DIY Nursery Curtains and Bedskirt

Since we’re on a strict budget for the nursery, I decided to make both the curtains and the bedskirt for the room. To be honest, even if we hadn’t been on a budget, I probably would have made at least some of the things for her room. Nursery items are expensive and hard to find in the colors and styles that you’re looking for. So, I opted to order some fabric online. We picked out some Joel Dewberry patterns: Heirloom Opal in Jade and Heirloom Rose Bouquet in Amber. We liked them because they’re feminine without being too girly. The colors were also great because I already had a bunch of  coordinating fabrics that I could use in the room to make other things, too.

I used the Heirloom Rose fabric to make the valance, along with some turquoise fabric from Joann (just a cheapy cotton fabric) that I bought a long time ago and didn’t use for the pleats. Let’s just say that this valance was not supposed to have pleats but that I made a serious error in measurement and some modifications were required in the design. Oops. It worked out for the best, anyway, because I think the valance came out pretty cute.

The panels themselves were just Ikea curtains I already had from our old place (Merete if you’re interested). I just pinned on some more of the turquoise fabric on the bottom and sewed it in place. This is a really easy but incredibly tedious process (you have to measure  A LOT) so if you plan on doing this give yourself a few hours and be prepared to poke yourself with pins. To add a little bit more color, I hot glued a strip of orange and yellow ribbon to the place where the orange and turquoise panels met. I think it brings it all together and makes them look a bit more fancy.

The curtains took forever to make, but the bedskirt was a bit more of an easy task. I found a tutorial on the Design A-Peele blog that showed how to make a bedskirt that ties onto the mattress support, which would allow it to be pulled up as necessary as the baby grows and the mattress needs to be lowered. It didn’t work perfectly for my personal crib design (it had some side supports that got in the way) but I don’t really mind. I added some ribbon to the bedskirt too, this time in white, to keep it from looking too plain.

What really helped to bring the room together, though, was changing the wall color. I like gray, but this particular color was just too dark for the room and made it seem smaller and more cramped than it was.

We picked out a very light blue at Home Depot called Fresh Day (it’s Behr paint) and it made a world of difference in the space. It instantly felt more light, bright, and cheerful; just like a baby’s room should be.