“Dream Rocker” is actually the name of the nursery chair we ended up with. Destiny? Abso-freaking-lutely! More on that in a bit… or right now, if you’re impatient and just scroll to the bottom of this post. For the rest of us though… here’s the story of how we wound up with our Dream Rocker.
Those following our nursery progress know we’re stalkers. We are not ashamed of that fact. We are obsessed with stalking our local Craig’s List for the latest deals – especially when there is a specific item we’re hoping to bring home to The Dream. At the top of that list lately? A glider/rocker/some kind of comfy chair for the nursery – one that fit the small space and specific aesthetic style we have going on in there. Here’s a shot from the polka-dot post…
...the corner on the left side is where we envisioned our chair.
If you’ve been really observant… you may have noticed something filling that corner in a “sneak preview” photo we shared while recapping our Dream Shower.
That’s nothing more than a placeholder. A hand-me-down, terribly uncomfortable rocking chair. Here she is:
the stand in
This old thing held the place for our future chair for a few weeks as we continued our obsessive stalking. Daily, we observed gliders in every color, condition and at every price point come across our screen – but nothing was quite right. Then, as if out of nowhere, we noticed a chair sitting in the corner of our master bedroom. It was Mrs. Dreamer’s grandmother’s chair. It’s comfy, it’s small, it rocks – perhaps it would work?!
a possibility
Clearly, the color is a problem. It’s blue and we don’t know if the mini-Dreamer will be of the pink or blue variety yet. Also, it simply doesn’t go with the colors in the room. We thought it would be fun to change it to a bright, statement color – or make it gray so it flowed with the rest of the room. So, we trekked over to Target to check out their selection of slipcovers. We wound up with the only option they had that was close to the chair’s measurements…
Mr. Dreamer is reading the instructions (yes, the cover is already on the chair – that’s how we roll – install first, read directions later). Clearly this is not going to work. First, the color is blah and second, it’s simply too big.
We joked that it looked like a Biggest Loser contestant towards the end of the show – with way too much skin for a smaller body.
Needless to say, we promptly returned the slip cover and contemplated our next move: reupholstering.
We love a good DIY project, but reupholstering grandma’s chair is simply not something we’re willing to attempt on our own. This was definitely something to call in the professionals for. Problem is, the professionals are darn expensive. Having this piece reupholstered in a gray fabric would cost around $550. Since we new we could get a new chair for that price, we promptly passed and went back to square one. Literally. Back the original object of our obsession: Craig’s List.
That’s where Mr. Dreamer spotted it. A listing for a Pottery Barn “Dream Rocker.” We’d already perused our local Pottery Barn Kid’s store – loved the pieces, hated the prices. We knew that a new chair and ottoman from that store would set us back around $1,000. So, when we spotted a used one for $300, we knew we had a good deal on our hands. We promptly picked her up and brought her home. (The model we wound up with is a few years old and no longer available. This Charleston rocker is the closest comparison.)
While we were thrilled with our “find” – she’s not perfect.
First, she’s still a blah color. However, through this process, we quickly learned that gray chairs are not readily available – unless you want to pay top dollar. Also, we were glad she’s a neutral and not pastel green or some other color we would have never put in our nursery. (And because Pottery Barn slipcovers for this chair/ottoman would cost us about $500 – the color stays.)
Second, she’s kind of a big girl – definitely bigger than we thought… especially with the ottoman. So big, in fact, she wouldn’t fit in the corner where we planned to put her. That meant – we had to rearrange the nursery. We tried many, many different options – but wound up thinking this was the best setup:
We snapped this photo after adding more polka-dots to the smaller wall next to the window. We think that makes this part of the room flow better. But that’s it. No more polka-dots. Much more would be overkill.
Okay, so the space problem is solved – but not the blah color. All along, we’ve know that a “white and silver” nursery would eventually become too monotone. We wanted to add a splash of color – but we weren’t sure what color or where to splash it. After falling in love with our friend Carrie‘s creative genius behind the shower she threw for us – we were inspired. She chose gray and yellow as the colors. After the shower, Mrs. Dreamer couldn’t get that fun, bold yellow out of her head. So – that’s what we chose as the accent color and here’s how we splashed it:
(Okay, so we lied about a few more polka-dots – more on that later.)
These two bold yellow pieces came from Crate & Barrel – and they’re actually part of their new outdoor furniture collection. (Find the pillow here and the table here.) However, we thought they were the perfect addition to splash inside our nursery.
We also draped a faux sheepskin rug over the ottoman…
…not only does it mask the blah color of the chair with one of our primary schemes, it adds a nice, rich texture (and feels really good to bare feet… just sayin’). We’ve had the rug for a while and planned to put it on the floor in front of the crib – but think this is a better choice!
Budget for this project:
$300 for chair/ottoman
$35 for faux sheepskin rug from Tuesday Morning
$33 for the Crate and Barrel yellow accent pieces (they actually total $77, but we still had $44 credit leftover from our WEDDING registry – yep, that was over three years ago!)
Already had the lamp and extra polka-dots
TOTAL = $368
So, there you have it. The story of how the Dream Rocker came to The Dream – and got splashed with a bit of yellow. We have plans to splash a bit more yellow throughout the room, in subtle ways. Here’s another look… please comment and let us know what you think!
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The Allamalla (don’t you LOVE those names?!) wall basket was only $19.99. It’s three holders are the perfect size for diapers. Only problem – that black iron. We knew that would stick out like a sore thumb in our space. So… cue a little silver spray paint…
We scored this for $12. But, yet again, we have a color issue – and, yet again, we whip out the silver spray paint…
And here’s the shiny silver toy holder in all it’s keeping the toys out of the Bulldog’s reach glory…
Our Dream Foreclosure 