Project Nursery - bring on the books & art {+ a DIY monogram art tutorial}!

I feel like work has been consuming my life lately, so I have LOTS of nursery & house stuff to share, but I just need to find the time to do it! Tonight I decided to share my progress on & future plans for Baby J's bookshelf wall! I l-o-v-e the way it's coming together!

So, remember waaay back on my very first Project Nursery post, when I discussed our bookshelf choice - well I'm so glad we picked this bookshelf because it fits perfectly with the other furniture in the room & is SO roomy! And of course, my personal favorite thing about it - it's very affordable! Then, in my all put together post, I showed you how the bookshelf looked against the wall with just a few little odds & ends I picked up & even a couple books! Here's a reminder of how the bookshelf wall looked by that point:

Well my mom used to do in-home daycare, so she gave us LOTS of books & then I bought this cute canvas toy storage tote from PBK to go next to the shelf & keep all her cute toys nice & organized {I'm a little OCD about keeping stuff orderly, which I hear will most definitely change after the babe gets here ;o) }:

We are going to get a small flat screen for the bookshelf so that the hubbs & I can watch TV in the wee hours of the night while rocking the babe back to sleep. And later for her kiddo DVDs & what not. I know some people are totally against TVs in baby rooms, but we aren't, we'll make it work & if it doesn't, then we'll figure it out from there. We definitely don't plan to use it as a tool in helping her get to sleep, so we'll just see how it goes. We likely won't buy the TV until after the baby's born. She'll be sleeping in our room in the bassinet portion of her pack & play for the first 2-3 months before moving into her nursery anyways, so we may even wait until Black Friday to get a great deal on the TV. I'll send the hubbs out to get it while me & the baby cuddle up together & stay warm.

Anywho, after we agreed on all my plans for the wall, I thought to myself, hmmm, something is missing?! But I just couldn't put my finger on it. Then, while perusing one of my favorite DIY home decor blogs - Young House Love - I saw the perfect solution: an asymmetrical photo arrangement on the wall! And it's in little Clara's nursery, so they added some cute touches to make the frames more baby friendly & I fell in love:

Photo Credit

So, I perused Etsy for the perfect prints for the wall & found these two cuties in Etsy seller Pretty Smitten's shop & scooped them right up:

PS - while blog stalking perusing this morning, I came across another blog who's author made her own ABC art print & posted it on her site to share with everyone - it's pretty cute & my very favorite price - FREE! Check it out here. :)

So, I decided on a layout for our wall that would work for the space we have & came up with this:

Then, using old Christmas dollar store wrapping paper, I cut out the sizes of the frames I planned to use on the wall per my diagram above:

Then, I taped them up on the wall (WOD tip: I blotted the tape against my clothes before putting it up on the wall, so that it would pick up lint & not peel the paint). I measured approximately 1.5 inches between the frames & this is what I came up with:

If you notice, I left off the three 2x3 small frames to the far left of the diagram above - I decided against using them for now due to space limitations & because I don't want the frames to look too cramped up there. I may add them back later, but for now, they are out.

In addition to the two prints above, I will add this first year frame from Target & my DIY Owl Shadow Box Art. We haven't quite gotten around to getting all the smaller frames for the wall - I may work on that this weekend - so for now, this is how the wall still looks until I get the frames up. In all of the smaller frames, we plan to add a few family/maternity photos & some of Baby J's newborn photos after she arrives.

And now...drum roll please, feast your eyes on our baby girl's {mostly done} bookshelf wall:

That "A" in the pink frame is a ridiculously simple DIY monogram I made using a cheapo K-Mart frame that we spray painted the same color as her bow holder, some scrapbook paper from Michaels for the background & some spare kiddo wrapping paper from Hallmark for the letter! 

 

I just found an "A" in a font I liked, blew it up in Microsoft word, printed it out on white card stock & cut that out to use as a template. I also cut out the scrapbook paper to fit the frame backing (I just traced the insert that comes with the frame & cut the scrapbook paper to the same size. Then, I traced it on the back of my wrapping paper, cut it out & used double sided tape to stick it on the scrapbook paper backing. Once that was finished, I threw it in the spray painted frame & all done! And, that's it - you get an affordable, cute & very easy to make piece of framed monogram art:

Please excuse my fingerprints on the glass, this photo was taken before I cleaned the glass - DOH!

So what do you think of the wall?! It's coming along just how I envisioned - I just love it when plans work out the way they are supposed to, don't you?!

Wanna see our nursery progress from the beginning?! Check out my master plan for the room & the first set of DIY goodies I made for our little girl, the major furniture all put together, my cute owl accent finds & decision to do a understated owl theme in her nursery, my "Owl" Bean Bag score turned FAIL, how we "planted" a tree over the glider to read books to our sweet baby girl under, my easy peasy DIY owl wall art that I made using recycled greeting cards, and the finished dresser/changer combo & crib walls plus a simple & cute DIY bow holder! Enjoy. :)

And as I mentioned earlier - stay tuned for much much more Project Nursery (we are almost done with the room!), a recap on some organizing/cleaning I did this weekend, updates on my pre-Baby J to do list, my 29 week pregnancy update, fall decor plans & lots & lots more. Time is flying & I'm trying to get everything done so I don't have to do it when I'm all big & uncomfortable. 'Till next time!