The Nursery "Furniture"

I swear that it’s not that the nursery is the ONLY thing on my mind…I promise it’s not…but it might be the most pressing thing. :) Because of that, you’re hearing a LOT about it…and I don’t know if that’s ok with you or if I should say “sorry!”

I mentioned the other day in a post that we worked on acquiring some of the items that we’ll need for the nursery. No, not booties, bottles and onesies…but like a dresser, a room divider, etc. You know, the big stuff! I mentioned here that we are sharing our room with baby Jax for a little while…making the lemonade out of lemons…and we had been tossing ideas about how to “divide” the room to still allow us a little smidge of privacy and give Jax his own space as well for a while. We’ve discussed everything from installing a wall (not in favor of) to hanging a heavy curtain (also not one of my favorites) and some type of bi-folding screen (not the best option either). As you can probably tell, I’m the one holding all of our progress back with my lack of enthusiasm over everything that we could think of doing.

Then the other day it hit me like a ton of bricks…what about a bookshelf? Like a really BIG bookshelf that would go up pretty high and be pretty wide so as to “create” a wall without us actually putting up a wall…hmmm…this could work. I started searching and quickly found several options that I liked on the IKEA website. Of course, when I mentioned the idea to Brent, he wanted to see it all in person and we made plans to visit our local IKEA store over the weekend.

Now, in my defense, I really DID go just to look. I mean, I thought that if we liked it, we MIGHT be coming home with a bookshelf. You know, if things went just right. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would leave the store with a truck-bed full of boxes and a MUCH lighter checkbook! But hey, when you find what you’re looking for, you get it right?
Because if you’ll remember, we were still searching for a dresser for Jax to use as well. I’ve been going back and forth about a separate changing table and then whether to snag Jenna’s dresser (which matches the crib and turns upside down to make a changing table) for a few months now. I’ve been scouring Craigslist and just couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for at the right time. For some reason, I was about 30 minutes too late on more than one listing…and I got ROBBED out of the perfect long dresser last weekend, but that’s a whole other story!

Anyway, to make a long story shorter, this is what we left IKEA with this bookshelf…

And this dresser…

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the dresser and it’s unique finish. Since we hadn’t yet decided on a trim color for our room, we immediately finalized that decision and will find a trim color that will complement/match the finish on the dresser…making sure that it also works with the wall color, of course.

And the bookshelf isn’t exactly what I had in mind…you might have noticed that the shelves are OPEN…but it’s the one that I liked the best and it’s the right size. At just over 6’ square, it’s perfect to divide our room up without actually dividing it up. And the plan is to find some curtains or some type of fabric to cover the “back” of the bookshelf with so that it’s not open on both sides…

What do you think? We’ve got our work cut out for us this weekend, that’s for sure! I’d like to have both pieces assembled before my shower next weekend, so I’m crossing my fingers that it actually happens. Then again, Brent has to work two shifts this weekend…and I know from a friend’s personal experience (holla Lady Di!) that IKEA dressers are NOT the easiest things to assemble. Let’s just say that I laughed so hard a few years back when she told me about putting the dresser that she got from IKEA together that I nearly peed my pants…there was MUCH cussing and throwing of tools, if I remember correctly…so we’ll see.

I’d like to at least get the dresser up so that I can start washing clothes and putting them up…but I’d also like to have the dresser so that I can put up the five BOXES of books that I own up on shelves and not have them in the upstairs living room any longer too. We’ll see what happens!

*source for pictures