Operation Nesting: Curtains for Baby's Room (and Bonus projects!)

Hey everyone! Hope you had a wonderfully blessed weekend.

I have been in FULL BLOWN NESTING MODE! I thought this was just a myth, but I seem to have developed a well of inner domestication, because I am all about cleaning and organizing these days. I almost took a picture of the first load of laundry I did this weekend for baby (swaddle blankets and other nursery textiles). Yes, I have become that sappy.

That said, I am all about my Operation Nesting projects right now. I have several of them in the works, but managed to complete one this past Saturday. I finally made baby's nursery curtains.

You remember when I asked all of you which curtain fabric you preferred out of two choices? 
To refresh your memories, here were the two fabric choices I was deciding between:

Option 1

Option 2

Most of you told me you preferred option 2. Honestly, I loved them both, but I was leaning slightly away from Option 2 simply because it looked a little girly to me. The fate was sealed when I saw this picture on Etsy

I realized that Option 1 had the perfect amount of "gender neutrality" and colorfulness that I wanted. It was also 50% off (woohoo!). So I ordered Option 1 and waited for a coupon for a local fabric store so that I could get a thermal liner (because one of the joys of living in an apartment is single-pane windows). I ended up getting the thermal liner for about $6 a yard (50% off).

So all in all, I ended up spending about $50 on these curtains, which was pricey but about on-par for thick, thermal curtains. PLUS they are the perfect accent to our baby's room (which will be the nursery decor for any future babies as well)

Here is a "Before" picture, which shows the old decor for this room (plus all the junk we were still sorting through)

Many wonderful ladies from the baby shower we had with my husband's side banded together to purchase us our dresser and glider for the nursery. What a blessing! It is wonderful not to have another project and instead have nice, new furniture we can use for years.

But notice the curtains were still the dark red thermal curtains from before.

Now here is what the window looks like with the new curtains

Now, this might not be up everyone's ally, but these curtains are completely my taste. Bright and fun and cheery, just what I wanted for our little one's room. I love them. And I love that they are very thick and will save us money on our energy bill (but are thin enough to let in some sunlight as you can see here).

You will notice that the quilt on the guest bed does not match the new curtains at all. I have since ordered a light grey duvet to cover the quilt and make it fit in perfectly with the new room. I scored a great deal on the brand new duvet and two matching pillow cases for just $30.

If you also look closely you will see a bright red shelf on the bed. This is one of the bonus projects I mentioned in the title of this post. This shelf used to be just plain wood and sat unused in one of our closets. I bought a sample-size of red paint for just under $3, and my husband transformed the shelf into the perfect accent for the baby's room. I will be hanging it above the dresser most likely.

The second bonus project was more painting. My husband and I live in a second floor apartment, so we have stairs inside our front door leading up. When you reached the top of the stairs, this is what used to await you versus what now awaits you

I try to be thankful for all I have, but my nesting-crazed self HATED the old shelf. It is a fake-wood, scuffed up, icky shelf which I got for free and know that I shouldn't be complaining about. But.....

Fake gold stuff on fake wood that is scuffed up on the top. Ick. I wanted something a little nicer right when people walk into my home. So my sweet husband picked up another $3 paint sample of a pretty mustard yellow and painted the shelf for me. I couldn't believe how much better it looked. In fact, I think angels may have been singing when I finally positioned it and saw the results.

So that is the end of my Operation Nesting update for now, but there is more to come soon!