cribs & gliders

so big news in the dickinson house... it's time to design a nursery! we are beyond excited to welcome a baby in early 2015 : )

what does this mean for the house? well, it means we need to do a little re-arranging upstairs. our "DC third bedroom" is currently my closet. and the back room, the house's old sleeping porch, is our junk room : ( the plan is to make the closet into the nursery and the back room into a study / playroom. the guest room will stay the guest room. and pink (sorry, dad). so grateful that we are not adding "moving" to the long list of baby prep!

as for style, we want something Scandinavian and gender neutral. we decided to find out sex (a girl!!), but don't want to re-buy major pieces or be painting rooms for kiddo numero dos - should we be so lucky as to survive this one and be blessed with another : ) think lots of white and wood and grey (duh). artwork will be where we do a little gender expression... the plan is to hang this gorgeous number over the crib. I have a few art pieces left from my pre-married days (aka my feminine, shabby chic phase) that may find their way in. and I've always loved the work of Sharon Montrose, particularly the little darlings series. I mean, c'mon, so cute. or we'll do some family photos or black and whites from our travels. did you know babies only see in black and white at first??! oh, and a mobile. cannot forget the mobile. I have loved calder's mobiles since studying abroad in college, so i'm hoping to find a modern (and less expensive) interpretation.

onto the major pieces... my dream crib is the oeuf sparrow. soooo pretty. and sooooo expensive!

 

so if we can't find one at a reasonable price on craigslist, we'll be doing the ikea sniglar. similarly simple, but 1/10th the price. great reviews, solid wood... a real winner for under $100, in my opinion.

 

 

I feel like either crib could go masculine or feminine, and could be passed down through a few babies. we'll do neutral crib linens. as for glider / rocker, we're going to use a plycraft lounge chair (which is an eames knock-off) we found on craigslist a while back.

 

not our actual chair, but similar. photo from here



it leans, rocks, and has armrests and an ottoman. plus, the headrest is tall enough I can lean back comfortably. we're going to try it and see, since we already have it. it was downstairs for awhile, then in our bedroom... the leather is in so-so shape, but should be easier to clean than most fabrics. and, I have to say, i'm not a huge fan of a lot of the glider options out there. my all-time favorite rocker is the eames RAR, but at $500+ and no headrest, it did not make the short list. I mean, if we found one on craigslist, i'd find a home for it no question : )

 

we're also going to convert an old dresser into the changing table. and by that, I mean we will paint the old dresser and slap a changing pad on top. maybe i'm naïve, but I never understood the dedicated changing table as a piece of furniture you buy. eh. open to comments from people who actually have babies (and, therefore, informed opinions, haha).

 

all of this change will spur many home projects, leading to (hopefully) more blog updates. we had stalled a bit on the house: burned out, working many, many hours and traveling. during this pregnancy I have gone to south padre island, texas; eastern shore, maryland; san antonio, texas; new york, new york; ft campbell, kentucky; nashville, tennessee; ft bragg, north carolina; ft hood, texas; dallas, texas; northern tanzania; kigali and northwestern rwanda; coastal tanzania; dubai; houston, texas; san diego, california... and I've had to say no to some work travel to the west coast. but the nesting instinct is real and strong (and felt by dads, too), so get ready!