framed chicken wire.

I didn't have to pester. Well, I didn't have to pester too much. John built the framed chicken wire to hang above the crib this weekend. Not only did he build it, he also hung it. Yes, I know...I can't believe it either! Mission accomplished. The nursery is about 97% complete. Oh, happy day.

The process took about 3 days from start to finish. It probably would have only taken one day, but the construction was interrupted by hunting. Shocking.

John first gathered some wood from the basement at the office to construct the frame. With the help of his trusty saw, several nails, and Gorilla Glue we had ourselves a wood frame:

Next up: making my dream a reality. I had originally envisioned a bunch of tree branches and twigs glued on in a messy manner to give it a rustic, imperfect feel. John wanted me to show him a picture of what I had in mind and when I googled it, I realized that the frame didn't exactly exist. Plus, it would take A LOT, and I mean a lot, of sticks to cover the entire frame. We're not talking a 5 X 7 here. Luckily, I have a gifted mother-in-law with a good eye who suggested cutting up one of her twig table runners and gluing that to the frame. John and I laid it out on top of the frame before doing any cutting and were a bit skeptical, but I felt like we didn't have another option. I didn't want to just paint it. Bor-ing. 

So framing it with the runner, we did. John first spray-painted the frame brown. Thanks to a windy day, it dried rather quickly. Holding the rolled up runner together with duct tape, John sawed 4 strips measuring just a bit larger than the width of each edge of the frame. 

Using our tiny glue gun (sorry, hubs), John glued on the runner.

The next step: attaching the chicken wire.

A staple gun would have been money, but we were without. So instead, John hammered in nails deep enough to hold the wire in place, but not too far to where it would stick out the other end of the frame. To make sure the wire was secure, he hammered the nails down horizontally.

 And here it is finished:

Still, not quite what I had in mind, but it was growing on me. It was time to see what it would look like in the nursery. And that, my friends, was a different story. LOVE. 

(I apologize for the dark iPhone picture). Nursery reveal coming soon with photos from my SLR.