nursery bookshelves

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

We made a set of nursery bookshelves to store, organize and display baby books.

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

Well, it looks like we are actually going to finish this nursery before baby makes his arrival! It didn’t seem like we were going to make it but he decided to stay put for a little longer and is now four days past his due date which has given us plenty of time to finish all of our last minute projects including the nursery wall storage, baby clothing rack and now our nursery bookshelves. (Plus, we have one more project on the way to share that is AWESOME.)

If you couldn’t already tell by the massive shelves we built in our library, we like to read, a lot. Both Brent and I are looking forward to reading to our son right away, even if he doesn’t understand what we are reading just yet. It was a given we would incorporate bookshelves into the nursery.

The nursery has two small walls that are at an angle so we thought that making bookshelves that ran vertically up the wall would be a good use of space.

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

A popular trend right now is using the IKEA spice racks for baby books so we took that idea and built our own larger, beefier version so we could fit more books on them and fill up the wall.

To see how we built our nursery bookshelves, check out the video or follow along with the steps below.

How to Make DIY Nursery Bookshelves

SUPPLIES

Shop the products we used for this project in one place.

FYI: This post contains a few affiliate links to products we used to make this project. Gray House Studio does receive commissions for sales from these links but at no extra cost to you. We appreciate you supporting this site. Read our privacy and disclosure policy. You can also easily shop our recommended products here.

Handmade Christmas 2021 Ornaments

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TUTORIAL VIDEO

STEPS

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

CUT THE PIECES FOR THE SHELVES

1. To begin making the nursery bookshelves, first we made all of our cuts using our miter saw. We made the following cuts:

The bottom piece of the shelf: 1”x6” cut 20” long
The two side pieces of the shelf: 1”x6” cut 4” long
The mounting plate on the back of the shelf: 1”x2” cut 10” long
The front rail of the shelf: 1”x1” cut 20” long

Because we were making four shelves we cut multiple of the same pieces at one time to make sure they were all the exact same length. We used a clamp to hold a board to the fence of the saw to make the sure all our cuts were the same.

ASSEMBLE THE SHELVES

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

2. To assemble the nursery bookshelves, first we used our drill to drill two pilot holes into the back of the bottom piece of the shelf and attached the mounting plate piece with wood glue and 1 ⅝” wood screws to the bottom piece of the shelf.

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

3. Next, we attached each of the side pieces to the bottom piece with wood glue and 1 ½” finishing nails.

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

4. Finally, we attached the front rail to the side pieces with wood glue and 1 ½” finishing nails.

We used a scrap 1”x2” to rest the rail on while we nailed it from the side boards with our nail gun.

PAINT THE SHELVES

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

5. Once all of our nursery bookshelves were assembled, we used wood filler to fill the holes and then painted the shelves with Sherwin-Williams ProClassic® Waterbased Paint in Bright White and a nap roller for a smooth finish.

HANG THE SHELVES

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

6. Before hanging the shelves, we marked the wall studs with painters tape.

Then we centered each shelf on the wall and made sure it was level (with our level).

Finally, we screwed the shelves into the wall over the studs with 3” screws.

Nursery Bookshelves DIY

The nursery bookshelves were super simple to build and turned out great. We love filling the nursery bookshelves up with books. We have been receiving books as gifts and it is so fun to add them to the shelves as we start a collection for our baby boy.

PIN FOR LATER

A tutorial showing how to make your own larger versions of the Ikea Bekvam Spice Rack Bookshelf. The step by step guide for our DIY wall-mounted nursery bookshelves project includes a video tutorial. Great idea if you are looking for DIY floating shelves for a nursery.

Baby Clothes Rack Nursery Storage

Baby Clothes Rack

We built a wall-mounted baby clothes rack to hang and store clothes in our nursery to make up for the lack of closet in this room. You can buy the PDF plans for our DIY Baby Clothes Rack in our shop.

Baby Clothes Rack

You know the proverb, “necessity is the mother of invention”? Well, Brent and I found ourselves needing to apply this saying to our baby clothes storage situation in the nursery.

The problem: The nursery does not have a closet therefore there was no designated space to store and organize baby clothes.

I can’t tell you how many hours I would sit in the nursery and just stare at the wall we designated for clothes storage and try and brainstorm ideas for how to store the clothes.

I was frustrated because I knew I wanted something specific, I just didn’t know what that something was.

We could have used a dresser but with the crib, changing table and a wood reading nook tent we are building, we didn’t have room for anymore large furniture.

I spent hours searching for ideas everywhere but everything I could find would take up too much floor real estate.

I had two criteria in mind: I didn’t want it to take up a lot of space and I wanted it to look like a display you would see in a store since the clothes were going to be out in the open and not behind closet doors.

Baby Clothes Rack

Then, I came across an image of dowel rods holding a sack of potatoes and a light bulb went off. Seriously, inspiration can come from the strangest of places.

Since starting Gray House Studio I have come a long way in my ability to visualize designs and concepts and the fact that I could see a baby clothes rack from this idea makes me pretty proud.

I explained my vision to Brent and he executed my idea perfectly and even threw in a few other great suggestions because he is awesome like that and thus our wall-mounted baby clothes rack was made!

Baby Clothes Rack

On the top dowel rods are hanging shirts, pants and some of my favorite onesies.

I ordered wood hangers to make it look more like a display. Plus, is there anything cuter than baby wood hangers? They are so tiny!

We purchased these metal wire baskets from Target.

We bought them first so we could build the width of the baby clothes rack frame around them so they would fit perfectly.

They had gold handles which were not the style we were going for and would not hang on the dowel rods anyway so Brent removed them.

Baby Clothes Rack

Brent had the great idea to create leather straps out of some leather scraps to hang the baskets on the dowel rods. This worked really well and tied the look to the nursery wall storage bar on the opposite wall.

Baby Clothes Rack

We added a shelf at the top to add a few decor items. I stole the fox artwork from the gym shelves but it fits with this room better anyway because we are incorporating little foxes here and there throughout the room.

To see how we built our baby clothes rack, check out the video or follow along with the steps below.

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How We Made Our Baby Clothes Rack

SUPPLIES

FYI: This post contains a few affiliate links to products we used to make this project. Gray House Studio does receive commissions for sales from these links but at no extra cost to you. We appreciate you supporting this site. Read our privacy and disclosure policy. You can also easily shop our recommended products here.

PROJECT PLANS

DIY Baby Clothes Rack Woodworking Plans

Get our Baby Clothes Rack Plans

When you purchase our DIY wood baby clothes rack plans you get a PDF with a detailed materials list, a cut list, exact dimensions for each piece, building instructions – all for only $7. We appreciate you supporting Gray House Studio!

TUTORIAL VIDEO

STEPS

Baby Clothes Rack

1 To start the baby clothes rack, we used our miter saw to cut two pine 2×2”s into four pieces. Two long pieces for the sides of the rack and two short pieces for the top and bottom of the rack.

Baby Clothes Rack

2 On the two side pieces we used a framing square to make marks six inches apart where we needed to make the holes for our dowel rods.

We used a drill press with a 1” forstner bit to drill the holes in the side pieces but stopped each hole ¼” shy of going all the way through the board.

Baby Clothes Rack

3 Next, we attached the four pieces of the frame together using wood glue and 1 ½” finishing nails.

Baby Clothes Rack

4 To provide extra strength and support, we came back and drilled pilot holes and secured the pieces of the frame together using 3” decking screws.

Baby Clothes Rack

5 Once the frame was assembled we took our two dowel rods and cut them down to 12” pieces using the miter saw.

Baby Clothes Rack

6 We used a roller to paint the frame of the baby clothes rack with Sherwin-Williams ProClassic® waterbased paint in Dovetail, the same color as the wall in the nursery.

We used a smaller paintbrush to paint in the holes of the frame.

Baby Clothes Rack

7 Then we painted all the dowel rods with Sherwin-Williams ProClassic® waterbased paint in Bright White with a smaller paintbrush.

Baby Clothes Rack

8 We inserted the dowel rods into the holes of the clothes rack frame with a few taps of a rubber mallet.

Baby Clothes Rack

9 We installed the frame in the nursery by using a drill to screw the rack into the wall studs and used a level to make sure it was straight on the wall.

Baby Clothes Rack

10 Finally, we removed the handles that came on the baskets and used embroidery floss to sew 1” wide leather loops out of leather scraps onto the metal baskets so they would hang from the dowel rods.

Baby Clothes Rack

The metal baskets work really well.

They are the perfect depth for storing lots of onesies, hats, socks, etc. and are really easy to grab but still look nice and organized.

Baby Clothes Rack

I purchased wood baby hangers because I thought wood hangers would look nicer out in the open.

Baby Clothes Rack

We will probably store shoes on the bottom shelf once he has shoes but for now it is holding extra blankets.

I love all of the nursery projects we have made so far but the baby clothes rack is definitely one of my favorites because I think it is unique and Brent really made my idea come to life.

By being vertical and hanging on the wall it takes up no floor space but has plenty of storage space to keep baby clothes organized.

Plus, it looks nice enough to be out in the open displaying clothes.

PIN IT FOR LATER

Store and organize your baby's clothes in the nursery with this unique wall-mounted baby clothes rack. It is a great solution if a closet is not available. This diy project tutorial includes a video tutorial.

Nursery Wall Storage

Nursery Wall Storage

We used a dowel rod, scraps of leather, and a few baskets to create a simple nursery wall storage above the changing table in the nursery.

Nursery Wall Storage

Last week we shared the baby changing table that Brent built for the nursery.

This week we are sharing another project we worked on, a nursery wall storage solution to go above the changing table that turned out to be really simple to put together and cost us next to nothing to make!

The changing table offers plenty of space to store and organize baby supplies but I liked the idea of incorporating a way to store frequently used baby items, like diapers, so they are easy to grab in a second, right at arms length.

Nursery Wall Storage

We ultimately decided to keep it simple and make a bar where we could hang a few wire baskets with supplies as a diaper storage solution.

We decided to use a dowel rod that we could spray paint white to match the vertical bars on the crib.

To mount the bar to the wall, Brent came up with the idea to make straps out of leather we already had leftover from another project to hold the dowel rod and match the leather straps on the baby clothes rack.

We bought two sets of these baskets from Kohl’s. They originally came with a different type of bar.

Nursery Wall Storage

UPDATE: Now that we have a wiggly four month old, this nursery wall storage above the changing table has made our lives a thousand times easier. I can grab the supplies I need quickly from the baskets while keeping a hand on him at all times.

Nursery Wall Storage

Follow along with the video and steps below to see how to easily make this nursery wall storage project.

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*** Thanks so much for supporting our small shop – Moon Rock Prints – this holiday season! ***

How We Made Our Nursery Wall Storage

SUPPLIES

Shop the products we used for this project in one place.

FYI: This post contains a few affiliate links to products we used to make this project. Gray House Studio does receive commissions for sales from these links but at no extra cost to you. We appreciate you supporting this site. Read our privacy and disclosure policy. You can also easily shop our recommended products here.

TUTORIAL VIDEO

STEPS

Nursery Wall Storage

1. To begin the nursery wall storage project, we started by cutting the 1″ dowel rod on the miter saw to match the width of the changing table.

Nursery Wall Storage

2. To make painting the dowel rod easier, we hung it from the garage door by attaching a screw in one side. We applied a few coats of white spray paint and then used 150 grit sandpaper to sand the rod and painted a few more coats.

Nursery Wall Storage

3. Next, we took some leftover leather scraps and cut two strips to use to hang the dowel rod.

Nursery Wall Storage

4. We measured and marked where we needed to drill the holes to hang the leather straps. Then used our drill to drill two holes into the wall to make inserting the drywall anchors easier.

We marked a hole in the center of the leather pieces and screwed the leather loop into the drywall anchor. We used a hinged screw cover to cover the screw to finish off the look.

Nursery Wall Storage

5. One the leather straps were in place, we hung the dowel rod from them.

Nursery Wall Storage

6. To secure the dowel rod to the leather straps, we drilled one 1/2″ screw from the back of each piece of leather into the dowel rod so they would be out of sight.

This just added an extra precaution that the dowel rod would not slip out of the leather straps.

Finally, we hung our wire baskets. They already had hooks attached because they were meant to hang on a different type of bar so we just adjusted the hanger part so they would securely fit around the dowel rod.

Nursery Wall Storage

After the baskets were nice and secure on the rod, I added items I think we will need to grab often like burp cloths, diapers, lotion, wipes, etc.

Nursery Wall Storage

To finish up this wall, we hung an adventure sign above the nursery wall storage bar that fits with our modern outdoor nursery theme. I love how all the projects came together for this area of the nursery and how it has a cohesive but non cluttered feel.

I know I (better yet…we) will be spending a lot time standing here changing diapers!

PIN IT FOR LATER

We used a dowel rod, scraps of leather, and a few baskets to create a simple nursery wall storage above the changing table in the nursery to store diapers and baby changing supplies. This DIY project includes a video tutorial.

Baby Changing Table

Baby Changing Table

Brent built a baby changing table that has a printmaker cabinet aesthetic but with a modern design to match the crib in the nursery. Behind the doors with faux drawers, we are hiding all the necessary changing table supplies including a diaper pail.

Baby Changing Table

We have somewhere around three weeks (or sooner…eek!) until our little Gray House intern makes his arrival and we have been scrambling to get his nursery ready.

Back in July we thought we had ALL the time in the world to get projects finished but when you are trying to DIY 90% of the nursery and only have the weekends to work on it, time runs out REALLY fast.

We had to start prioritizing our DIY nursery projects and the first and most important project on the list was to build a baby changing table since it is an essential part of the nursery.

Baby Changing Table

When it comes to designing furniture for our home we like to create pieces that fit the aesthetic of the room but are functional as well. For the changing table / cabinet we spent a lot of time focusing on the design.

We really wanted it to match the Hudson crib from Babyletto that my parents gave us so all the large pieces in the nursery would have a cohesive look and feel.

But we also needed it to have plenty of storage space to hide the items we didn’t want sitting out in the open.

Baby Changing Table

We designed the baby changing table to look like a modern printmakers cabinet with the large amount of drawers but they are actually all fake! In reality there are two doors.

Behind the wider door is a shelf with large baskets where we are storing extra diapers, nursing supplies, lotions, burp cloths, etc.

Baby Changing Table

Behind the narrow door is a diaper pail. What is great about custom made pieces is you can build them the exact dimensions to fit the items you need to store, such as a diaper pail. Because really, who wants an unattractive diaper pail out in the open?

The only hiccup can be if you get the measurements for a diaper pail online instead of buying it first and on the website instead of giving the dimensions of the product, they give you the dimensions of the box the product comes (not assembled) in.

But you don’t realize that so you build the entire cabinet around the dimensions of the box the diaper pail comes in only to realize when you go to buy it that it is taller than the website said and therefore will not fit in the custom spot that you built for it.

Luckily, we were able to find a different diaper pail that fit perfectly and will work just fine. That was a close one! Ah! Lesson learned, buy the diaper pail first.

How to Build a Baby Changing Table

SUPPLIES

TUTORIAL VIDEO

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STEPS

Baby Changing Table

1. To start the baby changing table Brent cut the 1″x2″ select pine boards on the miter saw and cut multiple boards at the same time if they needed to be the same length.

He used the table saw to cut the boards to the correct width.

Baby Changing Table

2. Then he cut all the plywood for the project down to size on the table saw.

Baby Changing Table

3. To inset the two side panels made of plywood into the top and bottom rails, he cut a slot in each of the rails the same thickness as the plywood side and 1 inch from the bottom of the rail.

Baby Changing Table

4. To start assembling the baby changing table Brent glued the slotted rails to the plywood sides with wood glue and used clamps to hold the boards together until everything dried.

He used a measuring tape to straighten the rails to the plywood to make sure it was square before he tightened the clamps down.

Baby Changing Table

5. While the two sides dried, he drilled pocket hole screws in the boards using a drill and Kreg Jig that would go together to make up the front and back frames of the baby changing table.

Baby Changing Table

6. Then he glued and screwed the pieces for the front and back frames together.

Baby Changing Table

7. Once the sides and base were put together, he used a nail gun, 1 ½ inch finishing nails and wood glue to assemble the shell of the baby changing table.

Baby Changing Table

8. Since we wanted the legs of the changing table to match our crib, Brent made a paper template of the crib legs and traced the legs onto the boards that would be the legs of the changing table.

Once those pieces were traced, he used a miter saw to cut the angle at the top of the legs so that the legs would mount to the changing table at the same angle.

Since the boards we were using were only ¾ inch thick, and we wanted the legs to be an inch and a half thick, he glued two boards together per leg.

Then he used a router to round off the bottom edges of the legs and then used a sander to prep the legs for paint.

Baby Changing Table

9. Once sanded and ready for paint, Brent attached the legs to the bottom of the changing table with finishing nails.

Baby Changing Table

10. Next, Brent attached the back piece of masonite and the bottom piece of plywood on the inside of the changing table,

Baby Changing Table

11. To support the weight of the top of the cabinet, he attached little blocks of wood inside the changing table.

Baby Changing Table

12. Then, Brent used finishing nails and wood glue to attach the top to the baby changing table.

Baby Changing Table

13. The divider that separates the space between the changing pad and the area to store other items was nailed and glued to the top board.

Baby Changing Table

14. After the main part of the cabinet was assembled, he moved on to the doors and started by cutting each of the slats that would serve as fake drawers on the face of the doors.

By taping all the boards together it was easier to cut all the pieces at once on the miter saw and make sure they were all the exact same length.

Baby Changing Table

15. After all the fake drawer pieces were cut, he glued and clamped the slats to the piece of plywood that was cut to the right size for the door. He did this for both the wide door and the narrow door.

Baby Changing Table

16. Finally, with the baby changing table built, it was time to paint the entire cabinet. We used ProClassic® interior waterbased paint from Sherwin-Williams that was leftover from when we built our office cabinets. The color (Dovetail) matched very closely to our gray crib.

We went back and forth on what color to make the knobs but finally decided to paint them a dark metal color using Rust-Oleum Universal Metallic Dark Steel spray paint.

We also painted the label drawer pulls the same color to match the knobs and sticking with our outdoor theme and just to make it more fun, we labeled the faux drawers with rock climbing and camping gear supplies.

Baby Changing Table

Being pregnant in the 100 degree Houston weather is no fun, I’m just saying. However, Brent argues that building furniture in a 100+ degree garage is no fun either which I can definitely understand because I have been avoiding being in the garage or outside as much as possible this summer (unless I am submerged in a pool).

This has left poor Brent working on building the majority of the nursery projects by himself in the heat.

I really do appreciate his dedication to making our son’s room awesome (this is seriously my favorite room in our home now) and bringing our vision for an outdoor modern nursery to life. He is awesome like that.

PIN IT FOR LATER

A woodworking tutorial showing how to build a gray changing table for a nursery that looks like a printmaker cabinet. This style matches the Babyletto Hudson crib. The drawers are fake and are actually doors with ample space to storage baby changing supplies and a spot just for a diaper pail. This post contains a tutorial video showing how to build a changing table.

DIY LIGHTING PROJECTS

5 DIY Lighting Projects

We have rounded up five of our favorite DIY lighting projects that we have made. These weekend lighting projects are easy to make, cost effective and have made a big difference in our home.

DIY Lighting Projects

Light fixtures, pendant lights, and table lamps can be expensive depending on the style you like. For some reason the style we like is always out of our price range. That is why DIY lighting projects are some of our favorites to tackle here at Gray House.

Brent and I love finding lighting options that we like and then figuring out a way to make our own in a similar style but for way cheaper. We have created knockoff versions of a pendant light from Rejuvenation and a table lamp from Urban Outfitters.

We have had to create DIY lighting projects as solutions to lighting problems we were facing. And then sometimes we work on lighting projects just to create a fun atmosphere. Whatever the reason, we love creating our own DIY lighting projects and today we are sharing five of our favorites we have worked on so far.

Our 5 Favorite DIY Lighting Projects

#1. Canopy of String Lights

DIY Lighting Projects
By far one of my favorite lighting projects and one of our most popular Gray House Studio projects to date is our canopy of string lights we created in our backyard. It is just as dreamy and magical as I had hoped. We love spending summer nights under these lights that were inspired by the backyard in Parenthood.

Our neighbors even created their own canopy of string lights in their backyard after seeing ours so at night when both backyards are lit up it looks awesome and is REALLY bright. Ha. We like our string lights so much that we also hung them around our family boat dock for our fall party last year.

☆ Check out our full tutorial on creating a canopy of string lights.

#2. schoolhouse pendant light

DIY Lighting Projects
When it came to creating our home library, we knew the old light fixture had to go and a schoolhouse pendant light was the perfect replacement. But the prices at the store were out of our budget. We couldn’t even really afford one let alone the two that we needed.

So we bought two vintage schoolhouse globes off of E-bay and got to work DIY-ing our own version of the one we had been eyeing at Rejuvenation. We were so happy with how they turned out and that we could make two for less than it cost to purchase one. They are the perfect addition to our home library.

☆ Check out our full tutorial on making a schoolhouse pendant light.

#3. DIY wooden wall sconce

DIY Lighting Projects
We haven’t worked on very many projects in our master bedroom yet but due to mismatched lamps that Jake the studio cat was constantly knocking over and putting holes in the lamp shades, we decided to try our hand at making our own wall sconces we could mount on the wall.

We wanted them to look modern and found that inexpensive ceramic IKEA pots made for the perfect lamp shades and all we had to do was drill a hole in the bottom of the pot for the light cord set to go through. Now we have matching lamps and they are safe from being knocked over by the cat.

☆ Check out more details on building a DIY wooden wall sconce.

#4. DIY wooden light fixture

DIY Lighting Projects
Who likes those silver builder’s grade light fixtures in the bathroom? Anyone? We hated ours and wanted to replace it with something more our style in our master bathroom. However, after taking it down off the wall we found that the electrical box was off centered.

We were forced to come up with a solution other than hanging two new light fixtures over each mirror like we had originally planned. Thus, the idea for a custom wooden light fixture was born. We were easily able to transform the old silver light fixture into a wooden one that matched our mirrors and even added some new Edison light bulbs for a fun touch.

☆ Check out our full tutorial on making a DIY wooden light fixture.

#5. DIY industrial table lamp

DIY Lighting Projects
Once we got the hang of drilling holes in ceramic pots, we came up with the idea to make a table lamp out of another type of pot from IKEA that had an industrial style to go in our home library. This one looked very similar to a lamp I liked from Urban Outfitters.

This project was inexpensive and only took a couple of hours to make but looks awesome sitting on our industrial shelves. It is probably the least complicated and fastest DIY lighting project we have done but was fun to make.

☆ Check out our full tutorial (including a video) on how to make our DIY industrial table lamp.

I’m sure there are many more lighting projects in our future and we can’t wait to come up with new ideas for our gym, dining room, kitchen and guest bathroom.

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DIY Lighting Projects

DIY NURSERY CAMERA MONITOR MOBILE

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

Check out how to make a felt woodland DIY nursery camera mobile and how our nursery camera integrates with our home security system app for easy monitoring. This post is sponsored by Reliant but as always all opinions and content are 100% our own.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

We have a fun DIY decor project to share with you today that combines crafting, sewing, power tools and technology.

Our latest project was to make a mobile for our baby’s modern outdoor nursery to hang above the crib.

We didn’t make just any mobile, we took it a step further and made a mobile with a camera built into it! Fun, right!?

Follow along as we show how we made our DIY nursery camera monitor mobile.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

We wanted to make a whimsical mobile with little felt mountains, trees and clouds to fit with our outdoor/adventure nursery and it turns out a wood slice is the perfect place to hide a camera!

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

We recently upgraded the security system in our home to a Security by Reliant system and one of the products we got in our package was an indoor security camera.

We knew we wanted to use it as a nursery camera but we didn’t want to just mount the camera to the wall, we wanted to try and find a unique solution to incorporate it into the decor.

Brent came up with the idea to hide the camera into the mobile that we already planned on making.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

What we love about using a camera that is tied into our security system is we can use the same Reliant Connect App to monitor our nursery as we use to monitor and control the rest of our home making it really convenient.

If you are interested in making a DIY nursery camera mobile or are just curious to see how we made ours, we have a video tutorial and step by step guide below for you to check out.

2022 Personalized Christmas Ornaments
*** Thanks so much for supporting our small shop – Moon Rock Prints – this holiday season! ***

HOW TO MAKE A DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

SUPPLIES

FYI: This post contains a few affiliate links to products we used to make this project. Gray House Studio does receive commissions for sales from these links but at no extra cost to you. We appreciate you supporting this site. Read our privacy and disclosure policy. You can also easily shop our recommended products here.

TUTORIAL VIDEO

STEPS

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

1. To begin we put two pieces of felt together and cut a square out of the felt the same size as our shape template.

This made it easier to cut the shape out. Once we cut the shape out of our colored felt sheet, these pieces became the front and back of our object.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

2. For each object we cut out two layers of low loft batting in the same shape as each of our templates to go between the felt pieces.

To prevent the batting from sticking out of the felt pieces, we trimmed a small amount off the edge to make the batting pieces smaller than the felt pieces. We did this for all of our shapes.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

3. For the mountain shape we cut the top half of the template off and then cut that shape out of two pieces of white felt to create the snow on each side.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

4. We repeated the steps above for each of our mobile objects. We made mountains, clouds, trees, and a moon.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

5. To sew each felt object we used a blanket stitch.

To do this we used an embroidery needle and embroidery floss.

We pushed the needle through the back piece of felt because we were sewing two pieces of felt together, the knot needed to go between the two pieces of felt.

Finally, we brought the needle back down through the loop we made. We repeated this process all the way around the object.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

Here are what our mobile pieces looked like once they were all stitched up, so cute and whimsical. Now that I learned how to blanket stitch I want to make all sorts of cute little things for the nursery.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

6. Once all the objects were sewn, we connected the shapes together using clear string.

We used a needle to thread the string through each object and tied a knot securing the string to each object. We left about 5 inches of string at the top to attach everything together.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

We attached two objects to two of the strings and three objects to two of the strings.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

7. Before attaching anything to the wood slice, we needed to make a few holes in the wood. We used the camera mount that came with the camera to trace the size of the hole for the camera.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

8. Then used a router with a plunge mount and cutting bit to make the hole for the camera.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

We test fit the security camera and it fit perfectly inside the wood slice.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile
We used a slice of wood the same thickness as the camera so that when the mobile is suspended you will not be able to see the camera from the side view.

We should also point out that on the piece of wood we purchased the bark was flaking off a little. To make sure nothing fell off the wood into the crib, we sealed the wood slice before putting in the camera for good.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

9. To make the holes for the clear string to suspend the objects, we used our drill to drill 1/16” holes spaced 1” from the edge.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

10. We used an equilateral triangle template to mark the holes where the ropes needed to go to hang the mobile and used a drill to drill ¼ inch holes for the rope.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

11. To prevent the cording from fraying we wrapped it in tape before cutting it to length.

Once cut to the length, we poked the cording through the large holes and tied a knot to keep it from pulling back through the hole.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

12. By holding the cording all at once we could level the wood so it would hang straight and then taped all the ropes together to temporarily keep everything in place.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

13. Using white embroidery floss, we wrapped the ropes up and tied a knot to permanently hold everything together.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

14. After putting the camera in the center hole and tying the camera’s power cable to the ropes, we were ready to suspend the objects from the wood slice to complete the mobile.

We did this by threading the clear line through the 1/16” holes and tying a knot in the top side of the wood to prevent the line from pulling through the hole.

Once our DIY nursery camera mobile was finished, we hung it over the crib from an eye hook in a ceiling joist.

DIY Nursery Camera Mobile

There is something really fun and satisfying about incorporating technology into things that you design and build. This DIY nursery camera mobile was not only enjoyable to make but I am sure we will get a lot of use out of what would otherwise have been just a decor piece.

PIN FOR LATER

A tutorial showing how to make a felt woodland mobile for a woodland nursery using a wood slice to hide a baby monitor camera. A video tutorial is included in the post.