More nursery details

A few more additions have added up to the nursery being almost finished, so after that short hiatus from nursery updates, here goes:

First, we needed a wardrobe, since we didn't have a closet in the room. We yet again turned to Ikea, this time to their Stuva series of children's furniture. We liked the silhouette of one of the floor models that created a step effect. So we knew what we wanted our base unit to look like:

The rest became a little more tricky and we relied on the detailed product list plus a few drawings of our own - this is what we finally decided on, after trying a few different combinations of drawers and closets (we realized quickly that drawers on the top left would be too high to be usable, for example):

Many many boxes later (each drawer is sold separately from each drawer door, each set of doors is separate, etc.) here's what it looks like:

(If you look really closely just to the right of the door, you can see we also painted and installed a cover for the electrical box.) So far, we have a few poles installed to hang clothes on, but we've avoided putting too much inside in terms of spacers and organizers until we see what we need.

Next update - the seating area. It just so happened that my parents have been holding onto a chair that they bought for me back when I was the one who needed a nursery:

I have no idea why I am wearing tiny baby bell bottoms...

We're not a fan of super dark stains on wood furniture, so my parents stripped it and sanded it down:

It's still pretty dark, but a little less glossy and fake looking. Any of the remaining color comes from the wood itself and from absorbing all that stain over decades. A few coats of satin Minwax polycrylic later, and it looks fresh and new, just awaiting a few cushions:

A few other updates to note in this picture - we spray painted the built-in wood shelves blue (and by "we" I mean D, since spray painting is so full of fumes and chemicals), bought a play rug to keep the chair from scratching the floor (thanks for the recommendation, ten), and also constructed the leaf canopy that I have literally been pining for since way before we were expecting a baby.

Speaking of rugs, one last update. Special thanks to kaitl365 for pointing out a few good 8x8 candidates on Overstock. I always hesitate to trust their quality, but the reviews for this particular rug were excellent and the colors worked perfectly, so we took a chance:

Love it! (As do the kitties!) Of course now that we have it on the ground, I see that I think we could have managed to squeeze in 2 more feet comfortably and gone with 8x10. Oh well, this works great and was way cheaper than our other choices. Now we just need to get a rug pad (the one we like on Amazon provides cushion but no non-skid, so we can't decide if we should get it and layer it with a rubbery pad or find an all-in-one - we'd like one a little more padded than the super-cheap ones we usually get just to hold our rugs in place).

We've been busy, haven't we?!