Guest Blogger: Amanda from Dixie Delights

Hi there, Turquoise fans, I’m Amanda from Dixie Delights!  With Erin away, I’m delighted to come and play for a day!!  I’ve just finished up my son’s “big boy room” and thought I’d kick this off with a little trip down memory lane.  Here’s the “before before”…

Here’s the “before” – the sweet nursery where the baby spent his first three years on earth…

And here’s the after – a fairly neutral room that we hope will grow with him for years to come!  You’ll probably notice the lack of toys – we try to keep the them in the playroom and basement, reserving the bedrooms for sleeping, reading and quiet time.

Sources:
Paint – Benjamin Moore Pale Oak (walls) and Benjamin Moore Alabaster (trim)
Floor – unstained white oak
Rug – Ballard Designs outlet
Carriage House Chandelier – Ballard Designs
Fabric – Ikea Berta Ruta (buffalo check), Calico Corners Como Gris (velvet), and burlap from Online Fabric Store
Curtain rods – Target

My parents gave us the vintage Ethan Allen canopy bed, and in spite of my affinity for canopy beds, even I wouldn’t do that to the boy.  So, we left the top rails off and shortened the posts on the foot board.  My mother and I made the buffalo check and burlap shams and duvet cover.  My upholsterer made the bolster.  The sheet set is from Pottery Barn in Sandalwood, the diamond matelasse spread was from Target about ten years ago, the polka dot blanket is from Aux Belles Choses in New Orleans, and the Pottery Barn Kids monogrammed quilt was a baby shower gift!

 

The gorgeous crab painting is by Catherine Lovett, a local Savannah artist.  She’s a complete doll and I am pretty much head over heels with all of her work.  The crab was the inspiration for the room and I think it’s perfection!  (And as luck would have it, the baby has yet to pronounce it “bery skary.”)

 

The two bedside tables were originally mismatched pieces from an antique/junk store and from my foyer many moons ago.  I wasn’t in love (or really even in-like for that matter) with either of them to start, but they were the right size, the right height and the right price (free) so I painted their tops with Annie Sloan’s chalk paint in old white and then skirted them in burlap to hide their different bases.  After scouring the Ballard Designs outlet for months on end (seriously…I’m talking at least 7 months), I finally found a pair of the Suzanne Kasler large gourd lamps in gray green for a song.  The drum shades were also lucky outlet finds (that didn’t require seventeen trips.)  The table decor was picked up here and there over time.

 
  

The dresser wall is probably my favorite in the room.  The dresser was my husband’s as a child and I made it over by stripping and staining the top, painting the base in Annie Sloan’s duck egg blue chalk paint and adding new mercury glass knobs from Anthropologie.  Oh, and speaking of those knobs, while they are undoubtedly easy on the eye, they are really the devil to work with since they simply won’t stay screwed in.  (Read: steer clear of these knobs!)  I purchased the mirror a few years ago from a local boutique.  Restoration Hardware carries an almost identical version, but I don’t want to make y’all cry when I tell you that it costs at least double what I paid.  The chippy corbels are the same us under the bar in the den.  I’ve had them for a few years (purchased from the same shoppe as the mirror – G. Scott Interiors) and I really cannot say just why I purchased two sets of the same corbels but boy am I glad I did!  The B. Braithwaite bear was a welcome to the world gift from Mimi and Ampa.  The W is done in a map of the Savannah River (see how here) and sits atop a collection of favorite books.  The jar is from Target (I spray painted the lid in oil rubbed bronze to look like a pricey set I loved in New Orleans) and holds my own set of Beatrix Potter books and the baby’s monogrammed baby shoes.

In the corner of the room sits a little antique chair that I had covered in the Como Gris velvet.  My parents gave the baby the linen pillow for Christmas last year and my mother was a doll to applique it with his initial in the same velvet.  The metal crate holds more books and was purchased last year from Gracious Home in Blue Ridge.

I gathered up some of our most beloved pics of the baby, a few prints and a couple of other special items for the gallery wall, including the Yes Ma’am, No Ma’am print from The Old Try (see my others here), How to Tie a Bow Tie – A Gentleman’s Guide, the John Derian plate he received for his third birthday, a monogrammed bib from Mother and a copy of a nautical chart of the Savannah River and Wassaw Sound from River Services in Savannah (see it on my coffee table here.)  Everything is framed in Ikea’s Ribba line.  They are extremely affordable and come in a whole slew of sizes and you can mix and match everything from a standard frame to a collage to a matted picture to a shadow box.
  

The antique secretary has been in the baby’s room since the beginning of the baby himself!  I used glue dots to adhere a copy of the Savannah River and Wassaw Sound nautical chart (procured from River Services in Savannah) to the inside this go-round.

Last but not least, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention that my husband spent hours slaving away at installing crown molding for the first time.  It’s the icing on the cake!!

Come on over to Dixie Delights and visit any time.  You can see all of my before & after decor here and our house tour here.  Thank you, Erin, for having me!!
xoxo