Making Nora's Nursery

From Nora's Nursery

Here are some photos of the nursery that my wife and I made for our future daughter Nora. Even though these photos turned out really well thanks to my cousin Shannon's awesome camera, you still don't quite get the full effect that you get in person because it needs to be dark to enjoy the night-light.

The tree I made was made out of three or four giant pieces of poster board we picked up from Hobby Lobby. The leaves were made out of plastic, translucent folders. We found those on Amazon.com after searching all the local stores. No one had them in pastel colors that we wanted. They had to be translucent in order to let the lights shine through.

For the lighting I used end-glow fiber optic strands. I used about 500 feet for the tree alone. Each leaf has two fiber strands going to them. All of the strands go into the light source that is in the nest at the top of the tree. Before I had started this project I thought the lights in the leaves would light up the leaf evenly. However, it turns out it looks more like the spine of the leaf is lighting up which is a really neat effect.

The stars are made out of the same fiber optic strands and go to the same light source hidden in the nest. This was definitely the hardest part of the whole room. I had to go up into the attic for this. Even though it was a somewhat cool day, I was still sweating a lot. Also, my house uses the "fluff" insulation in the attic so I was basically swimming through it to get to these fiber strands. Thankfully my brother Sam and sister Shelley came over to help. It really is a two to three person job.

The stars are all random except for two constellations above her crib: Pisces and Leo. Since we don't know for sure yet which sign she'll be born under I went ahead and put both up.

We put up crown molding in the nursery, but instead of putting it all the way up to the ceiling like you are supposed to, I put it up with about a half inch before the ceiling. That allowed me to hide rope lighting inside it. This gives a cool effect that almost looks like a sunset or sunrise.

All of the stars, rope light and leaf lights are hooked up to a light switch I put in so they are really easy to turn on and off all of the night lights.

One of the coolest things is that you can't even tell there are stars or lights in the tree when the main lights are on.

We were a little nervous at first that the paint was too light. But after it was all up we quickly came to the conclusion that we had made the right choice of green. It is perfect for a baby's room. Thanks to Annette's mom for helping us paint.

Annette picked out the furniture for the room. I told her that I think the crib and the dresser/changing table are probably the nicest pieces of furniture in the whole house. She also put up the name above the crib. I really like the flowers that she put on the letters that almost look like they are growing from the letters.

The rug was found by my mom at Meijer. Not only did she think it went well with the nature theme we had going but it was also called "Nora's Garden". What are the chances?!? It was a sign that we had to have it. I think it was also on sale.

Last but not least, we had to mount a tv up on the wall. This wasn't as much for Nora as it was for us. Everyone keeps saying how we are going to have sooo many late/all night feedings and rockings. So I figured we could use that opportunity to catch up on our shows.

Well, that's it. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoy the finished product. You can see all the pictures here.