Nursery Bargains: Rocker & Ottoman

The hunt is over! This sweet rocker is on its way to Sam's nursery...






The fabric we ordered is actually a tad lighter than this and compliments our paisley print beautifully. And it's just a good neutral taupe color, so it will last through our whole army of embryos awaiting us. (Kidding, Mom... I promise we'll stop at 10 or 12.)

We actually noticed this very rocker first at my sweet friend Pammy's house. She is expecting and is 4 weeks ahead of me. She ordered her rocker from Babies 'R Us and I LOVED the look and feel of it. I made sure we added it to our list last week when we went on our rocker hunt all across town. After looking at all kinds of rockers in similar styles to this one, both the hub and I felt the BRU rocker was our best bet. I did like several of the Best brand rockers we saw at The Baby's Room, but for the price (as in several hundred dollars more) they just really weren't much better (that we could tell) from the Newco brand rocker at BRU. Plus, I consulted my Bible Baby Bargains book and the Newco brand chairs in general got very good ratings. I made sure we steered clear of any brands that had crappy ratings.

So how good of a bargain was it? Well I was personally stinkin' excited considering my first rocker musings were in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog, where we'd have to fork up nearly $1200 for a similar rocker after their ridiculous shipping surcharges (on top of the already high prices). I knew we could find something for less. And the good thing about ordering from a place like BRU? Coupons. The rocker and ottoman together were right at $580 retail. Reasonable in my book - about middle of the road for all the rockers we looked at last week. Plus $500-600 was the target price range in my head. I didn't want to skimp on a rocker - it's such an important piece - but I didn't want to go apeshit either. The customer service gal at BRU was actually super nice. I wasn't expecting much because I've read that customer service in these big box stores is a joke, but we had a great experience (at least thus far - we don't exactly have the furniture just yet).

Our BRU actually didn't have the exact rocker we were after, so I texted Pammy to get the item number and customer service helped us track it down and get the right set ordered. And without even asking, they did what I was hoping they'd do - split the rocker and ottoman order up so we could slap on two 20% off coupons. So we got 20% off the whole shebang, making the set only $464. Record-breaking bargain? Doubtful. But for the quality and style of the rocker, I am loving that price. And the kicker is the hub's momma is paying for the rocker as her sweet gift to Baby Sam! But don't you know I don't want anyone paying retail! Of course we got asked like three times if we wanted to save an extra 10% by opening up a store credit card. My husband's response to the cashier? "Dave Ramsey would whoop our ass." Word. You can have your 10%.

Oh and this beauty's gonna be here in only one to two weeks! I tell ya, I cannot wait to have this thing set up in our nursery so I can sit there and rock and stare and daydream. Right now there's nowhere to sit in that room... except the toilet. So it's starting to come together! Now that we've got our swatches (finally), we can pick out paint colors for the bathroom. And the nursery itself too... I'm still contemplating what I want to do on the main walls. I'm thinking a harlequin diamond print in taupe/neutral shades similar to this look (found on Silverspoon Murals)...




I wouldn't want to do something that fancy pants and not be able to recycle it for say, a girl. It looks hella complicated though and I can guarantee you I don't have the patience to do this crap...




So I've already concluded we will probably have to hire a pro to do the nursery walls if we do decide to go in that direction. And it would be the whole damn wall - not just above bead board or some chair molding. Yeah there's no way I'm doing that. I would absolutely lose my mind. We are sloppy painters in my household. We get the job done, but the process ain't pretty. So we can handle "simple" paint projects like the orange closet and the bathroom, but the main nursery walls? Yeah, let's get some help on that.

Oh and I'm thinking maybe a muted, pale metallic gold color for the ceiling. Ralph Lauren has these really pretty metallic finish paints at Home Depot - we've used them in a few rooms on the ceiling and the walls. I love them. It may sound scary, but I promise it's not. It's just a little drama in a can.

Other nursery developments? Our blinds came in, so those poor nekkid windows will finally be clothed! The sun comes in that room SO badly in the mornings, so we've got all our furniture draped in blankets right now to prevent any damage. It'll be nice to get those windows covered so we can finally start putting the room together. On the to-do list for this month is getting the bathroom painted and bead board installed. I'm uber excited about doing the bathroom too... I LOVE baby and kids' bathrooms. And the hub and his talented wood-working buddy are probably going to start the built-in shelves sometime this month. I can't WAIT to see those come together! That's truly the focal point of the room, so until those are up it feels pretty bare in there. But yeah, I guess as far as what I can really do this month, it's going to be concentrating on the bathroom and also ordering the crib bedding and accessories. Oooh how fun! Every step is so fun.

Well again, y'all enjoy this holiday weekend! It's a busy time at work with deadlines on the horizon, so I'll probably work a little from home Monday morning, but in my jammies no doubt!