Barron Bucket List

Baby Boy Nursery Reveal!

Brooks William Barron, we are officially ready to meet you!!

I’m so excited to share the room that I spend all of my time in now! We have invested so much TLC into this room, picturing how we would function best with him in here was truly a labor of love. I say this all the time, but Matt was a champ is getting furniture moved around, put together, and helping me hang things up. It definitely took some patience in looking at a number of different options to figure out where it would all go. The furniture is the first thing I picked out. I loved the all white look from Pottery Barn and decided on the Fillmore 4-in-1 Convertible Crib, extra wide dresser and topper set, and nightstand. They are a bit on the pricey side for baby furniture, but my thought is that since it is convertible we will be able to use for future kiddos and convert from a crib to a toddler bed to a twin size bed. We were very thankful to have my parents and Matt’s parents/grandparents all pitch in so we could get this furniture. It helped tremendously! We got the glider/recliner from Crate & Kids. It is the Babyletto Kiwi Power Recliner Gliderin ivory. What I love most about this is that is rocks, glides, and has the power reclining feature that you can adjust from the buttons on the arm. Next to those buttons, there is also a USB outlet to plug in and charge your phone or other electronics if needed. I’ve already used that several times because I sit and there pretty often now to do my work! I’ll include the links for some of the other items I found (mostly all from Amazon!): the rug, thefloor lamp, the wall shelves, the curtains. I couldn’t link the wall paper on the Liketoknow.it app but it is from Murals Wallpaper, linked here. They have an amazing selection if you want to browse through their website just for fun!

We put so much thought into choosing his name. Matt and I both initially loved the name Brooks, but I actually have TWO other friends who recently named their son Brooks so I told him we should brainstorm and see if there is any other name out there that we love more. Matt came up with Beau and I came up with Kenneth (we still like both of these names and may end up picking one of those if we have another boy down the road). Well, we went back and forth on these two for about 6-7 months and just could not land on a decision. Finally, one day on our baby moon when we went through every boy name we could think of Matt said, “Maddie, we both love the name Brooks, why can’t we go with that?”. I said, “You know, you’re right. We both have loved that from the start. He’s obviously not going to be the only person in the world with his name and that’s okay!” I also really love the alliteration of Brooks Barron and think it flows really nicely. William is Matt’s middle name, so that was easy!

Most of these items were purchased from our registry (thank you SO much again to our family and friends). I ordered the personalized wall sign from an Etsy shop, linked here. It turned out exactly like I had hoped! One of my good friends, Melanie, surprised me with the hospital announcement sign which I absolutely LOVE!! We will bring it with us to the hospital and have it for his newborn photos and it goes with the theme of the nursery perfectly so I will keep it hung up in here as long as I can! Links for the other items are here: Babyprints frame, changing pad cover, wipes warmer, Ubbi diaper pail, drawer organizer, and round wall mirror.

Melanie also gave us the cute little Brooks blocks! I love it and it goes so well in the nursery. I’m not sure where she got these personalized items but I can find out if you are interested in purchasing them. The milestone age photo blocks are also from Amazon, linked here! The Love at First Sight frame that I put one of his very first ultrasounds is linked here. 

We were gifted his bedding from our Pottery Barn registry, continuing with the blue, white, and grey theme. 

Our closet in this room came with the shelving this way, thankfully! It made organizing some of his tiny baby items easy to compartmentalize. I mean how cute are those little baby shoes, I can’t! I’ve linked the My First Year photo frame, our UPPAbaby stroller(will have more details to share on this later when I do a product review after we’ve tried everything out with him actually here), and the Boppy pilloweveryone knows and loves!

I’ve been looking forward to holding our baby in our arms for quite some time now and I know it won’t be long before he is here, 23 days to be exact but who’s counting? We can’t wait to bring Brooks home and welcome him into his new space. I hope he likes it as much as I do!

Lots of love,

Maddie

Our first home

Matt and I bought our first home in February of 2019, right before we got married and right after I finished grad school and was starting a new job at the beginning of the year! Between studying for finals, planning a wedding, interviewing for jobs, and house hunting; it was a very exciting and busy time of our lives. We searched for about 2 months and probably toured about 20 houses before choosing the one! Yes, I said 20 haha. This was our first major purchase other than cars so it definitely took some serious time and thought when making a decision. Our struggle at first was deciding where exactly we wanted to buy. We started out touring homes in the Cypress area because we thought we might want to live in the suburbs. After thinking about where we spent most of our time, my job location being downtown, reviewing property taxes/the long-term value and investment knowing that this wouldn’t be our forever home, etc. we ultimately decided that buying in the Houston inner loop would make the most sense for us. We also have a very knowledgable family friend who is a realtor and knows her stuff, so if you need a recommendation for a good agent in the Houston area, give me a shout!

We originally looked mostly at traditional style homes, but when we started looking in town, we shifted towards looking more at townhomes that were free standing (so our walls wouldn’t be connected with someone else’s). That’s kind of the more common style home in town so this gave us a lot of options. We ended up with a mediterranean style home that is different than what I imagined us buying, but I immediately loved it! I remember walking in and telling Matt “I think this is it”.

We knew we didn’t want to buy a home that would require a lot of projects. I love seeing people’s before and afters of how they fix things up but we just knew we wouldn’t invest the time in that and wouldn’t even know where to start on home improvement projects. If we were to make one change though, I would swap out the carpet flooring in our bedroom to a wood or tile or something. With pets, I find carpet to be much more difficult to keep clean! Maybe that’s something we will do later on.

We completely changed the living room setup to allow for extra space. The curtains were custom made that the previous owners left and we planned to change them out once we moved in but they’ve actually grown on me. Plus, with it being an extra expense requiring a lot of effort in finding custom ones we like and the right color that would go in this room, we’ve put that way on the back burner! The coffee table is from Wayfair, you can find it here. I found the faux tree at a HomeGoods so I can’t link the exact one. I love when I find great deal there! You can’t see it in the photo but it came in a really pretty white planter. We LOVE the sectional from Gallery Furniture, I will link it here. This isn’t the exact rug we bought, but I found a very similar one on Amazon here!

I had these photos printed from our wedding and hung them in the little inserts in the staircase. They are sweet reminders of our favorite day!

We loved that the kitchen was completely open to the dining area and living room, so you aren’t closed off if you’re busy cookin’ up something in the kitchen! We found our dining room set from Rooms To Go! It is a 5 piece Cindy Crawford set linked here. All of the placemats and napkin table settings were gifted to us for our wedding from Bed, Bath, and Beyond and wine glasses from Crate & Barrel. It was so convenient getting married around the time we moved into a new house because we could register for a lot of home items! It helped so much in filling out the house quickly.

This is one guest bedroom that has now turned into our baby nursery room (a new post will be coming out on that later). The other guest bedroom, Matt’s brother lived in for the first year and a half. We’ve now moved this furniture to that room and rearranged a bit! I haven’t been able to find the exact bedroom set we got, but it’s very similar to this in the sleigh bed style. It was so funny because my parents recently built a home and purchased new furniture for their guest rooms. I ended up getting the exact same one my mom had picked out! I had completely forgot what they got and just happened to love the same one when we were looking at sets in store! We have similar taste on this type of stuff.

It was super easy to decorate this guest bathroom. I found the shower curtain and floor mat at Target and they weren’t actually placed together as a matching set. Luckily, I happened to find them both and thought they went well together!

This nook area connected to our master bedroom was such a great added feature to the house. It’s been the perfect spot for our dresser and Matt’s desk to use as an office space since he works from home. Now, after rearranging for the nursery and my brother in law moving out, we moved the desk down to the first floor and will use this space as a mini nursery for Baby Barron to put his bassinet and lullaby playard so we don’t have to go up and down the stairs all through the night!

I recently updated our master bedroom with new bedding! I’ve been loving the all white look and it just makes me feel so fresh and clean when going to bed. Makes sense why hotels use all white bedding. The furniture is the bedroom set my parents got for me back in college and I’ve kept it ever since, no reason to buy new when I love the one I have! Everything is linked on the LIKEtoknow.it app here, mostly all from Pottery Barn. Also, if you are in the market for a new mattress, I 1000% recommend the TEMPUR-breeze. I remember the first night we slept on it, I literally did not move the entire night. Best sleep ever. It has the cooling technology built into the materials that absorbs heat so you feel cooler when you fall asleep. Life changer!

Another huge selling point for this house was the spacious master bathroom! Matt is the biggest fan of taking baths haha, can’t blame him right? We love the jacuzzi tub and walk in shower and I think they’re actually easier to clean.

I was so obsessed with this egg chair from Target!! I chose the outdoor furniture for this balcony and Matt chose the outdoor furniture for the furniture on the top floor, which I love too! We use this space when it’s not crazy summer 100 degree weather, but it’s really nice in the other months to sit outside and read or hang out and drink coffee.

I love looking at homes and the different character and styles that go along with each one. It’s amazing how every house is so unique and made special with your own personal touch. I can scroll through home inspo photos online for hours, if you ever want to chat about home interior or decorating I’m your girl! Hope you enjoyed a little peek into our style and our experience in decorating our first home!

Cheers!

M+M