-"Baby Makes 3" is funded in part by... -Dear baby, if you can't tell by the bump, you'll be here soon.

To be honest, I'm freaking out a bit.

There's still so much to do, a lot of organizing, name picking, decorating, and cleaning, all while lugging around 25 or so extra pounds.

I guess I'm feeling a little bit crazy, but I'm allowed to be, right?

I'm your mom, and I want everything to be perfect for you.

I'll see you soon.

Love, Mom.

-And by... -When it comes to baby's health, clean water is at the top of the list.

Food News Media, supporting clean water for America's restaurant industry and for baby, for life.

-Today, we're in the home of Liz and C.J., who are expecting their first child.

They've chosen to use one of the larger rooms in their home for the nursery and want to create a space that Mom and Dad will enjoy, as well.

Their passion for books and reading is something they want to pass along to their child, and they would love to have bookcases.

We'll also be exploring the use of color for creating a relaxed coastal themed atmosphere, a lifestyle that is important to our couple.

There is plenty to do, so let's get started.

That moment when you go from couple to family, everything changes.

When you bring the baby home, you want to create a warm, comfortable, and safe environment for them.

Step one -- the nursery.

♪ -Hi!

-Hi!

I'm Melissa.

-Hi, Liz.

Nice to meet you.

-You, too.

-Hey, I'm Chris.

-Chris, nice to meet you.

-Come on in.

-Come on in.

-I'm excited.

Thank you.

Liz and C.J.

live a few miles outside of town, where they swapped a more spacious home with a larger lot for a few extra minutes drive to work, and they love the tranquility.

There's lots of light, and, upstairs, they have a generous space for the nursery.

-So this is gonna be where our nursery will be.

This is where we want to put the crib and have the baby sleep and everything like that.

-Great.

This is a nice, big room.

-Yeah, it's pretty large.

As you can see, there's nothing in it yet.

We haven't begun decorating.

-Well, one of the things I like to think about is, like, the feel of the room when you come in.

So what are you thinking about that?

-Warm and cozy.

-Calm, quiet.

Cool colors.

-Calm is a good word.

-Mm-hmm.

So talk to me about hobbies.

Or do you have any themes in mind so far?

-We spend a lot of time outdoors.

-Mm-hmm.

-We're avid readers.

-Yeah, she said we like outdoors.

We met at the beach.

-We did, camping at the beach.

-Oh, I like that.

Okay, great.

And are you -- What about colors?

What are you thinking about in terms of color?

-We've talked about grays and whites, beiges.

-Just muted, calm colors.

-Calming colors, nothing loud.

-Yeah.

Great.

Well, this room is a great large space.

It's a blank canvas, and we can do a lot with it.

-Mm-hmm.

We're excited.

-I'm gonna take all of your ideas to our design team, and we're gonna get started.

-Sounds great.

Thank you.

-Thank you.

-I am Liz.

-And I'm C.J.

-And we are expecting a little boy.

So, we are both from Raleigh, but we met at Carolina Beach, at a music festival, camping.

And then to get back to Raleigh the next day, I pretended to not really know the way, so I had to follow him.

And we got lunch on the way back, and he asked for my phone number.

-And we've been dating ever since.

-Yeah.

-I'm an I.T.

guy.

I work for a civil engineering and surveying company.

I'm their systems administrator.

-And I teach 10th grade English.

Books are extremely important to me, and I'm really looking forward to meeting him and seeing his face.

We received a sonogram picture, a 3-D where we can see a little bit of him, and I'm really looking forward to seeing, just to seeing our little person.

-Yeah, me, too.

I'm really excited, too.

-Mm-hmm.

-We didn't have a specific theme in mind so much as we wanted it to be calm and not very bright colors, nothing too loud or annoying in the room.

We wanted everything to be relaxing.

-Mm-hmm.

This is our first child, so we're both, obviously, new at this and a little nervous, so anything to keep us calm and relaxed in that room would probably be in the baby's best interest.

-We're both outdoorsy, and as we mentioned, we met at the beach.

And we were also -- we actually got engaged at the beach.

So I think having a beach theme would be nice.

-Over the past few days, we've thought through Liz and C.J.

's needs, and we're ready to show them some ideas.

The Baby Makes 3 team had a lot of fun listening to your ideas and creating a design.

There's a lot of interesting projects that we're gonna work on together.

You want to see it?

-Sure, absolutely.

-Definitely.

-Okay, great.

Take a look.

Liz and C.J., for your nursery with coastal themes, we're gonna use beiges and blues and add an accent wall of vertical stripes behind the crib.

This will contribute to the spacious feel.

Over the crib, we'll add a sea-life mobile using driftwood and shells.

On the opposite wall, we'll show you how to create easy built-in bookcases with an added window seat and storage below.

This will serve as a perfect reading center.

In the corner, a chair, ottoman, and hanging bookshelf complete the space.

♪ On our last wall, we'll place your changing table with a unique piece of wax art overhead that you will create.

It will be the perfect combination of books, beaches, and baby for the entire family to enjoy.

Well, there is your design.

And you can see we used specific colors, that it's gonna give it a calm feel.

-Mm-hmm.

-We wanted to put in the built-in bookshelves so you can have lots of storage as well as your books.

-Mm-hmm.

-And we hope that we created really a multi-purpose space so your whole family can be in there and enjoy it with your baby.

-Sure looks like it.

-It's gonna be great.

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

I'm very excited about the window seat.

-Yeah, I love the design.

I'm really excited to see the window seat come together and the bookshelf.

I think the color selection is really good.

It looks like it will be calming, but not boring.

-And that window looks right out into our big backyard, so it will be really nice to sit there with the baby.

-I think it's gonna be a great place to spend time as a family.

♪ -We are under way.

Our painters are here and will be painting walls and ceiling.

Right now, painting contractor Nate Anderson is going to show us how to paint our vertical stripes.

♪ So, Nate, talk us through the beginning process.

-So, we measure the total length of the wall, determine approximately how many stripes we want, and divide by the number of stripes to determine exactly the width of each stripe.

We took a 4-foot level, and we put straight lines from ceiling to floor with the level, making sure they're straight.

These are gonna be approximately 1 foot wide.

So we measured out a foot and made lines top to bottom, and then taped to those lines.

Then I brush the edge so that I know that there's gonna be a straight line right on the tape edge.

So, this is a new one here.

We just brush the edge with the paint to make sure the line's gonna be -- There's adequate amount of paint right on the edge of the tape.

-Okay, so how do you make sure that the paint doesn't bleed through the tape?

-So want to make sure just with a good amount of pressure that you push the tape line exactly on the edge where you're gonna be painting, really firmly, but not too hard, but pretty firmly so that it has a really good bond with the wall.

-All right, so you've cut in.

And then why do you then go to the roller?

-So you go to the roller to get a really consistent appearance between the two tape lines.

-Okay.

So these are vertical stripes.

But what if we want horizontal stripes?

-So, vertical stripes make the room taller, or seem taller.

-Okay.

-And horizontal stripes make it look longer or wider.

-Okay, so I know there's a lot of different sheens to paint.

How do you choose which one?

-So in this case, we've chosen to use eggshell on eggshell.

And you're gonna get a real good sheen, consistency.

You can use flat, if you'd like, to get even more of a contrast, or even semigloss, depending on what you want.

-And is there one, you know, I always think it's a nursery, kids hands get dirty, it gets dirty.

Like, is there a sheen that's more practical?

-Yes, definitely.

So, the eggshell -- That's why we're using eggshell today.

It's a washable finish.

-Okay.

-So you just use warm water and a rag and a little bit of soap, and, usually, it wipes up anything that's gotten on there.

-Great.

Well, thank you.

I will let you get back to work.

-You're welcome.

Thank you.

-I know you two love the beach, so we wanted to create a project that will bring a little bit of the beach to the nursery.

-Okay.

-So we have these acrylic boxes, and we're gonna fill them with sand and some things from the beach to create a little toy box, sand toy box, or a beach-scape.

So we have colored -- different colors of sand.

We have a variety of shells.

We have sea glass.

We have little starfish, sand dollars.

So the first thing you want to do is just take one of these acrylic boxes.

Take off the lid.

We'll put it aside.

We'll put it back later, when we glue it on.

And you want to take sand, whatever color you want or mix the colors, and you want to just start pouring that in.

♪ And it's cool if you like to travel, because you can do a beach-scape, but you can do other kinds, too.

I mean, you could almost create one for each place that you travel to.

-We can pick up shells from each different beach and make a new one every time we go on vacation.

-You know, label it, and it's a kind of a fun memento.

-That is a really good idea, yeah.

-This is pretty.

-Ooh, that's cool.

-That's cute.

-Colorful.

-Yeah.

Kids will love looking at this, too.

♪ Yeah.

That's cool.

♪ And kids love to, like, collect seashells and that -- and even rocks.

-Mm-hmm.

-All of that stuff.

It's a lot of fun.

-Yeah, I like this.

-Looks good.

♪ -All right, so are we happy with all of our boxes?

-Mm-hmm.

-Okay.

So, turn it over so that the top is on the top.

-Okay.

-Okay.

We're gonna pull it off.

So now what you want to do is you want to just wipe down any excess sand that might be on the lid or where the lid goes.

So, we're gonna use some instant glue.

And we're just gonna put it around there and then hold it on there, okay?

-Okay.

-And once you put it on, if there's excess glue, we can just wipe it off with this wet tissue.

So that's clear.

-Yeah.

-If it's on there, it will be fine.

-There we go.

And then we just wait for them to dry.

-Great.

-They look great.

♪ -Upstairs, Dylan is starting work on our biggest project for this nursery -- our built-in bookcases.

He has some easy, time-saving tips, so let's check in.

Hey, Dylan.

-Hey.

How's it going?

-Good.

Wow, you've got a great start already.

-Yeah, we're moving along pretty good on this.

-What have you started doing so far?

-Right now, we're building the base frame for the built-in.

Eventually, it's gonna have a seat right here underneath your window with some cubbies underneath it for storage.

And then there's gonna be a shelf unit on the left and two shelf units on the right.

We're just using some basic materials.

We chose 3/4 inch cabinet-grade plywood, so it's real smooth.

It's already got a nice finish on it.

So that's gonna result in something that looks really good after we paint it.

And we're just framing everything else out with readily-available materials, 1x4 and 1x2.

-So, Dylan, how many -- how many shelves are we looking at, would you say?

-So, we made enough to have 15 shelves.

That would be five for each unit.

I think that's probably a little more than you're gonna need, but you have some extras.

Probably end up with about four per shelf, so they're about a foot apart or so.

But, again, you can adjust them, so we wanted to have a few extras so you guys could customize it how you like.

-Great.

-Cool.

Well, we got quite a bit more to do.

Do you want to give me a hand?

-Oh, yeah, I'd love to.

-All right, great.

-And, Liz, you and I have got a project to do.

-Sounds good.

-Okay, let's go.

-All right.

-All right, have fun.

♪ Liz, we are keeping with our beach theme, so we have an ocean-inspire mobile that we're gonna hang above baby's crib.

And we've got a couple of different pieces of material.

This gorgeous piece is driftwood that we got from a North Carolina beach.

It's been cleaned and power washed.

Then we have these gorgeous shells.

They're actually from sea urchins.

-Very cute.

-These are epiphytes, or a type of epiphyte, or a lot of people call these air plants.

The don't put down roots.

They get their water from the air.

So they're great for craft projects -- easy to, you know, spritz water and use, except that this is gonna go over the baby's crib.

So we decided to use artificial ones.

Okay, so what we're gonna do, Liz, is we used one of these shells.

And we've attached one of the air plants to it like that.

-Mm-hmm.

-And you hang it like that, and it looks like a little jellyfish.

So I'm gonna show you kind of what it looks like.

So we've got this driftwood, and that's gonna hang from the ceiling.

And then these... are gonna hang from there.

-Very cute.

-And we're gonna hang them in different places, at different levels to make a mobile.

-Okay.

-Okay.

When you put anything above a crib, it's got to be very secure.

So you've got to put toggle bolts in.

If you got a stud, put it in there.

If you're hanging something down from a mobile, you've got to make sure that those knots are really tight, because you don't want anything, obviously, to fall on baby.

All right, so we've just got fishing line.

And this holds up to 30 pounds.

So it's gonna be really sturdy.

That's important.

Anything above your baby.

-Yes.

-It's important to be sturdy.

And I usually take, like, about an arm's length, 'cause we can always cut it.

So that's good.

So, cut off a -- So what you're gonna do is, since they have all these lovely little legs, you're basically gonna wrap one end of your fishing line around some of these little legs.

So we can tie -- Basically, you want to tie this on really securely to the bottom of your air plant.

-Okay.

-So you can kind of weave it in and out of some of these legs.

And I like to do just two knots, over, under -- twice -- to make it really secure.

So now that I've tied it really securely, I'm gonna cut a little bit of extra... fishing wire.

We don't need this stem.

-Okay.

-So now that we have our fishing line on our air plant, this is a shell, and, usually, shells have natural holes.

So it's actually perfect to string fishing line through.

Feed it through the bottom, into the -- Yeah, what you've done, yeah.

You did it.

-Gosh, these are cute!

-Yeah.

Looks like real jellyfish.

-Mm-hmm.

-Okay.

So we're gonna basically do that for three more.

-All right.

-So, this one is really easy, because it's actually in three parts.

So you can really just wrap it around that middle part and tie it.

-I think that's what I did.

♪ -So now we're gonna tie this to our driftwood, so we're gonna get our driftwood set up.

-Okay.

-Right now, let's check back in on the bookcases.

-Cool.

We're ready to put together the rest of this base frame.

So I've gone ahead and drawn some lines on here.

They're the width of these boards.

Basically, we just want to nail them to underneath.

That's what's gonna hold it up at the correct level.

-Right.

-So if you want to, you can hold these on here like this.

Want to be careful that your fingers aren't, like, real close to where I'm nailing.

So if you're holding it like this or, you know, pushing it on the edge.

-Gotcha.

-Yeah.

All right.

And now we can just sit this in place here.

Should be a pretty snug fit.

-Drops right in.

-Board -- oh.

Okay.

All right.

Well, we're ready to start building the sides on this that are gonna make up the shelves.

-Okay.

-That will let us know how big this window seat needs to be, kind of get everything square.

The way we'll start is by putting the panels on each of the side walls, and that will give us an idea of if the walls were square, we could space it out, you know, and make some adjustments like that.

-Sure.

-So ready to start doing that, and then this is really gonna start looking like a shelving unit instead of just a box on the floor, yeah.

-Right.

-Let's decided how tall we want it.

So, your window is about 80 inches off of this box right now.

-Mm-hmm.

-We want to make the trim... -Be probably about the same height as the window.

-Yeah, pretty much even with the top of the window.

-I think that will do it.

-So if we take the shelf up to about 79, and then we've got an inch above it, a little bit below it to kind of match the rest of the framing, that will work great.

-Sure.

-So, yeah, maybe actually 78 1/2.

We'll probably split the difference between the 1x4.

-Okay.

-Yep.

♪ So as you can see here, we've gone ahead and put all the sides on the shelf.

We're basically ready to start doing the trim work.

We need to cover up all the front edges of the plywood, so we're gonna use pieces of 1x2 and 1x4.

So here's a pretty good example down on the cubbies.

We basically have this 1x4 that's gonna come and trim everything out here, end up flush with these boxes that we have for the bottom.

And then pieces of 1x2 will go here, just centered.

♪ Doing this will give us a really nice finished look.

Then, afterwards, all we have to do is fill all the holes, caulk it, and put on a few coats of paint.

-Dylan is about to install the actual shelves in our bookcases, so let's see how that's done.

-So, we went with a really easy way to put up the shelves.

Basically, we've got these adjustable shelf hanger brackets.

They've got these little removable clips.

Makes it very easy to adjust the height of the shelves.

Then what we did to install the tracks, we just put the top edge of the track up all the way up to the top of the cabinet here.

So that makes sure that they're all at the same height, and then all of your clips are gonna be at the same level.

So the shelves are level.

-Okay, great.

-Ready to install it?

-Yes!

-All right, cool.

-I'm ready.

-And probably the easiest way to do it is if we go ahead and install the top screw into here.

-Okay.

And it looks like -- Have you already, like, pre-drilled a little bit?

-Yeah, I pre-drilled where I want these to go.

-Okay.

-And so I'm gonna go ahead and install the top one.

And then the strip can just hang here.

Okay, so we got the top screw into here.

-Okay.

-Now to make it really easy to level the track, make sure that we don't have it going crooked or anything like that -- -Okay.

-Why don't you hold onto that?

So we can just put a level on the side of the track here.

And then we can send it to the left or the right till we get it where we want it to be.

All right.

Yeah, so now that we got it leveled, I can go ahead and start putting some screws in place.

-Okay.

-So these clips are very simple.

It's got one end that goes up into the track like this, and then the bottom end just pops into place.

Now we're ready to put the shelves on.

-Great.

-I think it's a little easier to start with the bottom shelf and kind of work your way up.

You can get in there a little bit better.

The shelves need to go in at an angle.

But they just sit right in place.

Yep.

-How many shelves do we have in total?

-So, we did four shelves in each of these casings.

So that means we've got 12 total shelves that we can adjust the height of.

Can easily add more to it later if you want.

-I love that this is customizable, so they can put books or toys or clothes, diapers -- whatever -- and then they can change it to fit their growing needs.

This is fantastic.

-Yeah, I think it's gonna work out really good for them.

-I didn't realize it was gonna be so hands-on with us.

I didn't realize we would be able to do so much with some of the crafts.

And I'm happy that we have been.

-Me, too.

-It's been a lot more fun than I expected it.

-Definitely been a lot of fun, yeah.

-Well, our next project, you two are going to create a work of art.

And it might sound scary, but this is actually a lot of fun and pretty easy.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, we have some wax crayon.

They're non-toxic.

We've taken the paper off, and then we've hot-glued it to this piece of canvas that's on top of here.

And the color palette is important, 'cause we want you guys to create a sunrise coming over the water.

You can use a blow dryer or a heat gun.

Heat guns are a little bit faster.

And, basically, what you're gonna do is you're gonna take it, and you're gonna heat up the crayons, and the wax will start melting and dripping on here.

-Okay.

-And a lot of times, people will create this kind of art project, then they'll just let the drips kind of go.

-Uh-huh.

-But we want to create a sunset.

So that's why we have these paint brushes.

So you're gonna melt the crayons, but you're gonna let the crayon wax just kind of come down here.

You'll take the brushes and start spreading it.

And then when we're done, we're gonna shift it, like, sideways.

-Okay, so this will be the bottom.

-Right.

-Yes, yes, exactly.

The water will be where the bottom is.

-Great.

-Can you handle it?

-I think so.

-Yes.

Can you?

-All right, well, have fun.

-All right, thank you.

-I will leave you to it.

-You want to do the gun first, or you want to paint first?

-I'll do the gun.

Well, I hear we're doing something with the melting crayons that I am very stoked about.

I've seen it done other places, and I'm looking forward to doing it.

-I don't know if I've ever even seen it done.

I'm kind of curious.

-Oh, yeah.

I'm looking forward to that.

This is on high speed.

-Get, like, the points.

♪ -There it goes!

So maybe a little further off.

Ah.

There it goes.

-Yeah, that's looking good.

-There it goes.

Now I got the hang of it.

♪ -The couple thought they were doing an art project, but really, it was all about team building, 'cause they really had to work together, which is gonna be important when they have a baby.

-Yeah.

-Oh!

Oh, there's that.

-I think that takes a village.

That's more of a two-person plus help job.

[ Both chuckle ] ♪ -The couple did an amazing job.

The crayon art looks beautiful.

It actually looks like an oil painting.

But it's much less expensive, and it's a lot of fun.

-Wonderful.

-Wow.

We've made a lot of progress.

Next time on "Baby Makes 3," we'll get started by showing our couple how to upholster their window seat.

You can use this technique on chair seats and other items.

We'll also build a fun, colorful hanging bookshelf.

And we have a special field trip planned when we visit a wooden toy workshop.

There's much value in learning in child's play.

And wooden toys are a great experience.

All this and more next time on "Baby Makes 3."

-Oh, wow.

-Oh, my goodness.

-Aww!

♪ -Closed captioning is brought to you by The Genius of Play, encouraging happier, healthier kids through the power of play.

Learn more at thegeniusofplay.org.

-"Baby Makes 3" is funded in part by... -Dear baby, if you can't tell by the bump, you'll be here soon.

To be honest, I'm freaking out a bit.

There's still so much to do, a lot of organizing, name picking, decorating, and cleaning, all while lugging around 25 or so extra pounds.

I guess I'm feeling a little bit crazy, but I'm allowed to be, right?

I'm your mom, and I want everything to be perfect for you.

I'll see you soon.

Love, Mom.

-And by... -When it comes to baby's health, clean water is at the top of the list.

Food News Media, supporting clean water for America's restaurant industry and for baby, for life.

-"Baby Makes 3" nurseries are created for newborns.

Some projects may not be suitable for older children.

When in doubt, seek the help of a licensed contractor.

For more information, visit us on the web at babymakes3.tv.