Good Night, Stand

I love Baby B's nursery, but one thing I was never quite happy with in there was the nightstand (in the picture below). It looked so cluttered with the toys underneath and felt too small next to the oversize chair. Plus it wasn't that interesting to look at, just one more brown thing in a brown room. I'd been looking around at yard sales for a new nightstand and some sort of small book case for toys for his room, when I suddenly realized I already had the perfect thing! I just had it in the wrong place!

I had my printer sitting on top of this little guy in the office/guest room with hardly anything else on the shelves, so it definitely wasn't meeting its full potential in there. (I actually got it for free from a professor during college so this was a zero investment project!) It was painted black, but I forgot to take a before picture so you'll just have to take my word for it. :) I had some light blue semi-gloss paint in the basement that I pulled out for the job, so I just rolled on a few coats to make it perfect for Baby B's room. (Then I let it dry for several days before putting anything on it to make sure things wouldn't stick.)

Then we just put it in place of the old night stand and organized the toys into a couple fabric bins I had around the house. The other change we made was swapping out the green lampshade for the new red drum shade I picked up at a yard sale last weekend. This area is so much tidier now, and I love that the table, bins, and shade add a little more color to the room.

Since this table is bigger, I had room to fit a basket on top (it was a shower gift) that I filled with Baby B's board books. Very handy next to the reading chair!

Here is a closer look at the toy storage underneath. (p.s. I got all the blocks & the Noah's Ark set for $5.00 total at a yard sale earlier this summer! Score!)



And one final look with the lamp on. So cozy! If that doesn't make you want to curl up with a cuddly little baby and read board books, I don't know what will!

So our total cost for this project was the $0.25 I spent on the lamp shade because I was able to re-purpose things I already had around the house. I always try to work with something I already have before buying something new because it is absolutely the cheapest way to make this house feel like home. It feels so good to save money while making a better home for my family.