Nautical Nursery Accessories

Ah, the last post about the Peyton's Nautical Nursery...makes me kinda sad, but there are other parties & projects to talk about too.  : )  This post is about the accessories in the nursery & where to find them or how to make them.

This is the shelf in Peyton's nursery filled with lots of nautical things.  I will start with the top shelf because it involves some of my favorite DIYs.  

The buoys may look a little familiar...

That's because they are the buoys that I made for the "Ahoy! It's a Boy!" shower.  This is what they looked like then...

I then updated them to match the colors of the nursery & reflect the date of Peyton's birth...07/2014.  Here is where you can find a tutorial of how I made these DIY buoys.  : ) 

Next up is the DIY life preserver which was also prominently featured at the "Ahoy! It's a Boy!" shower.  Here is the tutorial on how to make one yourself. 

The jar in front of the life preserver is a jar from my baby shower where everyone put sweet messages in for baby Peyton.  I took the messages out to save for Peyton & filled it with shells from our trips to the beach.  

On the right side of the top shelf is an anchor that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  Hobby Lobby had so many great things for my nautical theme, and everything at some point goes half off so you can get things for legit prices.  This anchor was usually $19.99, but I got it on sale for $10 when they had their "50% wood decor" sale one week.

Now onto the middle shelf...the main thing on this shelf is the oar.  This oar came from Oriental Trading & is one of my favorite pieces in Peyton's room.  

I bought the same oar for baby Alex & used it as a decoration at the "Ahoy! It's a Boy!" baby shower in April 2013.  These oars are only $19.99 & are personalized.  Now they usually come with red stripes & a red sailboat under the name, but I just painted over them in pink to keep with my theme.  Easy peasy.

On the right hand side is a buoy frame that I bought on clearance from Oriental Trading for like $1.50.  I bought 3 of them & have them random places around the room.  

You might also notice three wooden whales on the top two shelves...they are little picture holders that I haven't put pictures in yet.  I bought them years ago on clearance at Target for my office & brought them home once we decided to have a Nautical Nursery.  So on the third shelf down, I have a pink picture frame that was a gift.  In the middle is a wooden "gone sailing" sign.  I wish I knew where it came from, but it was also a gift.  On the far right side of the shelf is a great little wooden boat from where else...Hobby Lobby when it was $5.  I'm pretty predictable, aren't I?  : )  

The bottom shelf just has a random little navy & white striped bag that someone gave me, a blue basket from Michaels (I'm sorry Hobby Lobby for cheating on you) & a pink "my first bank" that someone gave us.  

So other random decorations around the room...this little table was one that came from my mom & dad's house.  It was just a random wooden table.  I had painted it pink & green for Addy's nursery, but then she got a nighstand instead & we moved this table into Peyton's nursery.  I painted the green portions navy & called it a day.  The lamp that sits on top of the table is what we use as a nightlight (well what we will use when I get up the courage to move baby P into her own room).  It was on clearance at the Hobby Lobby for like $7.  Legit.  

This little basket is supposed to be a laundry basket, but I never really change baby P in her room, so I use it as a stuffed animal basket because the stuffed animals run rampant around our house.

On the changing table/dresser, the little lamp came from Ebay for around $13 with shipping.  I didn't like the lampshade, so I found that one at IKEA for around $5.  I'm so glad that I have to drive over an hour to get to an IKEA because I would buy an obscene amount of things there just because their prices are so great.  The rope mirror came from Hobby Lobby.  I had eyed it for quite some time but it was $99.  Do you know how many other things I could buy at Hobby Lobby for $99?  A lot.  Even when it went 50% off, that was still way more than I wanted to spend.  But on one fateful day, I found this lone mirror hanging out in the western section that was going on clearance for $19.  I decided that with the rest of the decor in the nursery, this western mirror would be a nautical mirror.  : )  Hopefully nobody even knows the difference. 

Another great Hobby Lobby clearance find...this boat bookshelf.  It was originally $99, but I found it for $29.  Strangely enough, I realized that different Hobby Lobbys have different clearance prices on things.  I travel some for work & stopped by a Hobby Lobby closer to the beach & bought this.  I went to one of my local Hobby Lobby's later that week & it was on sale for $54 there.  Very strange, but I was definitely not mad I had bought it for the $29.  It was a hideous green color when I bought it & I painted it with some navy paint my BFF had leftover after painting her den.  Now it is an adorable navy bookshelf.

I just love the way Peyton's name hangs over her crib.  The oar I found at TJ Maxx for about $20 & the name banner came from my dear friend Luci who had this hanging at my baby shower.  She handpainted the shells on a burlap banner.  I just love how it turned out & how great it looks attached to the oar.  

Speaking of sweet friends, my BFF Liz bought Peyton this sweet initial sign that hangs on her door.  Isn't it the cutest?  

This adorable sailboat is where we have some of baby P's stuffed animals.  It is a planter that was on clearance at Hobby Lobby.  Never be afraid to think outside of the box when it comes to decorating.  I kill plants, so I never need a planter...unless I'm going to hang it on a wall for something completely different like stuffed animals.  : )  

Another sweet work friend gave Peyton this adorable pillow.  And you can't see it very well, but behind that pillow is another pillow from IKEA.  It has an old nautical map on it & is pretty cute.  It was the frontrunner in the chair until the Peyton pillow arrived & won the showcase race. 

My baby shower also showcased these great prints from my friend Luci.  She cut these shapes out of cardstock & put them on scrapbook paper & framed them.  Aren't they the best?  The girl has some serious knife skills.  If you want further proof of that, please see the amazing backdrop she did for our Superhero baby shower we threw for another coworker.  It was beyond amazing.

Below the prints on the dresser, I have a bottle that I tied some rope around filled with shells from our trips to the beach, a little picture frame from Kohls & a buoy from Hobby Lobby.  

The buoy started out red, but I spray painted it pink to match the room.  

And if you aren't already sick of hearing about Hobby Lobby, here are some other things that I got from there for the nursery...the nautical balls that I put on the ends of the DIY Nautical Curtain Rods to hold up the awesome DIY Nautical curtains...this nautical pulley that I used to make the DIY Nautical baby mobile  & the wire anchor that I used as part of the DIY Nautical Hairbow Holder.  

Moral of this story...I love Hobby Lobby...oh & they have great prices on Nautical stuff.  Haha.  Especially if you stalk their 50% off sales & their clearance aisles. 

Nautical Hairbow Holder

I knew I wanted a place to keep Peyton's hairbows in her Nautical Nursery...that is assuming she ever grows hair.  : )  It took her sister quite a while.  In Addy's nursery, I had made a shadowbox hairbow holder.  I had another shadowbox so I thought about doing the same thing for Peyton's room with a nautical theme, but then my husband actually had a way better idea.

We were standing in the nursery & I had the fishing net from the "Ahoy! It's a Boy!" baby shower in my hand.  I was pondering what to do with it.  I had thought about linking it from the ceiling to the Nautical Baby Mobile or maybe to a shelf or something...but then my husband's creative genius took over.  He said "Why don't you just hang the net up on the wall & put her hairbows on it?"  Uhh...whoa.  My response of course was, "That's a great idea.  Should I double the net over?  Should I put it horizontal or vertical?  Where on the wall should I put it?  Should I put anything else on the net?"  His response, "I'm done here.  That's all I got."  Haha.  That's kinda how he is with projects.  He will throw out a random, yet great idea & then poof...he's gone.  So then I was on my own, but it gave me a chance to think out a DIY that I didn't even know I was going to be thinking out.  So here is what I did.

I doubled the net over & pinned it into the wall using flat push pins.

I then added in an anchor & a letter P.  The anchor came from Hobby Lobby & I painted it navy with the same paint I used for the Nautical Mobile.  The pink P came off of the diaper cake that my sweet friend at work made for me. 

I attached the P to the anchor using the clear string that I used to make Peyton's mobile (and Addy's too).  I then nailed the anchor to the wall on top of the net.

I had some ceramic white fish that I found on sale at Kirklands and I couldn't find anything to do with them.  I decided to attach them to the sides of the net.  

I had a shell garland that I had used as decoration across the food table at the "Ahoy! It's a Boy!" baby shower I had thrown for my friend last Spring.  It was starting to come apart some from being stored, so I cut off the starfish, sand dollars & shells.  I used two of the starfish on the net & the other shells around the rest of the nursery as decorations.

Then all that was left was to attach the bows...

I really love how this turned out & I have to give mad props to the hubby Steve who was the mastermind behind it all.  A little teamwork for ya. ; )

Nautical Nursery Curtain Rods

So you saw in one of the Nautical Nursery posts that I made some Nautical Curtains for the room.  I also made some Nautical Curtain Rods for the nursery, which was one of the easiest projects & one of my favorite.  It started with these nautical rope balls from Hobby Lobby.  They are ordinarily $5.99...but like most things at Hobby Lobby, they went on sale for 50% off so I bought 4 of them for $2.99 a piece.  Here is what the balls looked like.  The outsides are rope & the insides are a neutral Styrofoam type material...which was perfect for what I had in mind.   

 I bought the most inexpensive curtain rods at Lowe's.  These were seriously less than $5 a piece.  So between the 4 balls & the 2 curtain rods, I only had about $22 invested in these curtain rods.  As you saw in the last post on Nautical curtains, they were only $18 plus another $5 for the hem tape.  So $45 for two sets of curtains.  Me likey.

 So what did I do with these nautical balls & curtain rods?  Well I purposefully bought the curtain rods that were pointed on the ends.  It helped that they were also the cheaper ones, but the points were purposeful.  I literally poked a hole into the ball with the curtain rod.  To get a maximum hold, I pulled the rod back out after making the hole & stuck some gorilla glue in there before putting the rod back into the hole.

 Here is the finished curtain rods.  I really loved this project.  It was so easy & cheap.  Can't beat that. : )

Nautical Nursery No-Sew Curtains

Who doesn't love nautical curtains?  I certainly do.  I knew I wanted navy & white striped nautical curtains for Peyton's nautical nursery.  Now has anyone priced nautical curtains lately?  Holy cow.  The BEAUTIFUL ones I found online were $90 a panel...A PANEL!  I couldn't believe it.  As much as I would love to have $360+ to drop on some curtains, that just isn't the case, so what do I do?  Oh you know...a little DIY.  First a little sneak peak at how they turned out...

So how did I make these DIY curtains?  Sheets.  Now I think this would have been much easier had I found two flat sheets to use.  However, I could only find a sheet set in the pattern that I liked.  I could have bought two sheet sets & only used the flat sheets, but then I would have had so much leftover & it just wasn't worth it to me.  So how much was this lovely sheet set?  $17.99.  Legit!  

I decided to start with the fitted sheet since that was going to be the most work.  I snipped a corner so I could pull out all of the elastic. 

Because this was a fitted sheet, the edges were not even.  You can see here how they made an L shape. 

So after the elastic was out, I folded the sheet in half & cut off all edges until the sheet was straight and even.  I then cut the sheet in half.  I bought a twin sheet set, so once I cut the sheets in half, they were the perfect width for my windows.  

I bought some Heat n' Bond tape & it worked perfectly.  I have used it one time before to quickly hem some suit pants for the hubby before a wedding.  It worked even better for this project.  Here is a pic of the kind I used.  This stuff is sticky gold.  Love it.

So how does it work?  You stick it along the edge of your fabric with the nonpaper side down.  Then you run the iron over it for a few seconds (read the package instructions for a better estimate, haha) 

Once that is cool to the touch, tear the paper off, fold your fabric over & iron over the fabric again, this time for a little longer.  I made sure that when I decided where to place the bonding tape, I left space for a hole to put the curtain rod through.  

Because I cut the sheet in half & this was the fitted sheet, I used bonding tape on three of the four edges.  The only side I didn't have to use it on was the edge of the sheet that I didn't cut.  

Now for the flat sheet, this was easier in some ways & harder in others.  The part that was the easiest?  Definitely the top hem.  Because flat sheets typically always have a hemmed part at the top, I only had to cut a hole in the edges to allow the curtain rod to fit through.  

Because I also cut this sheet in half, one side of the edges didn't look very good.

So I did a little snip...

Then I used the bonding tape to fold the fabric inward so it looked more finished

This is what all of the edges I left finished looked like.

One thing of note if you use a sheet set...once you cut the fitted sheet to make it straight, it will be shorter than the flat sheet.  So I cut off the flat sheet to the same height as the finished fitted sheet curtains.  

If you can find two flat sheets, I definitely recommend using those instead.  It will make your life easier & this project will take less time.  However, if you can only find the pattern you like in a sheet set & it's more economical, it is possible to make that sheet set look like beautiful curtains.  : )  Here is the finished project.