Stool

Nursing stool

Well, the baby hasn’t arrived yet (only a week and a half to go to due date!).  In the meantime, I’ve been finishing off the upholstery side of the rocking stool that came with our nursing chair from my lovely friend Helen.  All it needed was a staple gun!

The edges aren’t the most professional, mostly because I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, but definitely fit for our purposes.

photo 1

All we need to do now is wait for the weather to brighten up a bit (more snow due this week, folks!), and then set about painting the wood white – I think it really would make it.

Chair fabrics

Upholstery fabrics

These are the three fabric samples I ordered for the nursing chair.  The bottom one’s very much like the fabric on our sofa at the moment, a slate grey, and the top one doesn’t look as nice in real life as it appears in pictures.  It just so happens (and this never happens!) that I like the cheapest one (the middle one).

It’s supposed to be grey-beige but looks like the platinum one we had our eye on when we went to the upholsterers.  It’s £8.99/m and the eBay seller lives about 5 minutes from my house so I can collect it.  The upholsterers thought we’d need 3.5m of material, so I think I might get 5m, just to be on the safe side.

Looking at the other items this eBay seller has, I’m wondering if I need more supplies.  They seem to have upholstery nails and jute webbing, and I don’t even know what they’re for.  Still awaiting these books from the library, hopefully they can shed some light on it.  I know I need some more foam for the arms, but I think the other cushions are fine.

My friend Charlie’s an angel and has already brought her sewing machine around for me to use once we’ve got the fabric sorted.  It’ll be a bit trial and error though because none of us can remember how to use a sewing machine.  It’ll be better than the Singer though as it has a foot pedal so there’s a real chance I might be able to sew in a somewhat straight line this time.

Nursery done!

Nursery

The nursery’s now been painted, hurrah!  In the end we went for Sorbet (Dulux) on two walls, which is a pale pink, and then B&Q’s Grey Hints for the rest of the room.  When the decorator was painting the grey, I was worried it wasn’t quite grey enough and it would just look dirty white, but it seems to have dried really nicely and they’re good contrasting colours.

We’d quite like to put a shelf or two up (especially as we have nothing to put the baby monitor and temperature egg thing on), so we’re on the look out for reasonable shelving, although I could always paint a pine one white I suppose.

Nursery paint

It’s really satisfying to have the room painted – the furniture is all finally where we want it now, so we’re just waiting for the arrival to really complete the room!

I’m expecting a few fabric samples from eBay for the nursing chair and stool and then I’ll have a go at reupholstering that – my lovely friend Charlie is going to lend me her sewing machine (thank you!).  And if it turns out like a dog’s dinner, I’ll put a throw on it.  Nobody need ever know…

Reupholstering

We’ve very kindly been given a nursing chair by my friend Helen, but as it doesn’t fit in with the room (that sounds very fancy pants!) and it’s a little bit worn, we thought it might be nice to see about getting the cushions for it covered in a grey material.

Nursing chair

We took the cushions and the matching footstool to a local place that does reupholstery for a quote, not having a clue how much it would be, chose a cheap fabric (£12/m), they said it would probably take 3.5m, and the total would be £190.  I needed a chair to sit in after that – it’s probably more than the chair cost in the first place!

Granted, its arm cushions are falling apart and need more foam, and I don’t think it’s the easiest item to recover but all of the cushions come off (apart from the footstool is fixed).

I’ve ordered a bunch of books from the library about reupholstery and am thinking about having a go myself (although I’m pretty sure I’ll need to borrow an electric sewing machine from a lovely friend) – it doesn’t need to be perfect!  I do think it’s a bit more than my trusty Singer could handle though.  The other option is to throw a blanket over the whole thing.

If anyone has any tips on this, they’d be gratefully received!

Nursery inspiration

I had a look round a lot of websites for inspiration on nursery themes and colours, and this was by far our favourite, from Project Nursery. The soft pink and grey is really soothing and calm, and it’s also very girly, which I love!

My friend Michelle saw this and immediately went and bought a tester pot of Dulux’s Sorbet, which is a similar pale pink, and it seems pretty perfect! We’ll go for a lighter grey than we’ve used in the living room, and try to break it up with the white furniture and pictures.


My friend Helen’s given us a rocking nursing chair and stool which are currently cream, but I think we’re going to try and dye the covers or re-upholster them so they’re grey to match the room.