Noah's Nautical Nursery

As a former flight attendant and lover of all things airplane related, I always thought I'd do an airplane room for a baby boy. When I first learned I was pregnant I started imagining the nursery - airplane theme for boy and light blue/pale pink beach cottage room for a girl.

Then we found out that it's a boy and I started having seconds thoughts about airplanes. I saw a painting of an anchor and was flooded with ideas for a nautical room. My father is retired Navy - as are both of my grandfathers and my husband's dad and grandfathers. Anchors remind me of my childhood as a Navy brat so I couldn't resist the nautical theme.

DIY projects are in italic.

Custom curtains: I already had these two white curtains and instead of buying new navy blue curtains, which I thought would be too dark and heavy for the small space, I bought a yard of navy fabric for $4 at Joann's. My mother-in-law gave me a quick sewing machine lesson on one then let me do the other one. 

View from the door:

The room was previously our very boring guest room with white walls. We first painted all of the walls "Parchment Paper" by Olympic, then Aaron - with his awesome painting skills - added Navy Blue stripes on the back wall. He has all of these tricks to making lines straight and perfect. Maybe one day I'll have him write a "how-to guide for painting stripes."

Basically after the wall was painted and dry, he measured out the spacing of the stripes then taped them off (considering the width of the tape to ensure equal spacing), then painted over the edges of the tape with the wall color (Parchment Paper) to seal the tape so the dark paint doesn't bleed through. Once that was dry, he painted the blue stripes. 

Here's the finished wall:

I think it's important to have a piece or pieces in a room that tell a story. The American flag was given to us by a friend (who is a fighter pilot) when he returned from Afghanistan. It was flown on September 11, 2008 over the Headquarters of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq in our honor during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The paper mache Letter N is from Joann's - it was $5. I painted it and the picture frame with small bottle of Black Cherry paint from Michael's.

I had two matching green frames in my closet that I knew would look great in this space with a new coat of paint. Nothing beats shopping in your own house! I painted one Black Cherry and one navy, with the same paint used for the stripes.

The bedding is William by Nautica.

I found the glider and ottoman on Craigslist for $30. Aaron gave it a couple of coats of primer and a couple of coats of white spray paint.

I was on the Nautica website and fell in love with the "N" pillow on the glider- but didn't like the price - $30! Who would pay 30 bucks for a small pillow? I gave up on it but while at Ross a few weeks ago spotted it on a shelf for...wait for it...$5!!! Woo-hoo!

The glider before:

The side dresser next to the crib is my favorite piece in the room. It holds all of my nursing and pumping supplies, burp cloths, bibs, etc.

The navy blue frame, adorable sailboat and lantern light.

On the wall to the left:

I took the "Noah" picture at one of our favorite beaches - Pismo Beach.

My friend, Nicolette, took the picture of the Pismo Beach pier at sunset.

I adore this anchor! It was a great find at Marshall's. The sand in the bottle is also from Pismo Beach.

On the opposite wall:

My parents bought Noah this white dresser from Target. It's the perfect size for that space and the quality is wonderful. I love that you can only open one drawer at a time to prevent tipping - especially for a little boy's room.

Another great story piece - this sailboat, the Cutty Sark, was put together by my Grandpa (dad's father). It smells just like his house in Colorado! He passed away a few years ago and my parents brought it home after their recent visit to my Grandma Marie.

How cool is this truck? I know it doesn't fit with the nautical theme but it's just too awesome not to display. A friend of Aaron's made it! I know it will be one of Noah's favorite toys.

See the painting in the closet? I replicated the anchor painting that started this all but unfortunately I couldn't find a good spot for it in the room so I hung it in the closet.

You may remember the life preserver from my Nautical Baby Shower.

We had the nurses at the hospital stamp Noah's feet on his onesie - just like we did with Noelle:

I'm not a huge fan of going all out on a single theme for a room but I love how this space turned out. It's now my favorite room in the house!