Delaney’s DIY Bird Themed Nursery

Waaaaay back when Luke and I decided to try for a second child I started imagining nurseries. Themes and colors, layouts and plans. It did not take long for me to settle on a couple of directions. A boy plan and a girl plan. If the baby we were trying for turned out boy I had settled on a room of oranges and blues in solid block and stripes. If the baby was a girl her room would be bird themed with turquoise and rich chocolaty brown and touches of pink and green.

We ended up with a sweet baby girl and she ended up with that sweet baby bird themed nursery. The color plans stayed the same through the daydreaming, planning and execution phases with shades of turquoise and dark brown mixed with splashes of pinks and greens making up the backdrop of Delaney’s bird themed bedroom. After lots of pinning to my bird themed nursery board on Pinterest and hanging out in craft stores I settled on a handful of projects to pull the bird theme together. I must be honest, I love sitting in Delaney’s room singing her songs as I rock her. I love looking around and seeing all the little touches we made for her.

Even though Delaney is nearly 10-months-old – I’m not sure how that happened – I’m still I little obsessed with turquoise and sweet bird things so today I will take you on a tour of Delaney’s space and show you some of the things we did while we waited for her to make her grand entrance into the world. We decorated Madeline’s nursery with flower photographs Luke took especially for her and I sewed a curtain and crib skirt so I knew I wanted to decorate Delaney’s nursery with our own art and handmade things. A DIY bird nursery was the plan.

When I started planning out everything to go into Delaney’s room, Luke was a bit worried. When I came home with bags and bags of crafting supplies he was very worried. He’s a photographer but doesn’t see himself as much of a crafter and I  made it pretty clear he was going to have to take part in the fun. Also, I have a long history of picking projects that are substantially above my skill set all the while thinking I will magically be able to do things I am not actually capable of, and then getting supremely frustrated with everything. The sewing machine gets the best of me sometimes and I end up cursing at it, a lot. I must say I did a good job of keeping my cool and none of the projects were over my head. Maybe I’ve turned over a new leaf?

First Madeline and I made Initials for each girls room. Madeline made her own M to match her colors and decor and I made Delaney’s D to go along with her bird theme. I was so excited to find the turquoise feathers for Delaney’s D. Her twine wrapped and feather adorned D hangs on the wall above her crib. I’ll share more of the details of how I made the D and Madeline’s M in the near future.

One of the ideas that caught my eye right away and just wouldn’t get out of my head was bunting. I just had to sew some adorable bunting for Delaney’s room. Bunting to go with the gathered crib skirt I was also going to sew. If  you know me you know I have a love hate relationship with my sewing machine. We fight more than we get along. There are things in this world I am good at, sewing is not one of them, so you can imagine Luke’s worry when I came home with a stack of fabric with plans to sew a huge part of the decor for our baby’s room. It took some time – mostly because of my very, very sub-par sewing skills – but I accomplished my sewing goals.

And even though I am not great with a sewing machine I am so happy with how everything turned out.

Sewing is not my favorite thing, but painting is something I love to do. I’m not great at it, but I enjoy it. I painted some flower canvases for Madeline’s room a few years back and I knew early on that I wanted to paint something for Delaney’s room. After some thought I decided on flat 5×7 canvases and a selection of brown, shades of turquoise, pink and green. Luke and I spent an evening at the kitchen table painting, and stenciling, freehand drawing, and then painting some more. Nine mix-matched frames later and we have a wall of hand-painted bird silhouettes hanging above Delaney’s dresser/changing table.

Since a lot of planning for Delaney’s room took place when craft stores had all their spring merchandise out I was able to grab quite a few fun bird items. Birdhouses were on the shelves everywhere last year, so Luke, Madeline, and I took a filed trip to Micheal’s and we each picked out a plain wood bird house. These birdhouses were to become mobiles and they have a fun sentimental touch to them. Guests at the shower friends threw for me decorated each of the birds hanging from the bird houses. Delaney loves looking at the birds at the swing and turn and I love how the birdhouses  represent Luke and Madeline and me as well as our wonderful family and friends.

Another baby shower item turned room decor was the bird tree my friends made as decoration for the party. It’s made of tree branches spray painted brown. The branches are stuck into a foam block sitting in a flower-pot and covered with rocks. I love the little birds on the branches. It’s right at her level s we’ll see if Delaney starts to get a little too interested in it as she gets older but so far she hasn’t done more than look at it.

I love that the theme of Delaney’s nursery is obvious when you walk in and take a look around but I also love that it isn’t over the top birds covering every inch of everything thing. Instead of plastering pictures of birds and bird figurines everywhere I was able to use a mixture of things – everything from feathers and twine to give the feel of a nest, to simple bird silhouettes and personalized birdhouses – along with the color palate to pull the whole look together.

What nursery themes are your favorite?