Project Post 6 - Levi's Barnwood Shelf

If you'll recall from this previous post, we have a bunch of old barnwood that was salvaged from Tyler's Grandad's house (also the house Tyler's dad grew up in), which is what we made Levi's letters and Tobin's sign out of. Tyler also used the barnwood to make a shelf that runs the length of Levi's room. This was actually the first project we used the wood for, and we completed it about a year ago while we were making Levi's nursery.

Tyler built the actual shelf structure out of old rusted metal and rebar that he already had, and welded it together to create a truss-like stucture. My type-A-ish personality had to really practice some patience and let Tyler roll with the creativity on this one, because, to be honest, when he tried to explain to me what he was doing I thought it was pretty ridiculous. I couldn't be happier with the result. I am really glad our doctor was right that Levi was a boy, because once this thing was put in place, it became part of the stucture of the house, and I would have a hard time fitting it in with a girl nursery theme. The following pictures are ones I took during the shelf construction process, and then some after shots once the room was fully decorated.

The trees were used at our church baby shower. Our Sunday School class did a wonderful job throwing us a themed shower that matched Levi's nursery. I love our sweet church. Here are some flashback snapshots from that, so you can get an idea of how these trees were originally used.

I asked Tyler to make a cornice board for the window out of the wood as well. He put some metal on the corners to hide the raw joints and to make it flow with the shelf. The metal he put on the corners was from an old bed frame.

On the very right side of the shelf, there is an old wire crate (it's turquoise/green) that houses books. The books are national geographic pop-out books that were mine when I was little (my grandparents used to buy them for me every birthday and Christmas), and I will enjoy reading them with Levi. The crate is something we found in my grandpa's barn, which was something I rescued when they sold their farm (he left a bunch of stuff in the barn that he didn't want to move into town).

The wooden barrell-looking thing is a minnow trap that Tyler's Grandad made and gave to him. The lanterns are some that I collected from various places once I decided on a theme for the room.

And that completes the nursery mini-tour!

Project Post 1 - Barnwood Letters

Levi's Letters

A month or two before Levi was born, we really started cracking the whip to finish his room. Tyler had a lot of good ideas for the room, and I will do a couple of posts on the things he made for the room, but my favorite thing in the room has to be Levi's letters. I wanted to make a sign with letters that spelled out Levi's name. It was my idea to use those gold letters that Hobby Lobby sells for $5 each, and spray paint them. We kicked around the idea of somehow using old barn wood for the sign, to attach the spray-painted letters to.

(Something similar to this piece of wood, but with the attached letters instead of painted-on letters)

So we (I use the term "we" lightly - the pictures will show who really did the work on this) painted the letters red to match the theme in the room, and then Tyler started picking out which piece of wood to use for the sign. The barn wood is actually sentimental - it came from Tyler's dad's house that he lived in when he was a young boy.

getting started on the project

After some brainstorming and tossing ideas back and forth, Tyler decided to try attaching each letter to it's own individial piece of wood. I didn't like the idea at first because I already had the sign invisioned on a single jagged-edged piece of wood, but after he got the first one mounted I knew it would be perfect. The pieces of wood he found were very weathered and have remnants of old wallpaper or newspaper from the house they were originally in.



Levi's letters

We attatched some twine with tiny screw-in eye hooks and we were finished! I doubt the letters will stay red for a long time. I am thinking when Levi outgrows his nursery, his big-boy room will have more of a camo theme (although when he's older he probably won't want anything in his room referred to as part of a "theme") - so in a couple of years the letters will probably get painted olive green. Why do I think this? Confession: I may or may not have found a great bargain from Ralph Lauren a few weeks ago for Levi's big-boy bed.

Camo sheets and pillowcases

The bargain was too good to pass up :) They are perfect!

Here are a few more pictures of Levi's letters:

The changing table in Levi's nursery was Tyler's when he was a baby