Cooper's Room Reveal

The moment you've all I've been waiting 37 weeks for...his room is finally. finished.

This is honestly, 100%, hands DOWN my favorite part about getting ready for a baby. By far the hardest part of pregnancy for me is the beginning when I don't know if I'll be decorating a boy room or a girl room...ALL I WANT TO DO is paint and pick curtains and buy sheets but I can't even brainstorm ideas in the early stage because there are too many unknowns. It's not even fun for me to imagine until DECISIONS CAN BE MADE.

20 weeks hit, we threw a party and found out we'd be having a boy...a couple days later we announced the name...and then somehow everything about the adorable cows, neutral color scheme, and collected vintage pieces just fell together in the most perfect way.

These were the four pieces that gave me the vision for this room:

The vintage cow breed poster hanging right of the window was something I found at a shop down in the East Village earlier this spring for $6...I never found the perfect place for it in our house, but it was too cute to pass up and I had a feeling I'd be able to use it for something in the future.

The white porcelain cow was a JB Knacker find from more than a year ago...it lived outside on our porch, welcoming guests until it moved to Cooper's room. When I find cute unique pieces that 'speak to me,' I just grab them. It's what gives our house that warm, collected, interesting feel instead of a 'Straight From Target' feel.

The real cow skull was pulled from the barn at our Cambridge acreage/rental property years ago and it's been an excellent conversation piece no matter where I have it hanging (it's made appearances at both our old and new house on the front steps, the living room, the kitchen). It's gotten really strong reactions from certain grandmother's: 'A dead cow skull hanging on the wall of a BABY'S room?!' but I find that to be hilarious, so it stays. Because seriously, how perfect is it?!

And finally the old 'Cow Herd Register' on the shelf above the dresser (possibly my favorite piece of the original 'puzzle' that solidified the cow theme for me) came from somewhere in my grandma's or my dad's stuff...I can't remember exactly, but I know it's old and it's cool. There are old photographs of different cows, paperclipped inside, along with handwritten notes and cattle prices.

This is the only room in the house where I reversed the trim and wall color...in the rest of our house, the trim is white and the walls are colored, but in Cooper's room the trim is this amazing dark smokey gray + a super light gray wall color. Don't ask me about links for either...the trim color was a mistint gallon I used for our bathroom vanity (and anywhere else I can manage to put it because it's amazing), and the wall color was an Olympic brand color (which Lowe's no longer carries) and their color-matching is worthless...as still evidenced by the corners in this room.

Once I'd gathered those four pieces from around our house, I was off and running (this all happened right after the gender reveal at 20 weeks). A trip to Hobby Lobby was next in order because they always have really great cow canvases and pictures on their shelves...stuff I've loved but never had a place for or a reason to buy. The Longhorn canvas above the dresser and the Scottish Highland cow on the built-in dresser both came from HobLob, as well as the small white 'C' and the scalloped shelf above the dresser. I threw the cow hide changing pad cover; a set of Burt's Bee's gray buffalo plaid sheets; and the camel-colored leather pillow case into my Amazon cart and then didn't buy/collect much until after Christmas when I was ready to stop thinking about it and pull everything together.

I did some very light Pinterest research, but for the most part I use Pinterest as more of a Google machine than a place to find my inspiration. For me, once inspiration hits, I just know it's right and I can pretty easily start gathering what I picture in my head. I took my time, blocking in the bigger pieces (crib, rug, chair, bookcase), living with them for a while, and then slowly adding the final touches. Daily, for the past 37 weeks, I walk across the hall to the baby's room after I lay Mav down for nap to just stand and stare...and slowly the pieces all fell into place.

The letterboard, frames, books, and cowboy boots are all things we already had/I pulled from Mav's room to style this shelf. I wanted this bookcase to feel 'collected' but I have to admit I had a hard time styling it without making it cluttery....always a fine line I'm walking.

The bookshelf in our living room was starting to get a little out of control so moving all my baby/parenting books to this big bookcase in Cooper's room was the perfect solution to that problem.

Where the big stuff came from:

Rocker - Target
Pouf - TJ Maxx
Crib - Target
Bookcase -Target
Rug - RugsUSA
Teepee - Sam's Club

My rustic windows and frames have all been gathered over the years, pulled from my basement decor supply to help give this room its character. I really struggled with wanting bookcases on either side of the crib for a grand symmetrical look, but I had absolutely no need for MORE storage in this room. I hardly had enough stuff to style one shelf, let alone filling two with unnecessary 'things.' So Maverick's teepee from Christmas was the perfect solution to that problem once I talked him into it. I'm still sort of picturing a small cowhide rug for the floor of the teepee in this room, along with some gray buffalo plaid pillows, but I can add those later.

Canvas Bins - Target
Brown Cow - Scentsy
Black/White Cow - Poopsie's  (in Galena)

We collected every cow book Maverick owned and put them in Cooper's room because that added to the cute cow details. And Maverick was (surprisingly) thrilled to be sharing them.

Cooper's room is bigger than Mav's, but Mav's closet is way bigger...I didn't have a ton of shelving to work with so I added a cheap cube shelf from Target for storage underneath all those tiny baby clothes. A hammer and nail freed up some storage for stuff that could easily be hung on the walls and now I feel like this is a much more efficient use of space.

Once Cooper's custom name arrived from Etsy yesterday at 11:30 (from a shop named 'BlairMade' - I would highly recommend!), I could finally call it 'DONE.' The paint touch-ups somehow magically happened, the closet has been organized to my standards, and don't think I could love how Cooper's room turned out more.

I painted the walls in this room more than a year and a half ago and it felt like the most unfair thing in the world...I should have been six months pregnant, choosing paint colors for a room that would hold a baby in three months, but that wasn't our reality. To make the best of it, my plan was to put the crib back up to use for cousins and the many baby guests who visit our house, which I knew would be sensible and useful...but to spend two whole days painting a room that wouldn't hold a baby of ours for the foreseeable future...lets just say it's not the most fun I've ever had. I powered through because that's how I do projects, but I think that's why this room was so over-the-top fun for me to think about and plan for and put together...in 20 days (or less!) Mav will finally have a baby brother in this adorable room across the hall!

MmB