Bensen's Lair

We are planning on moving out of our condo sometime and hopefully within the next year, so we were not planning on painting or doing a lot to decorate Bensen's room. Well, I found this great idea on the internet (before I even had pinterest) that I loved with the alphabet in different shaped and creative letters. We decided to try to replicate it in our own way and keep each letter costing between $0-10 but mostly under $5. Bensen loves the wall and will lay on his changing table for minutes, staring and giggling at all of the different letters. It was a fun scavenger hunt for the last four months and this is how it turned out:

The dresser was Jeph's growing up and was looking a little dated. But we kept it around, refinished it and I think it just looks adorable in Bensen's room. The knobs are from Hobby Lobby and we love what they add to the chest of drawers. We found these curtains at Ross (which are really shower curtains) and I really liked them and decided to base the rest of the color scheme for the room on these curtains. Looking back, I would probably choose curtains last next time as it made it quite difficult to find stuff that matched. Of course our splurge in the room was the rocker/recliner. My parents help us buy this and it has been the best purchase ever! We absolutely love it. When looking, we had to find the smallest chair any store had. I was 8 months pregnant and very large when we were looking so it had to be a chair that was easy for me to get in and out of at that point and I think that was a wise decision as it has made getting in and out with Bensen in arms so much easier. I love it! Thanks Mom and Dad and Jeph for the splurge!

Jeph had a brilliant idea to paint these squares on the wall and put up some shelves. They turned out pretty awesome and have definitely become a favorite. I thought it would be so easy to find bedding, but in fact, it was impossible. So I did the craziest thing ever and embarked on making a crib set. I must admit, I am pretty proud of how it all turned out.

Most of our furniture was donated by Bensen's Aunt Debbie. She has five kids and has decided that she is done with that phase of her life. Therefore she gave us the crib, changing table, two car seats, a stroller, play pen, and a walker. We cannot even imagine who much it would have cost us to buy all of this furniture so we are super grateful. We did refinish the crib and the changing table.

We also had some extra material from the crib set so Jeph recovered the car seat and I made a cover that matches. This is how they turned out:

We still had extra material and I wanted to start a growth chart for Bensen that we could take with us as we move around. I wanted to get started now as we have his first few doctors appointments and I wanted to keep track of his growth from now and for the rest of his life. So I threw this little chart together and hope it is something he will enjoy the rest of his life.

The room was something fun for us to work on while waiting for our little man to get here.