Nursery Design- The Chair

After we decided on a crib, the next major purchase for the nursery was the chair. I had definite ideas in mind of what I wanted for a chair and Ian was pretty much open to anything...since he figures I'll be the one using it the most...which he's probably right about.

In any space we design, there is always going to be one splurge item and this time it was the chair. We decided that we were willing to save money on all of the other items in this space, but weren't willing to compromise on the chair. We wanted it to be comfortable, stylish, work for a boy or a girl (since down the road, who knows what the future holds) and also be the right size for the space.

Regardless of all of our criteria, I had a chair in mind that I've loved for a very long time:

Nurseryworks Empire Rocker

 

This rocker is EXACTLY what I was looking for and after some convincing Ian, he agreed to it. There were a few hesitations about this chair though. First of all, the price tag isn't exactly favourable at $900.00. The other issue we had with this chair, was that we weren't sure where we could test it out before buying it. We found a place locally that sells them, however they don't have any in-store and we'd have to purchase it, and then send it back if we didn't like it.

 

So we figured we might as well continue our search. If we came across something else comparable that we liked, we'd look into it, otherwise this was going to be our rocker.

While searching for the perfect chair, we came across a few others that we considered:

This glider from Room & Board was a dream, yet we knew the colour was very limiting and that we needed to go neutral if we wanted to be able to redecorate the nursery for another baby one day (if that ends up being a possibility).

Shay Swivel Chair Glider



This glider had a nice look and was a little less expensive than the Nurseryworks glider at $799.00, however we weren't sure about the design of the back and neither of the colours were exactly what we were looking for.

 

 Babyletto Nara glider

 

 

The next glider we were fortunate enough to test out in store, and it was high on the list as well. The Dutailier Moderno Collection had a good selection of incredibly comfortable chairs and this one had a nice modern look that we both liked. However, I was almost worried it was a bit too modern for me (although Ian didn't mind that), but again the price wasn't exactly favourable at $897.00.

Dutailier Moderno Collection

 

 

I honestly wasn't a fan of that many other chairs we came across. We had an experience at one baby store, that literally made me feel like Goldilocks. They had 3 chairs out on the floor, and I literally went from chair to chair stating "too soft", "too hard", etc etc. None of them seemed to be right except for one and even still the price was just a bit too much.

Throughout our search, we also came across some chairs that didn't work for us, but that we thought would fit wonderfully in other nursery's and are also easy on the budget.

Ian has owned an Ikea Poang chair forever...like since he first moved out on his own over 12 years ago and it still lives with us to this day. Although I personally am not crazy about the look for our nursery, it is pretty darn comfortable. I actually thought these options from Ikea were pretty cute and would be super comfy...plus they are easy on the budget at $169.00:

I thought the lighter wood was nice too and there are tons of fabric colour choices and 3 frame colour choices:

Ikea Poang chair

 

 

I also liked this chair from Walmart.com. The Enchanted Coronado Glider for a more streamlined look and again easier on the wallet. It also comes in 4 different colour options. In the end, none of the colour options were exactly what we wanted, but this glider rings in at a great price of $399.00:

 

 

The Enchanted Coronado Glider

 

 

For those wanting a more traditional wooden rocker, I thought this one from The Land of Nod was beautiful and nicely designed. I personally need a softer chair, however I know many mom's who have been perfectly comfortable in a wooden rocker. Although gorgeous and sure to become a family heirloom, this one is not exactly cheap, priced at $499.00:

 

 

Classic Wooden Rocker

 

We had both given up on the chair search for a while, until one evening I came across this little chair on a blog post showcasing Capri's nursery from Sweet Little Peanut:

 

 

Source

 

I absolutely adore this nursery and this chair fit all of our criteria- looks comfortable, a great size, not too modern or traditional, nice colour and could be incorporated into a boy or girl nursery. Ian was a bit concerend at first about the tufting, but with a bit of my persuasion, he got over it. I like the detail it adds to the chair and as someone who tends to gravitate towards more traditional pieces, thats what I loved about it.

 

The only problem was that the above blog post did not state the source or name of the chair, so I had to search around the internet to see if I could find it.  I then came across this image at Project Nursery:

 

 

 

Project Nursery

 

From this, I was able to get a name for this chair- The Grand Glider, and started to search for the best price I could find. Most companies that carried the chair were charging around $700.00-$799.00, which was still more than we could afford. Many sites had different variations of the name for this chair, so when I typed in "Grand Glider" into a search, I ended up with results from everywhere. One of the sites that appeared to have it was Target, so I went onto the Target site, and there it was:

 

 

 

 

Target

 

The best part was that the Target site had it listed cheapest at $579.00. Now that was a price we could work with. Again, the only issue: Target doesn't carry this chair in store, and they do not ship store-to-store or to Canada. So thankfully my new favorite baby store Walmart.com also had the chair ($10.00 less) at $569.00.

 

Walmart was willing to ship this item store-to-store and it arrived in about 10 days (7 days earlier than the expected delivery date). We chose to order the chair in the white/beige colour (shown above).

 

I did have a few concerns with ordering this chair online. The first was that if it arrived damaged, we would have no way to order another one as we were making a special trip to the USA to pick it up. Fingers crossed it didn't come damaged (and it didn't!). The second concern was that if it wasn't comfortable, I'd have to leave it and start my search all over again. However, Walmart has an amazing return policy, so we figured if it wasn't comfortable, we'd just return it right there.

 

My third concern was the colour. On all of the different sites we found the chair, each of them had different colours listed and different photos for what they called "white/beige/buckwheat". We wanted the colour to be slightly off white, but not tan/khaki coloured and not bright white.

 

Walmart.com listed this photo of the chair calling it white/beige:

 

 

 

 

 And Target.com listed this photo of the chair calling it white/buckwheat:

 

 

We hoped that the actual chair looked more like the Target.com picture, and based on the images we found online of those who had actually bought the chair, the Target image seemed more accurate. But again, this was a gamble.

 

So upon getting to the states and seeing our chair, we ended up with this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty much exactly what we were hoping for! The chair came in perfect condition. The fabric colour looks great (similar to the Target picture above) and its going to be super easy to clean as the water just beeds up on it. The tufting was done well and the chair itself glides nicely and swivels as well (which is a nice bonus). The other thing I like about the chair is that the back is high enough for me. Im somewhat tall and I wanted to be able to rest my head on the back of the chair...no problems with that at all.

 

The only thing I would suggest, is that you get some sort of ottoman to go with the chair. I have one in mind Im going to purchase- I don't think I would enjoy the gliding motion in the chair as much without an ottoman. There is one that matches this chair- Newco International Grand Bella Velvet Ottoman, but we opted for something else.

 

We're overall very happy with it and think its going to work great :) We'll post an update of how we are enjoying the chair once we really get to use it, but for now I'm loving it!

 

 

Melissa and Ian

 

Master Bedroom Reveal

You've seen bits and pieces of our master bedroom through our nightstand and headboard posts, and we're finally ready to show you the full reveal!

 

So here it is, our long awaited master bedroom reveal! We chose to keep a light and bright colour palette, similar to the rest of the room's we've made over in our home so far and also keeping in line with our master ensuite.

 

The walls were painted a light grey blue and we stuck with a white, blue, green and grey colour palette. We actually painted the walls after getting some chairs for the bedroom and used the fabric as a jumping off point for colours. We then found the curtains at Ikea on clearance and liked how they grounded the space with a darker teal colour in the same colour family.  Our only mistake, was that this made it very hard to find a fabric for the headboard that incorporated all of these colours. We finally came across this fabric from Tonic Living:

 

Via

 

So that fabric, fortunately for us, had all of the colours in our room in it...and matched pretty perfectly, so it was a no brainer. We used it to upholster our headboard and create a few pillows with the left over fabric.  All we have left at this point is to hang the photos sitting on our nightstands, and maybe to put something above the headboard on the wall. I have a few ideas in mind, but we'll see what we end up with.

 

Before we show you the reveal, lets look back as to how this room looked when we first moved into this house:

 

 

Very red, very yellow and very much not our style. So we pretty much started over. The laminate floors were ripped out and replaced with dark bamboo, the walls were painted, window coverings replaced, light fixtures changed, all door hardware replaced...it was a complete overhaul.

 

So here it is, the master bedroom reveal!

  

You might remember our post on when we re-did this dresser, but if not you can refresh your memory here. The dresser is from Ikea and it was not originally white, so we painted it ourselves in Benjamin Moore "Simply White". All of the trim, doors and baseboards in our house have also been done in "Simply White".

 

We added in a rug from Costco, which we had planned to move to our family room, once the new floors are installed. However, Clover loves the rug and so do we, so if we replace it, the new one will need to be just as cozy! The curtains are from Ikea, and although they look quite blue in the photos, they are actually much more of a teal colour.

Our nightstands were made over with a fresh colour and new knobs. We blogged about that transformation here.

 

 

We get a great deal of light in this room (and the light colours certainly help, but I love how the room always feels light, bright and relaxing.

 

Our vanity chair was also made over in the same colour as our nightstands, you can read about that here, and we love how these pieces nicely fill up this corner of the room. Plus it's a great space for me to use when getting ready if the bathroom's occupied.

 

 

We chose 2 slipper chairs for the space by the window (both from HomeSense) and they became a starting point for the colour palette for this room.

 

 

 

Another few shots of the gorgeous natural light this room gets (and how BLUE they make the curtains appear!).

 

 

Overall, we absolutely love this space. The bedroom, ensuite and closet colours all work perfectly together and we definitely gravitate towards light bright colours. We feel relaxed and happy when coming into this room, and that's most important to us.

 

Many of the projects in this room were purchased second hand and we re-did them ourselves, as well as many of the major aspects:

- Painting the entire space

- Designing the space (as well as the master ensuite which you can read about here and closet which you can read about here)

- Installing the floors

- Painting the dresser

- Creating the headboard

- Painting the vanity table

- Painting and upholstering the vanity chair

- Painting the small table between the side chairs

- Hemming the curtains

 

We truly feel our hardwork has paid off and the change is exactly what we were hoping for:

 

We only have a few things left to do: hang the photos beside the bed, finish up with what we want to do to the wall behind the bed and that's about it!

 

 

We've compiled a source list of everything in our master bedroom. If there is an item we have not listed and you would like to know where we got it please post a comment and we will reply!

 

Dresser- Ikea

Headboard- DIY Project

Headboard Fabric- Tonic Living

Nightstands- HomeSense

Vintage style Telephone- Sears

Picture Frames on Nightstands- Wal-Mart

Lights on Nightstands- HomeSense

Slipper Chairs- HomeSense

Side Table- Second Hand

Picture Frame on side table- Gift from Shannon at Burlap and Lace :)

Small Hydrangea Plant on side table and on nightstand- HomeSense

Vanity Table- Second Hand DIY Project

Vanity Chair- Second Hand DIY Project

Mirror above Vanity Table- Second Hand DIY Project

Plant on Vanity- HomeSense

Light on Vanity- HomeSense

Jewelry box- HomeSense

Bench- HomeSense

Tray on bench- HomeSense

Rug- Costco

Fireplace- Canadian Tire

Vase on Fireplace- HomeSense

Judy- HomeSense

Plant Pot- Ikea

Wooden Box- HomeSense

Bedding- HomeSense

Throw- HomeSense

Pillows- HomeSense

Ceiling Fixture- HomeSense

Mirror above dresser- Sears

Lamp on Dresser- HomeSense

Vase and flower on Dresser- HomeSense

Love sign- gift from our friend Lauren at our wedding :)

Picture Frame on Dresser- Indigo

Curtains- Ikea (clearance)

Curtain Rods- Lowes

Knobs on dresser and nightstands- Home Depot

 

Paint Colours:

Walls: "Reflecting Pool"- ICI/Duluxe Paints

Trim/baseboards: "Simply White"- Benjamin Moore

Dresser and vanity table: "Simply White"- Benjamin Moore

Nightstands/Vanity Chair: "Polar Jade"- Benjamin Moore

 

 

We hope you all enjoy this space as much as we do! Now off to relax :)

 

Melissa and Ian

 

 

Linking up to:

 

Better After

Liz Marie Blog 

Chair Update

Remember our vanity chair that we made over a whiiiiile back?

It started out looking like this:

 

 

and we made it over to look like this:

 

 

 

Well, we loved how that chair turned out, but once we got our headboard fabric something had to change. After searching for months for our headboard fabric, we figured it was probably easier to change the chair. So we did.

 

First we had it sprayed a different colour. We chose "Polar Jade" by Benjamin Moore:

 

 

 

The first time around I painted the chair by hand and was really happy with the paint and the results. This time, we decided to get it professionally sprayed. We figured since we were getting the nightstands done, that we might as well do the chair at the same time to save us money on buying a can of paint and the time. We didn't need to prime the chair since it had already been painted. The painter just gave it a light sanding and then it was sprayed. This colour worked perfect with our drapes, new headboard fabric and nightstands (which we had had sprayed in the same colour...post on that coming soon).

 

After spraying the chair, we reupholstered it with what we had leftover from our headboard fabric, "Fleur, Summer" from Tonic Living:

 

 

and soon we ended up with a chair that matched everything perfectly:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chair actually looks a lot brighter in the pictures than it actually is. The colour is actually closer to the colour of the drapes which works perfectly.

 

So there you go. A quick and easy makeover that didn't break the bank.

 

Costs:

 

Chair- already owned (so FREE! kinda?!)

Paint and spraying- $60.00 Polar Jade by Benjamin Moore

Fabric- leftover from our headboard fabric (Fleur Summer from Tonic Living) (also free since we already had it)

 

Total cost: $60.00.

Woot!

 

Im thinking of adding some"bling" nailhead trim around the seat base where the fabric meets the chair...what do you think?!

 

Melissa and Ian

 

A Sneak Peek...

Before I give you a sneak peek into one of the projects that we finished this weekend, I want to send a very special thank you out to those who commented on my last post. I really appreciate those who took the time to write me a little message- it honestly meant so much. Its people like you who keep us bloggers going! Sending each of you a big virtual hug :) Thank you to all of you who are new followers and those who have been following for a while now! I want you to know I really debated writing that post for quite some time, but I felt as loyal readers you all deserved to know what was going on with us, and what might be going on for the next little while :)


However, last weekend we managed to work on a bunch a projects (even with one of us being a bit "under the weather"), we have a lot to share with you over the next while!


For now, I'm going to give you a sneak peek of one of the projects we finished...


Here's the before:

and here's a peek of the after:

sorry for the fuzzy phone photo! I'm saving the good pics for the official reveal!


As well, over the holidays we acquired a new little....correction BIG project that we'll probably be working on in the next year!


Here's a clue as to something we "might" have sitting in our basement moonlighting as a balance beam right now (Clover's practicing for the dog Olympics in her spare time)...lol:

source

So there you go! A few sneak peeks and a BIG thank you :)


As well, we're going to dedicate a special post to our favorite Canadian retailers soon! So many of you comment on how you love hearing where we source things, being from Canada and all, eh!? So we figured it would be great to provide you all with a list of where we tend to find great things, who we go to for specific items, etc. So watch for that post soon!


That's all for now! Hope you all have a great week coming up!