Makin' a Nursery Is a Lot Harder Than Makin' a Baby

So I'm pretty proud of how I've decorated Maddox's room. When we found out we were having a boy I immediately started running through the possibilities of room decorating (I had SERIOUS nesting issues going on). I didn't want anything too cutesy or character-heavy. Sports themes were a little too gender specific but I also didn't want anything too sissy-like either. I finally decided on a tropical-surfing theme. I figured we were going to be in San Diego long enough and he'd probably turn into a little surfer-dude like his dad eventually. Tyler also decided that that was boyish enough so I went ahead with decorating.

First I painted his letters.

Then I painted a lamp with surfboards around the outside. I found a lamp at a thrift store that looked like a pencil. I sanded it down and repainted it and then took balsa wood, cut out surfboard shapes, painted them and glued them on to the sides of the lamp. I then made the lamp shade by covering a plain one with some rafia.

Next, I bought two fishing nets at Michael's. I glued shells onto them and hung them on his walls, one on each side of his crib.

Then I found a woman on eBay who makes wooden surfboards and paints designs on them. So I ordered one of those to hang on his wall but I was really unhappy with the design and color when it came in the mail. I asked the lady to do a dark cherry stain and totally different design. She did a natural pine stain and ugly blue stripes. So, I turned it over and stained the other side myself and then painted a design on it.

Then, the final touch was this surfboard border (or what I like to call a surfborder -- haha!) that I designed and painted, too. I used strips of balsa wood that I stained a dark cherry color and then painted little surfboards onto. Each surfboard has a different design and it goes the length of his room.

Anyway, I'm pretty proud of the work I did. I wish I could have painted the walls! But alas, no one will let me. I'm not that fond of the nasty yellowness, but that's about all I could do to his room. I hope he grows to enjoy it!