Nursery-Labor of Love: Part 4

We have all heard the phrase 'One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure'.  This particular phrase describes my husband's creative side in a nut shell.  Some of you may think this is a very cruel description for me as a wife to give my husband but I mean it as the highest compliment.  Let me explain......

Michael and I have been married for 4.5 years and I will admit in our first years of marriage I viewed this as a negative characteristic of him.  I am an anti-clutter, 'less is more' kind of a girl so saving scrap wood, scrap metal, and old rusty hardware etc was not something that I could understand or relate to as this was absolutely not a desire of mine.  These types of things in my opinion at that time should have remained in the garbage can, dumpster or on some one's curbside for the garbage man to pick up.   Over the years, I have come to realize that this is actually one of Michael's greatest qualities.  He truly has visions of how to turn what people are throwing away or selling at garage sales and using those products to create really cool things! As you probably guessed, today I'm going to show you some of the things we have made for the nursery that in some cases have literally been 'dumpster dived'.  I will say, I am thankful that the things Michael salvages he does actually use and if he has not found a use for them after a few months he will get rid of them.  Can you see how we have rubbed off on each other over the years? :) 

I'm thankful for Michael because when I have a project idea he is very interested in finding a way to make it happen even if it's the simplest of an idea.  My natural instinct is to go out and buy the products necessary to make my idea happen but in many cases he will come up with something he has salvaged to make that project come to life.  He saves us so much money because of that.

As you know from the 2nd post on the nursery, we have recently built in custom bookcases and a window seat in the baby's room.  Over time, some of those book shelves will see more and more books added to them.  Michael and I are both admittedly not readers and we wish we were.  We are hoping to instill this interest into our children because it is a great quality to have that we both lack.  Michael wanted to create some cute bookends for one of the shelves.  Here is a look at what he came up with.

These cuties are made out of scrap wood and salvaged bocce balls.  The base of the bookends are made from scrap wood left over from the built in bookcase and window seat.  This wood is a cheaper pine which is very light in nature so the weight of the bocce ball really helps make a more stable bookend.  We painted the base of the bookends with left over gray paint from the walls and left over yellow paint from the dresser/changing table.  I think these are cute pieces that help bring the color scheme of the room together.  This project was 100% Michael's brain child.  I think it's brilliant :). 

There was one wall within the nursery that was empty and we were having troubles coming up with an idea of what to put there.  One day, I told Michael that it would be neat to come up with something that involved 3 frames each with a metal backing opposed to a framed photo.  I thought it would be neat to make cute magnets to put on the metal backings that were interchangeable over time.  This would be a way to incorporate either feminine or masculine qualities in to the room once the baby is born and we find out whether we get a son or daughter. 

 He saw my vision right away and came up with the idea to make the frames out of a broken pallet that he had salvaged.  We liked the imperfect look of the pallet wood....very shabby :).  We then used salvaged galvanized steel to back the frames.  We specifically like how the look of the steel matched the color scheme of the room and brought a masculine look to the frames.  We are so happy with how these turned out.  You will notice the outside frames (in the top photo) have a heavily speckled galvanized look and the middle one is more plain.   This was intentional.  We liked the variation of the metals.  To paint the pallet boards we used to make these frames we did a light coat of white spray paint.  We were not going for a perfectly white look.  It turned out really well because there is almost a gray undertone to the wood where the white paint didn't take.  These pieces are imperfect but very cool and really helped our 'shabby chic' look come together. 

Hopefully this post has inspired some of you to think outside the box.  If there is something that you have been hoping to add/create for your home you may just have the items you need to make that idea come to life in a box in your basement or laying out in your garage.  Best part is you may be able to make that project happen right now without spending much money.  In all honesty, this concept did not come naturally to me but Michael has opened my mind to this concept and I love  what we have been able to make together because of it. 

I would like to end this post on a sappy note, LOL :)...I really love and appreciate my hubby for so many reasons.  One of them is because he is really fun and creative and challenges me to allow my ideas to come to life and helps me create them.  He teaches me so much and helps make me a better person.  Thanks hunny!