LUCA’S NURSERY DESIGN – FEATURING A BUFFET TURNED CHANGING TABLE

Luca turning one has me reminiscing on what life was like this time last year. A whole lotta crazy mixed with more beauty and love than your heart can almost handle. I remember those first few months like it was yesterday, the good, the bad and the ugly! The lack of sleep, lack of any idea of what you’re doing, and lack of wine due to feeding a baby every hour of the day and night. But oh, the love! There truly is nothing like it and it makes those sleepless nights, cradling those babies, some of the best to look back on and smile.

This reminiscing also brings me back to his first nursery. (We’ve since moved, which is sad, but I will always have the memories of his first few months in the nursery he came home to.) I wanted his nursery to be a place that was simple and cozy, while being functional. We also needed a lot of storage, as there were only two bedrooms in our house and this room was my craft room, pre-baby. I searched everywhere for nursery furniture that would stand the test of time (or the test of a toddler) while being cute and functional. Let me save you some time, it doesn’t exist. Everything was made from sawdust basically just being glued together and I just couldn’t see spending that kind of money on something that was going to break as soon as Luca put his climbing skills to it. So, I turned my search to flea markets, antique stores and Craigslist and found the perfect pieces, that will grow with him as he gets a little older.

The only piece I couldn’t find was a changing table. I would imagine they didn’t have our generation of “changing tables” back in the early 1900s, so finding a vintage changing table wasn’t looking too hot. I could have turned his dresser into his changing table, but the room was so enormous, that it deserved a stand alone piece. Then, one lucky morning, I saw an antique buffet table posted on Facebook from a local dealer that I follow. It was AHHHHMAZING. So I asked John (my husband), ever so sweetly, to kindly get the heck out of bed and take me to get this thing before someone else swooped in and grabbed it! He’s pretty used to this kind of behavior from me and is really good about jumping on board, so here she is!

Now I know there is some debate on whether or not to refinish vintage furniture back to it’s original glory or to give it a new coat of paint and call it a day, and I stand by both opinons, under different circumstances. In this case, all the other furniture I found was already painted black and this buffet had seen much better days, inside and out, and I only had days before Mr. Luca was coming, so this bad boy was getting a coat of paint. Sorry, to the tung oil gods out there. I used General Finishes Milk Paint in Lamp Black and loved it! This was the first time using this brand of paint and I will use it for my next paint project too. Black can be fickle and scratch easy or look chalky, but this is gorgeous and has held up extremely well for being a changing table. I would recommend using a matte poly over it but I didn’t have any, so I used my Annie Sloan Clear Chalk Paint Wax and wax brush to give it some protection. If you do this you will have to reapply every 6 months or so, which is another good reason to use a poly instead.

Here is the finished piece, decorated and ready to rock! I’ve also thrown in some photos of the rest of his nursery, because I love it so. I’ve linked everything at the end in case you see something that would be perfect for your little babe!