Baby Andy's Bachelor Pad is Decorated

In our last blog, I talked about striping Baby Andy’s room to look like wallcovering. It is so great to do this, since if you don’t like it or want to change it, it is an inexpensive paint job to fix. Of course, we all loved our results. Now it was time to finish the job.

Remember we are using the Owls Sky pattern from Dwell Studio. It is a charming owl and tree print fabric in a soft mercerized cotton. The colors are so perfect – turquoise, green, brown and gray on a white background. When Adrienne ordered the crib ensemble, we found we could order a lot of different pieces (pretty much any baby thing imaginable) but we could not order fabric by the yard. We needed this so I could make a window treatment.

So, we improvised. Adrienne ordered the matching shower curtain - a nice 6’x6’ piece of beautiful patterned fabric in a smaller scale than the crib quilt. Perfect for a window treatment. The shower curtain had a nice top treatment with grommets, and instead of cutting them off and making a casing, I kept the buttonholes and cut from the bottom, the measurement I needed plus yardage for a 2 ½” hem. I then lined the fabric, very simply with a plain white good quality lining – lining is essential, as it keeps the “body” of the fabric in place, doesn’t stretch and protects the main fabric from sun damage. I simply cut a piece of lining and neatly attached it. I then added a cute green ball fringe to dress it up and we were ready to go.

The baby’s room window measured about 3” across (it is a transom area above a door), so the 6” width was perfect. You usually want to double your measurements to get a nice fluffy treatment. I purchased an inexpensive white rod with a ball finial at K-Mart from the Martha Stewart line and hung it up. It is adorable.

I used some of the remaining bits of fabric to cover a night light shade I bought at Hobby Lobby for about $8. I have seen it online for ½ the price. I added the ball fringe to this also and it was ready.

I found a wonderful chocolate brown rug at HomeGoods in a 4'x6’ size and we placed it in the middle of the room. The deeper color was essential as little Andy’s room leads out onto a wonderful deck. I figured it was a high traffic area and a sweet pastel rug was not such a good idea. It has a circle pattern in turquoise, grey and white.

Of course there was some remaining fabric, so I found a wonderful laundry basket with handles at Tuesday Morning. It had a striped lining, so I removed the lining, took it apart and used it as a pattern. I cut out pieces from our pretty owl fabric, sewed them together and made a new lining for the basket. Instead of heavy fabric ties, I used a lime green ribbon to thread threw the casing. It now houses baby wipes and diapers in Andy’s room.
Adrienne and Jim purchased classical white furnishings – crib, dresser (doubles as a changing table) and bookcase. The final touches were very personal – photos of the grandparents (that’s me) and original whimsical pieces that hung in Jimmy’s room when he was a baby that his mom had saved. Adie added some classic toys of Jimmy’s (like the talking phone every child owned) and Archie and Jughead that lived in her room when she was young.

I am not sure what kind of entertaining Baby Andy will be doing in his Bachelor Pad, but he will be doing it in style, I am sure of that. His daddy bought him a shirt that said “Lock Up Your Daughters” and I hope they heed the warning!