So, as you can imagine, we are baby crazy over here! Everything is going well, the babies are now about 2 lbs (900g) each, and growing nicely. We have three months to go, and so we are focused on getting ready! I wish I could blog more, but it turns out that I've been tired quite a lot, and getting through the work week, and getting stuff done on weekends is leaving very little energy for blogging. But Wednesdays I'm now working from home, so hopefully it means I get through the week more easily, and maybe I can do more blogging! Yay!
One of the biggest things on my mind has been getting our babies' room ready for them. I'm envisioning a calm, cozy place - because heaven knows with one baby things would be slightly un-calm at some points, so I can only imagine what it will be like with two!
Here's my inspiration for the room.
1.
This room inspired me for its colour. Soft browns and golds, white walls and lots of texture.
2. So I started with
this rug, from West Elm. It was on sale, so I snapped it up! The dresser will double as the changing table and was a craigslist find. I've since spruced it up a bit because it was in bad shape. I decided to get it restored at a later point, once the babies are less likely to beat it up even more.
3. A wonderful friend gave us the crib her babies, and the rest of her family's babies, first slept in. We love that our babies will become a part of this long line of snuggles and happy bubs. We bought this second one from Ikea -
the Gulliver - because its clean lines matched our inherited crib. We're still undecided on whether or not our twins should share a crib to start with. I think its something we need to discuss with our pediatrician, when we get to that point.
4. For window treatments (and some sound proofing!) I got sheers and curtains from Ikea. The sheers are not great quality (but they were the right length) but the curtains are just divine. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the curtains but I'm pretty sure they're the
Ritva in beige - although there are no "natural" Ritvas on the Ikea website, and the backing in the online pics is not the backing on the curtains I have. Anyway, I love them. I was originally going to get the
Aina (I was inspired by
this blog post) but in person I liked that the Ritva were a softer colour.
I decided to add pom pom trim to the inside edge of the curtains, to add some fun and a splash of colour. Not exactly an original idea, you can see more
here and
here - but it looks great! The nursery is nowhere near done but I have put up the curtains and its just fabulous with the pom poms.
5. Another friend has gifted us a glider rocking chair, which we are so pleased to have! It's most likely that two of us could be in there for feedings, so we needed two chairs. We already had one rocking chair, one that we used to have in our living room, that we bought on our visit holiday on Cape Cod. Its a stereotypical New England rocking chair - and to make it more comfy for those long nights, I decided to make a cushion for the bottom and the back. I found the floral fabric on ebay, by searching "vintage fabric" (thank you
Little Green Notebook for that idea!) and that will be for the bottom (I got the style of fabric idea from
Marin's big girl room), and the blue ticking is for the back cushion. You can see the yellow pom pom I purchased in the pic I took in the car after my successful run to the fabric store.
To put up our feet, I got the yellow Moroccan pouf for a great price on
fab.com. And I decided to get the
West Elm Martini side table for a place for bibs, bottles and other little things. I hope that because its hard to push over we can use it in the babies' room for a while. It will sit between the glider and the New England rocking chair.
6. Once it got to decorating, I realized I headed into a bit of a theme - animals. I decided on
Sharon Montrose's baby animal prints for the wall - they're all over the blogosphere but no one I know has them, and I
love them, so why not? I've chosen all African animals so my babies won't embarrass me when we go home to South Africa and they don't know their zebras from their elephants! The star picture of the bunch though? The
twin lion cubs, of course!
We holidayed in Key West earlier this year (it was wonderful! check it out
here) and bought this
beautiful coastal bird mobile, while our baby (just one in our minds back then!) was just a twinkle in our eyes!
I also fell in love with these hunting dog pics in
an image on pinterest. Since then I've found a matching pair in cross stitch (one for each baby!) on etsy. You'll see them when the nursery is done!
7. For some some soft light in the room, I got
owl lamp from West Elm. Looking at it now, I hope it doesn't scare them when the babies get bigger! But we can always put some specs on him, or maybe add a mohawk!
8. Lastly, for a place to store their books and toys, I pretty much decided to copy this
beautiful set up I found on pinterest - an
Ikea Expedit bookcase. Books can go up top, and toys can go in the baskets.
For finishing touches, we have some childhood and family toys to add to the room, as well as a picture I grew up with as a child. Right now the room still has some of my husband's furniture in it (we live in an old house, with small closets, so he's been using the room as a dressing room of sorts) but we're almost there. I promise to show you everything in its place when its done. Until then, you can see more inspiring baby rooms and pics on my
pinterest page.
Can't wait!
