The first was to line the dresser drawers in the nursery. I bought the contact paper months ago because I felt like the old particle board wouldn't be ideal for tiny, fragile baby clothes. In the months since then it's occurred to me that there is a ton of storage in this room and that clothes probably won't need to even go in the dressers; since the dressers are going to serve as the changing table I'll store mostly changing and bathing things in there. I was tempted to just skip the whole step of lining the drawers but since I'd already bought the contact paper...I had to bite the bullet and just do it.
The babe helped me get the first couple drawers done and I was able to take it from there. It was pretty straight forward, but we wanted to avoid air bubbles if possible which made the technique a little more complicated.
First, I measured out the inside of a drawer and cut a piece of contact paper to size. Instead of using the ruler and measuring for each of the eight drawer liners, I just used the first one as a template and cut all eight to size.
Then, we peeled part of the backing off of the contact paper and got the exposed end stuck in one side of the drawer, using a wooden ruler to smooth out any air bubbles as we pulled the backing off the rest of the paper slowly and stuck it down with the ruler.
When the piece would be secure with air bubbles smoothed out (there was a definite learning curve and some drawers came away with a lot less wrinkles than others), we used an Exacto knife to cut away any overlap paper that had made its way up onto the sides or in the corners. Sometimes this happened because it got laid in there slightly crooked, and sometimes it was just because I had gotten a little uneven when I'd originally cut out the piece, but it helped give a more clean look to trim it all down.
You're welcome for the road rash cameo.
It wasn't too difficult once we figured out the method that worked well, and the perspective we kept in mind is that this is for the bottom of dresser drawers. There will be things in each drawer and the drawers will be closed the majority of the time. AKA: it doesn't have to be perfect, and air bubbles are unavoidable. It was a little tedious doing this eight times, but in not much time there were all done and looking really good.
I just love how clean they look now, and how dramatically different they have come since they were black a couple months ago.
We also added some new frames to the gallery wall in the family room. I woke up one day while the babe was in Florida and decided that it was time to add some more to the walls. We had always intended for more to be added gradually over time. So I walked around the house and rounded up some more frames/photos that could be added, and snagged a couple more photos from Shutterfly and frames from Hobby Lobby. We hung them Monday, and I'm loving the additions.
On the left side of the map, we added a Wicked playbill from when we were dating, a "Bless this Home" print from Etsy that had been given to us as a housewarming gift last year by a dear friend, and a new picture taken in Memphis this summer when I was visiting my sister. The photo is of a painted wall mural in the city that says "Invest in Good Times." We also moved the "All I need today is a little coffee and a lot of Jesus" print to the top of the collage. I'm still deciding whether I'm liking the new arrangement on this side of the map...the babe hung them all where I asked him to but then I just wasn't sure whether I liked them all like that or not and decided to live with it for a while and see if it grows on me. So that's where I am with that side. The other side, I'm definitely in love with.
On the right side, we added a post card of The Little Grill, one of my favorite restaurants in Harrisonburg, VA where I went to college, a sweet photo of Zuriel from this summer, a greeting card (totally ripped off one of my friends because she had hung it on her own gallery wall and when I oohed and ahhed over it she gave me one as well) featuring an adorable giraffe in glasses and a sweater, and a photo of the babe and I from when we were engaged. I love all the individual additions, and I also love the frame layout. Now I just need to figure out what I don't love about the other side...
With the dresser drawers lined, I've finally been able to start organizing and putting things in their actual homes in the nursery (rather than continuing to have a floor full of baby shower bags). The nursery looks a little bit like a bomb has gone off in it right now, but its definitely going to get worse before it gets better. It's probably going to be like a puzzle figuring out the best way to organize everything, and even though I'm so excited to work on it I'm feeling pretty bad this week physically (baby growth spurt? I'm not sure...just a lot of nausea and weakness and fatigue). So we will see how much I'll be able to tackle in the next couple of days. But either way, things are getting done and the list is getting smaller. I'm not gonna lie...I'm a little bit ready to just snap my fingers and be done with the nursery and all the house prep work for the baby. I've loved it so much, but these last couple things are wiping me out. Soon enough though, it will be done and we'll have our actual baby. We can't wait!
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