Before & After: Nursery Open Shelving

We have been making the last of the updates to the nursery in a final rush to prepare for our little one’s arrival.  It’s been quite around here as the updates are getting fewer and fewer.

Each time I walk into the nursery, and another little detail is complete, I become more and more at ease with the coming transition.  We’ve talked about it before, but something about the house being settled makes be feel more prepared with the impending unknown.

But back to the shelves! Here is the blank wall we had before.  The creamy gray walls (Benjamin Moore Sheep’s Wool in Matte) actually give the appearance of white in a room that gets a ton of sunshine. I was playing around with white drapes as well, but think I might swap them out for something in a pattern.  We’ll see in the final reveal!

I used a big slab of wood that was leftover from the Ikea butcher block countertops we put in the kitchen renovation last year.  Originally, I’d wanted to use the leftover slab for the top surface of our new dining room built-ins, but it wasn’t deep enough, so I had the idea to cut the long slab in half and use as shelving.

The butcher block is a different color than the other walnut accents I have throughout the room, but both wood tones are cool (neither are super rich), so I think that the variation in wood tones makes the room seem a little more thoughtfully eclectic instead of too matchy, like nurseries have a tendency to be.  I bought 4 ‘L’ brackets from Ikea and painted them white.  Although two different wood tones added to the design, a third wood finish of the very yellow beech brackets would have been terrible.

A quick coat of white spray paint and I was on my way to making something out of this blank wall.

The shelving offers a really nice area to have a few keepsakes out of reach of a small child.  As the baby grows, we’ll be able to stick stuff up there that needn’t be touched (like the monitor) as well.

They turned out really perfect for the wall – even if they were just a project dreamed up to use some leftover wood!  All in all, since I had the butcher block on hand, they cost me just the price of the brackets and paint – so around $30.

This is the last small project we’re sharing before we reveal the entire nursery!  I can’t wait to show you the final look next month!

p.s. Starting this week, I’ll be posting just three times each week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) to prepare for the baby and relax after the baby comes! I’ll take this reduced posting schedule until about mid-end October to give me some downtime with the babe!