When Florence was a baby, we ended up borrowing a lot of baby gear from a friend who had recently had a baby. For instance, we borrowed the mamaRoo, which I loved. But now it’s been almost 4 years and we don’t have that same hookup, so I’m having to buy a lot of things. I am on the hunt for a mamaRoo on Craigslist, but in the meantime, Joey ended up finding a FREE Fisher Price baby swing, and you know we love free. But it wasn’t my style at all, so I decided to do a little makeover. Here is the before.
And here is the after.
I started out by spray painting the frame gray. My original plan was to then use fabric paint on the seat cover, but that was a big failure. I didn’t use enough fabric medium so the paint was super rough and I knew that it wouldn’t be comfortable for a baby. So I decided to re-cover it using the Ikea Toftlund rug. I used liquid stitch to attach it to the original seat cover and I cut out all the openings for the straps and buckles. I’m going to buy a newborn carseat insert to use while the baby is tiny, to make sure it fits snug. My mom told me she is worried that the fabric could be a suffocation risk, so I’m questioning whether I should swap it out for a different fabric. But on the other hand, I’m not going to let the baby sleep unattended in this and it is well attached to the frame, so I don’t know if it’s really that risky. Thoughts?
The other main change was the mobile. I tried a few different approaches, but in the end, decided to buy pre-made baby gym toys that were more my aesthetic than the jungle animals that came with the swing. I also created a little garland made from felt balls and tassels.
Overall, I’m super happy with how it turned out. It fits into the neutral boy nursery that I’m building. More pictures coming soon of the full nursery!