Zions Room

My son Zion just celebrated five months the other day and I figured it was high time to post some room pics! I kind of made my own theme up (surprise, surprise) which I like to call "Parisian Carnival". I wanted to make a nursery that was bright and cozy- something that we could fill with many happy memories. My Dad came down from Massachusetts and helped me get all the wood working done. Here are some of the before pictures- and here is how they did the wood working.

I looked everywhere for the "perfect" chair. I had a few criteria for choosing the chair. I wanted it to be comfy and a rocker- and of course stylish and cheap too! I had my heart set on a Pottery Barn chair- but with shipping it would be close to $1,500 which was WAY out of my budget. That was more like what I was hoping to spend doing Zions entire room. We found this chair at a local shop called Peek a Boo. I really wanted a white chair and I know everyone thought I was CRAZY for getting one. The chair that I bought has this amazing fabric and on the first day I had it in the room I got rust in the bottom of the chair. I wiped it with a damp cloth and it came right off! Amazing!

My next challenge was bedding. How does anyone afford custom bedding? The fabrics I was looking at started at around $650 USD. That was for the "cheap" ones too! There was just NO way that I could afford that in my budget, nor could I justify spending that much either. So instead I got creative.

For Zions bed skirt we found this adorable striped fabric from a store called Calicos. For his bumper I purchased a $30 Carters brand from Babies R Us. Then I found this see-through ribbon fabric from Jo Annes. I brought all of this to my amazing seamstress Vi-Vi and she put all my plans together. I had her line the carters bumper with my ribbon fabric and she tailored the skirt for me.

To finish off the look I made tissue paper flags that I hung from the bed. The flags will be short lived I'm sure. I know that I will have to remove them once Zion starts really moving around.

For Zions closet I wanted things to be functional and cute. We used the closet maid storage cubes to create different sections in his closet.

For Zions furniture I found this beautiful dresser at my local salvation army. It was in tip top shape. I was completely inspired by Holly from "In the Fun Lane" and decided to paint over it with a fresh coat of paint. So, I hired my buddy Dodge o spray over the whole thing and also the gilded mirror that is above the dresser. The room is very tiny so I opted to double the dresser as a changing table too.

I had found this gilded frame seen below while antiquing one day and took it home despite it's giant chip in the corner. With a little paint and some "chalk paint" it found a new home in little Z's room.

This $5 chandelier has been so many different colors. When I bought it, it was a light grey. I had it sprayed a shiny black and now it is a lovely white. We made tiny little tissue paper flags on string and bought the ornate piece to mount it to the ceiling.

My Mom and I scoured the globe looking for the perfect shelf that would be secure enough to put in a baby room and we found the perfect one at Pottery Barn. The shelf anchors to the wall and it super secure. The "Z" I bought at a craft store- it's actually made of paper. I used silver foil paint to give it the look like the galvanized ones I loved at Anthro.

It was so much fun to be able to decorate this room for my son. I loved just dreaming about what my little boy would be like. Now, knowing him, his room suits him so well and he loves being in it. As his mom, it was my great joy to be able to create it for him.

To read more about Zion check out his blog at Zionbaca.com