Operation Baby Shower – The Nursery

What is Operation Baby Shower?  It is a charity event my friend Linda Millimaki is part of that throws a baby shower for all the couples on our local military base.  Linda is the Director of Operation America Cares. They send care packages to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 7000 packages have been sent from her home in 3 years. She gives of herself to this charity like no other, she is such an amazing woman!  I have seen her house full of care packages and it is astonishing to see the work that goes into getting those packages out. It is such a huge undertaking, but she will tell you that her reward is in the smile it puts on the soldiers faces and the endless thank yous when they get a one of her packages.  Truly inspiring.

For me personally,  I can not express my gratitude enough for the men and women of this great country who dedicate and sacrifice their lives for our freedom. I asked Linda if I could offer my design services as a donation for the Operation Baby Shower, a little something from me to give back to our military.

The couple that won my services are from Minnesota and are stationed here in Oceanside,  the sweetest people you ever met.  They are having a baby boy in September, and his name is going to be Noah.

They had already purchased the crib, dresser and side table via Craig’s list.  Everything else I was providing.  Just to bring you up to speed, this is the inspiration picture that we started with, by Carl Christensen

And her favorite poem by Shel Silverstein

The room was basic beige.  So I sent my go to painter, Mark from Am/Pm painting,  over to paint one of the walls Sherwin Williams Naval and the remaining walls Alpaca {my new FAVORITE grey!}

I thought I got some beautiful pictures when I was done, but when I loaded them on to the computer I was highly disappointed in my photo skills.  Oh well, I hope that you can still see how beautiful it turned out.

This is the view when you walk in the room. The after picture is one of the pictures that I really had to manipulate in Photo Shop. The original picture I took came out really dark.

I had to photo shop the “H” into the picture.  I made the mistake of not checking my order when I received the letters from Restoration Hardware Baby and Child.  The “H”  was missing and I didn’t realize it until I went to hang the letters.  What a dummy!  Luckily Restoration Hardware is sending out another one.

This is how it really looked lol

The bumper pads are from Restoration Hardware Baby & Child.  The rest of the crib bedding is on back order.  So I just put a white sheet on the mattress for now

It was a challenge to get that truck picture framed, it is an odd size 30′ x 30″.  My first idea was to do a DIY frame, lets just say it was a total failure.  I didn’t want to do a custom frame due to costs, so in the end I bought a frame on clearance at HomeGoods.  I painted the silver color turquoise, took the existing picture out and had Aaron Brothers cut me a white mat.

I hung the picture above the changing table

You may think the picture is hung a little high.  It is.  I did it on purpose.  I know from experience with my grandson, babies get active fast, {not to mention boys like to pee on their parents once that diaper comes off} Even though it is secured tightly, I didn’t want to chance it getting knocked off the wall or wet {lol}.

That naval blue is the bomb!  If you are looking for a true navy, this is the one to go with. The tall bookcase is Ikea’s Expedit 

My favorite part of the room.  The little reading area I created for Noah.  I got the little chair at Target and the pillow at HomeGoods

I love how the Ikea Ribba ledges look above the chair.  I had seen this idea on Pinterest a thousand times, now I know why. They were really easy to put up and inexpensive

I love how the sign turned out.  I am a little leery of hanging anything above a crib {we do live in California where we do have earthquakes every so often} So I took extra precaution and screwed long screws through the sign directly into the wall.  That puppy isn’t going anywhere!

I wanted to mix it up a bit and not do a matching ottoman in front of the glider.  Instead, I used this cool recycled canvas number pouf from Restoration Hardware Baby & Child.   And for whatever reason, I did not get a picture of how it looked in front of the glider.  This is the only picture I could find, darn it!

I made this monogram pillow for Noah from scraps I already had

The curtains are from Restoration Hardware Baby & Child.  They are cream with a grey strip, and super quality.  The lamp I scored at HomeGoods, it was a perfect match

So how did they like the finished nursery? I think this thank you note I received sums up how they felt when they both got to see the finished room

“The nursery looks AMAZING! We can’t thank you enough for everything you did!”  Yep, they loved it.  Whew.

I also want to thank my nephew Connor who helped me do the install on this project.

I couldn’t of done it without his patients and muscles.

It was such a fun experience to do this nursery, I hope to be a part of this great charity event next year, it really makes me feel like I am giving a little something back.

I’ll be linking up to Tatertots & Jellos weekend wrap up party