Homefront: The Nursery That Was

When I was first pregnant, I only had about 3 weeks to decorate the nursery.

We planned to move out of our tiny 410 square foot apartment when we were pregnant with our first. We didn't renew the contract and went looking for small 2 bedroom places that was within our meager student budget. The next weekend, WHAMO! Hurricane Katrina hit. Every complex we looked at had now been full of Katrina evacuees, and any open apartments rates were jacked up triple the amount to make up for their loss. Our apartment we were currently in had been rented, we were homeless.

I remember the day we moved into my in-laws upstairs bedroom with our dog. Everyone was at work or otherwise committed and my husband and I moved ourselves. Mostly him. I was fairly busy yacking over the stairwell from our second story floor into the bushes below as I attempted to carry the lightest of things. Awful day. Awful pregnancy. But mostly accommodating and loving in-laws.

We had found some nursery furniture at a garage sale and the crib was given to us for free by friends who had twins. In my nesting mode, I could not relax until it was painted, since I couldn't do anything else since all my possessions (including shoes) were in storage. The painting didn't happen until a few weeks before I gave birth, on the balcony of our 3 bedroom apartment, which we had just moved into. Love the bandana, honey! (we used to dress our dog up in those, so I only had girly ones back in the day.)

I was proud of my decorating skills given our limited space and budget (and the kid hadn't even been born yet!) Though to us, our new 800 square foot place was a mansion (little less now with a family of four + dog).

I loved the creme paint and the new brushed nickle hardware I put on the drawers. I loved the baskets and how organized and *cute* yet *manly* everything was, how I made everything coordinate. I even hand sewed ribbons to the quilt and curtains in order to tie in more turquoise and personalized accents. Well, it didn't take long for that to go to shambles. As our son graduated to a toddler bed when we welcomed our second child into the world, we literally nailed the mattress down to the frame and duct taped dumbells to the bed as our child would somehow with super human strength, lift the bed and have it vertically balanced against the wall.

The fancy boutique bedding and glider rocker chair I sold on ebay to start my etsy jewelry shop as I realized I better get it out of here before it was rendered destroyed.

About 2 months ago, I redid the bedroom. Oh, it was fabulous. Gorgeous, red, blue, lots of work went into it. I found lots of great goodwill and garage sale pieces and painted everything to match.

When the eldest child came home and saw it, he was sooo excited! He absolutely loved it! But, now, it is once again in shambles. The cute mobile has been destroyed (yes, it was on the ceiling, how he flew up there and destroyed it is beyond me!) The shelving and art has been demolished. The hand painted letters of his name have been knocked down (they were up high people) Maybe when I get the urge, I will attempt to redo it, but for now, it is ground zero.

Well, that's my story of the evolution of a room, and every time I see a fancy design nursery with open shelving. I laugh and think to myself, "just you wait you clueless and adorable, expecting first time parents".