a debut of Graeme's room

After we found out we were having a boy, it didn't take us long to decide on a theme for his room. That theme being superhero. (DC Comics only). We didn't want to feel like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman threw up in his room, so we went for superhero accents around the room. We also wanted his room to be colorful, because that's just fun. We want Graeme to love his room for as long as possible, so it's not too babyish either. A lot of our ideas came from here. 

With that all in mind, here is Graeme's nursery!

Paint color:  Aquatint by Sherwin Williams

I'll start with the clock wall and work my way around...

The closet is on the left. Inside is a Circo cube shelf with fabric bins.

Red clock from Target.

Batman and Superman hooks are Command Hooks. "Mickey Mouse" cape is from Hallmark and came with the Mickey pictured below. (Basically, our two favorite worlds collided. A superhero Mickey.)

Aaron made the wooden bench/shelf when he was six. Teddy Bear was mine that my parents gave me when I had my thyroid removed. Crocheted blanket was made for me as a baby by my great grandmother (basically the only thing from when I was a baby that didn't scream "girl!")

Next is the bookshelf. Aaron has had this bookshelf since high school. It has moved with us, and happened to match Graeme's furniture perfectly.

Stuffed "Itty Bittys" are from Hallmark. Green frame from Target Christmas clearance. Stacking cups from Target Dollar Spot. Fabric bins from Target. DC Comics Little People from Target. To the right are some floor pillows. The bottom shelf has our growing collection of Caldecott Medal books.

We LOVE children's books. We have like three more boxes of them in the attic waiting to be pulled down as Graeme grows. Aaron's "It's a Boy!" Vinylmation was one of the first things in this room.

Bat Signal night light is from Pottery Barn Kids. 

Above the bookcase is an awesome orange shelf we stumbled upon at HomeGoods. It was cracked on the back so they gave us a nice discount. My dad fixed it right up with some wood glue and a clamp.

Our friend Amanda made the posters for us. The idea came from Etsy.

Wooden blocks are from Toys"R"Us. Vase is from Target.

My First Batman Book was a find by my mom. Also from Pottery Barn Kids. The comic book cubes are actually iPod speakers that Aaron found at Kohls totally randomly. We got them for free because we had a $10 gift. The fun robot is from Target.

The next wall holds the window and a trunk that was given to us before we got married. It started out as our coffee table in our apartment. Then it sat in our loft in our house. Now it is a window seat and toy box for Graeme. Thanks to Bensen and Keyen and their parents, it is already filled with baby toys.

The curtain is from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It's a blackout curtain, and I'm jealous of it. It makes the room so dark. Curtain rod and pull back are from Target. Batman sign was a gift to Aaron long ago from a friend at church. My talented mom, Graeme's Mimi, MADE us these orange cushions. She's awesome. The middle pillow was on clearance at Target for $7. The other pillows are from Etsy. (Green Lantern and Flash are still on their way.)

Next is one of my favorite things in Graeme's room because my crafty (who knew?) husband made them all by himself.

We saw the idea for this on Etsy, but it was ridiculously expensive. It cost us a bit to make them, but not nearly as much. Wooden letters and Mod Podge were from Michael's. The comic books are Batman:  Brave and the Bold.  The superheroes pictured are Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, Plastic Man, Robin, Joker, Batman, Hawkman, Catwoman, and Shazaam. He painstakingly found perfect pages for each letter and glued them on. Then cut off the excess with an exact-o-knife. I hung them with sawtooth hangers from Target. The "M" is our favorite (there is a better angle of it later).

Next to his awesome name is his crib. This crib was "given" (because they hardly asked anything for it at all considering how amazingly nice it is...) to us by the family I nannied for. It was barely used, came with the mattress, and converts to a toddler bed, twin bed, and full-size bed. We are incredibly blessed to have it.

I made the mobile with paint chips (that I felt kind of guilty about "taking" even though they're free), a circle die cut, fishing line, clear tape, and an embroidery hoop. The whole project was less than $5. I found a tutorial here, and kind of made it my own. The sheet, bumper, and blanket are all from Target.

My mom not only made us orange cushions, she also sewed our crib skirt. Apparently, crib skirts either come in a bed set or are crazy expensive. This one is insanely better than any I found. (The hamper that's in the corner of the picture is from The Container Store.)

Red rug is from Target. There is also a navy one next to the bookshelf that didn't make it in a picture.

This orange bear and blue dog have caused much drama. They had a third friend, a green frog, that we didn't purchase when we saw them all at HomeGoods. Later, he was gone. And now he is nowhere. You can't buy him. We have looked high and low. We have learned our lesson. Green frog shall never be ours. And now we know: if you see something you like at a place like HomeGoods, buy it then. Don't wait. There is no second chance. Anyway...

Up in the corner there is another fun thing, our baby monitor. We were pretty particular about what we wanted and couldn't decide on one when we went to register. After doing a lot of research, we decided on this Lorex brand camera. We got it on Black Friday for more than half off of it's usual price. It's a lot of fun, and it pans the entire room. We hid the cord (and covered up the choking hazard) with a cord hiding set thing from Best Buy.

We are almost done! Next is our dresser/changing table. This was a gift from some wonderful friends at Journey. It happened to match the crib almost perfectly. And, when Graeme no longer needs a changing table, it will still be practical.

The changing pad was a gift from the family I nannied for, the "Super Hero" canvas was our first purchase before we had even officially decided on his room. We saw it at Target and bought it "just in case." The lamp  and the storage bin are also from Target.

Batman and friends are on the lookout for any trouble.

The last corner of his room is the armchair. I hemmed and hawed about a chair a lot. I didn't even know that I really wanted a chair. I didn't want a wooden rocking chair or glider because I wanted it to be comfortable. If I got a chair, I wanted it to be gray. Of course that meant that all the chairs that I liked were too much money. We were over at Aaron's parents one night and his mom was asking if we found a chair. Later, Aaron went upstairs. He called me up to show me that his parents had a gray armchair in their room. We came down joking that we "found a chair!" His mom said, "Oh! Where?" "In your room." She was puzzled why we wanted "that old thing," and said she had been wanting to get rid of it. We gladly offered to take it off their hands. It's like 30 years old, but it's in great shape! And it meant that we bought none of the furniture in Graeme's room!

The blanket and ottoman are from Target. The ottoman is also a storage cube and was another great clearance find. The side table is from Target. (If you can't tell by now, we basically love Target.)

These comical prints were stumbled upon at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. We had to buy them, of course.

Another one of my favorite things is this pillow. It's from Etsy, and Aaron didn't want to spend the money on it (I admit, it was a ridiculously pricey pillow). But when my wonderful mom-in-law saw it, she said, "Oh, you're getting that pillow." And that was that. Thanks, Gigi!

Alright, so there you have it! That is Graeme's room that we have had so much fun decorating. We couldn't have done it without our parents and some wonderful friends. Now, we just wait for him to get here and enjoy it for years to come!