Passing it Down

When Wes and I were in the market for a crib for our little impending one in the early 1980's, we looked no further than a neighborhood alley in Chicago! Yep... that's right. We found the abandoned orange crib in an alley. It was smaller than a regular one, but the price was right for our overstretched bank account at the time. Wes lovingly restored the crib with several coats of

blue paint, we had a special mattress custom-made to fit (thanks to Jerry J.) and I stitched up the bedding. Here's what the crib looked like with occupant #1...our little Annie.

Four years later, with new bedding to reflect the manly new occupant #2, we welcomed John into our home.

And now we're anticipating crib occupant #3! She'll need this for napping and overnight visits with her Grandparents. The crib had been stored away for a good 20+ years and was in need of an overhaul. Wes, again, lovingly painted the bed. It was my job to update the bedding. As the baby's nook was to go in the corner of our current guest room (and the former room for Anne before she left for college, and John the minute she left for college) my inspiration was taken from this repurposed, recovered chair. The room divider was recently found abandoned in a dusty garage. Once cleaned up and finished it took on a fresh look with new fabric panels inserted...thank goodness I purchased extra yardage when I recovered the chair.

The green and cream desk will be used for the changing table

with a comfy pad on it. It used to be my girlhood desk!

The dust ruffle was made from a soft green vintage chenille bedspread I found in a thrift store. The trims were found at a garage sale in our City Nest neighborhood. The rest of the bedding was made from chair fabric scraps.

We are now in the home stretch of waiting for occupant #3 to arrive. We're ready!