded color on the floor.  It definitely doesn't match the walls perfectly, but it provides a really nice accent to it.  I am not big on everything matching perfect anyway, so it is nice to have different shades of blue and yellow in the room.  And at $69.99 for a 5x7, I couldn't resist.  I thought the HD rug was a steal, but this was 10 times better.  Plus, it is super soft to stand on.  I won't go as far as to say that it is going to last forever, but it will do its job for a while and we can just replace it in a few years when we switch the room from a nursery to a toddler room.  And who knows, we could be totally surprised by it and it will stand the test of time.  I will definitely keep you updated on that as we spend more and more time in the room. 

Here's some shots of the rug with everything else in the room.  What do you think??

It looks a little bit darker in these pictures than it is in person, but I still like the contrast.  It actually matches the quilt on the edge of the crib (which we will move once the baby comes, so don't worry) and the lamp shade perfectly!! I love the subtle stripes in the rug as well.  It gives it a little depth and makes it feel more masculine.  Maybe that's not always a good thing when you are looking for a nursery rug, but I think that the bright colors elsewhere in the room help to balance it all out.

And I'm not sure if you noticed in the picture above, but I started to do the curtains in the room.  They are the same white RITVA ones that I've used in the rest of the house.  I only had the time/energy to hem one window of curtains yesterday, but I will hopefully tackle the other one tonight.  But instead of finishing the curtains, I managed to put some contact paper down inside his dresser drawers (since the bottom of the drawers is wood and a little scratchy in places) and then wash all of his clothes and blankets and fold them away in their respective drawers (at least the drawers that I think make sense at the moment....I'm sure I will rearrrange it 300 times).

Finally, B and I worked on a little artwork project for our little man last night.  B actually did most of the work, so I can only take credit for the idea and the design.  We bought a frame from IKEA a few months  back:

It is the VIRSERUM Frame for $16.99.  We actually bought it for the nursery before we knew what we would do with it.  Then, I scrounged up some yellow and white polka-dotted wrapping paper left over from a shower gift and a piece of navy blue cardstock.   So, with all those items, and a little imagination, we created this:

It is totally simple, but I really love it.  B did such a great job with the sailboat.  He has always been really good at sketching and was super excited to be a part of this project (but don't tell him I told you that!!).   And the best part is, we can change it out whenever we feel like it and not feel guilty about it....since it was FREE artwork!!!  My favorite kind.  So the total for this project was $16.99.  Not too bad, right? 

I have a few other DIY artwork projects in the works that I can't wait to show you and I plan to get moving on the DIY crib skirt in the next week as well.  So there is certainly lots to share with you on the nursery front in the coming weeks!! Hopefully he holds out in there so that I can finish everything though.  I have had some braxton hicks contractions here and there for the last week or so and his head is very, very low, but I am still crossing my fingers that he waits a little longer before his big debut!!