Emerson's Letters & Numbers themed nursery

I wanted to make my little man's room VERY special for him, so the task of creating his nursery was a long and time consuming one for me.  I'm not one to just want to go out and buy everything.  I'd rather try and figure out a way to make it or buy a cheaper piece of furniture to refinish.  Most of everything in Emerson's nursery was either hand made or refinished by myself or a family member or friend.  The only major items we bought brand new were the glider and the crib.

I started out with a theme.  I have an English degree and both my husband and myself are big readers.  So that's where I pulled the letters part of the theme from.  My husband is a programming engineer and loves numbers and math.  That is where I pulled the numbers part of the the theme from.  I wanted Emerson's room to not just be a room where he sleeps, but I also wanted it to be stimulating and educational for him too.

Next I moved on to colors that I like.  I'm not afraid of color.  I didn't want to the colors to be the typical boyish or babyish colors.  I'm not a fan of extremely baby looking nurseries. So I looked around on Pinterest until I found a few color schemes that I liked and then I just pulled from those.  We ended up painting the walls a light gray and went with a burnt orange, teal, and kind of a moss green for the accent colors.  I made sure not to be too matchy matchy with the colors.  I didn't mind if a few of my teals were not the same shade of teal, or if my greens didn't quite match.

That's pretty much how I got started with everything.  I used Pinterest quite a bit for ideas and adapted things I found on there to fit into Emerson's nursery.

Now I'll break down all of the various elements in the nursery and how they were created or where they were purchased from.

The diaper pail I ended up going with is the Ubbi Diaper Pail and can be purchased at Giggle.  It initially caught my eye because it's orange.  It is a very nice diaper pail because it takes regular trash bags, so you don't have to worry about buying the expensive refills for it.  

I found a piece of wall art at Pottery Barn that had numbers all over it, but it was way too expensive, so I decided to create my own.  I did it the same way that I made the green art above the dresser/changing table.  I stuck vinyl numbers to a canvas and spray painted over them, then I peeled the numbers off.  It's a nice little touch for a Letters & Numbers themed nursery.  

The dresser is probably my favorite part of the nursery.  I was wanting to find something that was really long so that I could use it as a dresser/changing table combo and I found this adorable 1970's dresser on Craigslist for only $100.  I couldn't pass it up.  I absolutely love the detailing on it.  I chose to paint it a beautiful burnt orange color.  It was very easy to paint since it already had a nice coat of white paint on it.  I purchased paint with primer added to it from Home Depot.   

The print I ordered of of Etsy and the lamp came from Target.  

Here are just a few items that are hanging above the changing table/dresser combo.  The clock I found at Target and the green wall art I made.  All I did was buy vinyl letters off of Amazon, stick them to the canvas that I bought at Michaels, paint the entire canvas and after it dried I peeled the vinyl letters off.  You can use a paint brush to do this or you can use spray paint.

As I was searching on Pinterest one day I found a cute abacus that Crate and Barrel sells; however, their abacus was over $200 and I was not about to spend that.  I found a tutorial on Pinterest from someone that made their own abacus.  I showed their picture to my brother-in-law, who is in construction, and he said that he could easily make something that that.  I bought the little balls for it online and spray painted them the colors that were in the nursery.  He pretty much did the rest.

The changing pad cover I bought off of Amazon.  

The bookshelf we had already been using for our books so it didn't cost me anything.  The above picture is what it looked like before.  It originally came from Scandinavian Design.  This was a little trickier to paint than the dresser since it had a slick varnish over it, but I still didn't have to sand it.  I again bought paint with primer in it and with enough dry time it ended up turning out pretty well.  As you can see, it holds quite a bit of books and toys and I still have 3 shelves available as Emerson's library grows.

The teal curtains that are throughout the room I purchased online from Brylane Home for a very reasonable price. 

This cute little nightstand I purchased off of Craigslist also for only $35.  I used the same black paint that I used on the bookshelf.  The wicker part of  the nightstand had to be painted with black spray paint.  The green lamp was also purchased from Target.

Our glider is the The Little Castle Enchanted glider and recliner which we purchased at Walmart.  The teal foot stool with storage was purchased at Target.  The floor lamp was purchased from Urban Outfitter, as was the floor rug that is visible in various pictures of the room.   

The crib was purchased from Kids 'N Cribs.  It is the Creations Baby Summer's Evening Sleigh Crib w/ toddler rail.  It also has the option of turning into a double bed.
The quilt that is hanging over his crib was sewn by my best friend to match the various fabrics in the nursery and the crib skirt was sewn by my mother.   

The quilt for the inside of his crib was made by my mother with fabrics we selected to match the room.  The back side of the quilt is a very soft minky dot fabric. The crib sheets I ordered off of Amazon and they are black chenille to match the changing pad.  

The alphabet wall and the mobile above the crib were handmade.  I purchased a variety of wooden letters from Michaels and Joann's Fabric and then I spray painted them.  My best friend created the mobile from a picture that I found on Pinterest.  

The little rocking chair was refinished by my grandfather.  It used to belong to my mom.  The yarn wrapped "E" was created by my best friend as were the 3 stacking teal storage boxes.  

Emerson's complete Letters & Numbers themed nursery.