I will not lose my mind over crib bedding

I will not lose my mind over crib bedding. I will not lose my mind over crib bedding. OK, so finding crib bedding has been a bit of a challenge.


In the grand scheme, it’s really not that big of deal, but it’s proving to be more difficult than I had planned for. The toughest part comes from the fact that we already have our walls painted the color we want for our nursery and finding something that matches our beloved “Firebush” (I wish we could say we picked it for the name) would be a lot easier if, say we had picked something called “Creamy Buttercup”.


Back when we decided to paint our then office this very piping hot shade of orangish-red (see photos to get the gist), we did so thinking that this would be a fun shade of gender neutral for what we hoped would be our nursery in the not too distant future. It really was in our master plan.


Well the shade is still fun and we both still love it, but finding bedding that agrees is like buying a shirt in the perfect shade of magenta and then realizing the only way you’d find shoes to match is if you pulled a move straight out of the 80s/early 90s and had them dyed to the desired hue (wait, do people still do that?) . I’m not looking for perfect, but even most shades of orange and Firebush don’t always blend so well. For a while I thought that black and white would look really great with it, and I’m pretty sure it would, but I’ve since tired of the thought of that combination.


Of course, we could paint the walls a different color, but…we don’t want to! Besides, how could we do that to Square and Balanced, after it took a couple coats of primer and no less than three coats of paint on top of it to achieve the masterpiece (thanks Pete!)? Anyway, as of now, the color stays and the bedding hunt continues.


It really is not as big of a deal as I’m probably making it seem, but I have been looking and looking and looking. I’ve looked in person and online. I’ve looked at the low end and I’ve looked at the high end. It’s very easy to find pinks and blues, but when we don’t know if we’re having pink or blue, I have to move on. It’s very easy to find yellows and greens and most things in between (starting to feel like I’m in a Dr. Seuss book with the rhyming here), even combinations of all the colors of the rainbow, well all except…Firebush.


Until recently! We have hope. I’ve found a few patterns that I think could work, but I’m waiting to get swatches to see for sure. What’s even better is that both Jeff and I like them, even if not to the same extent. Regardless, there is hope, but now I have another wrench to throw because I may have found something even better. Custom bedding! Screeeeeeeech. Anything with the word custom usually costs a pretty penny, and unfortunately, this newly found option isn’t as budget conscious as we had hoped. But for both of us to really love what we’ve found, that has to account for something, huh?


But I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t try to figure out a way to do it for less. So we have a couple fabrics we like in mind and I’m wondering…do any of you reading know of anyone who can sew? And I don’t mean the “yeah, my mom sewed me a Halloween costume once in the third grade” kind of seamstress. If we go this route, I’d really love to find someone who knows exactly what they are doing. I have found places that do this online, but after buying the fabric, sending it to them, paying them to do it and paying to get it back to us, we’re better off using the place that we originally discovered just to save us the hassle and to give us the piece of mind it’ll be done correctly (which in the end may just be worth it anyway). So if anyone knows of some avenues to explore, please post a comment or send me an email and I will explore. I’m not saying this is the approach we will even end up taking. Like I said, we have found some options that may work, but I’m also into seeing what’s out there. Did I mention we don’t even have a crib yet? So yeah, keep that in mind when I pretend like this has been the biggest deal. It’s hasn’t been.


Call me crazy. Call me anal. Heck, call me pathetic, but these types of things consume me some. I wish they didn’t, but if they didn’t, who would take care of all the worrying? Surely not my husband (and God love him for that too). Neither of us wants a fancy schmancy nursery; that’s not what this is about at all. But we are going to have to look at this room a lot, and for quite some time, so we’re just hoping it will be pleasing to us too (somebody, anybody who has done a nursery, especially for the first time, back me up on this!). So please don’t say after reading this, “Wow, she needs to relax. It’s just baby bedding for crying out loud!” I know you want to, but I do know that after all, it is just baby bedding for crying out loud. Oh, and please don’t come over once it’s completed and say, “Wow, THAT’s what you ended up with after all that stressing?” Yeah, that is what we ended up with and chances are, we’re hopefully happy about it.


Seriously, this truly, truly is a fun process for me. Yes, even after I have written an entire post on the challenges of nursery décor. I really do love it and part of the fun of it for me, I hate to say, is the challenge of it too. Again, I promise, amidst the extremely minor decorating obstacles, I am having a ton of fun (even if I have become a tad boring, writing about crib bedding---just wait until the stroller and car seat posts come...and you can bet they will)!