Painting the Nursery

The March of Dimes recommends allowing at least 4 months for any fumes due to new paint, carpet, etc. to dissipate before the baby comes home. We latched onto this and decided to paint the nursery. Our apartment's second bedroom used to have these horrible stenciled green vines on the walls -- gross! Those HAD to go!

We chose an off-white color called "Innocence" for the wall and ceiling. I have a hard time telling the difference between good and icky off-white colors -- so I let shiela handle the paint selection.

My mom (Grandma), my sister (Aunti Becky) and nephew (cousin Adam) came up this past weekend to help Shiela (Mama) paint. I was there to observe and offer moral support. Little did I know that this would require several trips to Home Depot and to the local hardware store..

Here's a pic of Shiela, aka Mama, priming the ceiling...

Here's another...

Grandma was a trooper.. aside from not listening to us re: climbing on the ladder while inhaling paint fumes, she was a painting machine! Check out the vines on the wall.. that was AFTER getting a coat of primer. Stupid vines!

Did I mention the fumes? That primer is nasty stuff! Grandma looks a little loopy in this picture.. I think she needed some fresh air!

After the first coat of primer was on, we all did a bit of an art project. I had promised Adam that I'd get some stuff to paint aside from the big ol' walls. It was initially supposed to be something that would keep him and Aunti-Jen busy, while the others slaved away -- but it quickly turned into a Trading Spaces moment. We had purchased a bunch of die-cut shapes ranging from frogs, to balloons, to a dinosaur. We also got a bunch of paint that matched the general colors that we plan for the baby's room. The plan is to take the finished product(s) and somehow mount them into a collage that can go into the baby's room.

Mommy (aka me), painting a balloon...

Adam painted a helicopter, a dinosaur and a turtle...

Mama did her best to paint a frog, and Aunti Becky painted a heart and a ladybug..

Later in the day, I actually did a bit of painting. This was after I had traveled to Home Depot with the side rail of the crib in hand to pick up a gallon of paint for the cubbies. We wanted the cubbies and the future bureau to match the sage-green color of the crib. I must have been a sight treking through Home Depot hefting the side of a crib! Watch out for the pregnant lady!

The cubbies can be hard to resist. This is why we'll probably end up moving the cubbies out of the baby's room after he/she learns to crawl!

After getting some climbing out of his system, Adam helped out a LOT with the priming of the cubbies. He liked rolling on the primer, but that wasn't as cool as making dots with the end of the roller!

Aunti Becky chipped in to help fill in some of the areas that Adam couldn't reach. Adam wasn't too pleased about the idea of sharing his roller!

I love this next picture. It's not quite as good as the one of him flipping his eyelids backwards, but I figured it was more suited to this blog. Time for a rest.. if only Aunti Jen would stop taking pictures of him!

Nanook and Ty were no help AT ALL!

After my brief stint with sanding and priming one square of the cubbies, I opted to sit down with my book and relax with Ty while Shiela finished up the priming on Sunday afternoon.

This is a picture of Mama/Shiela before her shoulders started to seize up from all the painting!

The room is looking great. We've got some cleanup still to do and we need to finish painting the cubbies and an unfinished bureau we bought on Tuesday night. We should get those finished up this weekend and I'm hoping we'll put the crib together. It's a bit early, but it makes me happy.. and what I say goes!!! (at least that's what I like to tell myself.. nanook seems to believe it!)