-"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.

-Welcome to the jungle.

Today, on "Baby Makes 3," we brought our parents-to-be to the Carolina Tiger Rescue where we hope to bring their safari-themed nursery to life.

Children love animals, and a themed nursery such as this one is the perfect way to help them get an appreciation for the planet.

We're going to find out what they do here to care for these magnificent animals, and we're going to participate in one of their fundraising art projects that help support this great work.

So let's go.

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.

Last time on "Baby Makes 3," we began work on Kate and Alex's nursery.

Kate and Alex, who is a contractor, recently completed renovation of their 1930s-style millhouse down to the last 90 square feet.

This will be baby's room.

We got started with their safari-themed nursery with fresh paint and wallpaper.

We added a built-in cabinet into the closet to maximize storage, and a local muralist painted a tree from the Serengeti National Park.

Today, we'll be continuing our projects with a clever canopy over the bed, a growth chart in the shape of a giraffe and lots of finishing touches.

Right now, we're going to get started on our next project.

-This is a giraffe growth chart.

-Great.

-And that way, you can mark of your child's milestones, which are going to happen quicker than you think.

So we made this the exact same way that we made our elephants.

So what we have is carbon-copy paper.

Put it on your material, and then you want to tack it down.

And it's really easy.

All you're going to do is take a pencil.

You're going to apply a little bit of pressure.

-Mm-hmm.

-And you're going to trace your outline.

And then we marked it.

We compensated for the baseboard.

So that's actually going to be 1 foot.

-It'll be down here.

-Yeah, exactly.

-Got you.

-And we didn't want to paint it.

We wanted to stain because this wood has these great little spots, and they're really going to pop and feel like a giraffe's spots... -Perfect.

-When the stain is on.

I'm sure you've stained a few things in the past, yes?

-Yep.

Yes, I have.

-Yes.

-Yep, yeah.

-Okay.

Well, why don't you take it away.

-All right.

Well, yeah.

We just dip... We've got a paper towel here.

So it's just, you know, get it slightly wet, and don't put too much.

You don't want to get it drenched, and just lightly... -Less is more.

-Yeah.

Less is definitely more in a staining application like this, and we're using just a...

It's a very opaque stain, so you'll get to see through and see the knots as they sort of jump out.

-And you notice the stain is a little bit giraffe-like color.

-I like it.

-We did that too.

-Yeah.

It's going to look great.

-It is, yeah.

-Yeah, it really does look like a giraffe color.

-Yeah.

It's nice we can remove this if we ever move or anything like that rather than, you know, typically, you see it on people's doors, and they can't take that with them.

-Uh-huh.

-So it's nice that it's something that can be taken on to the next house if there is one.

-It's really important too because they grow so quickly.

You're not going to believe how little they were.

-Right.

-So this will be proof.

-Yeah.

-They were little.

-You were 3 feet at one point, huh?

-That's right.

Yeah.

That's right.

-So I like how big it is because it looks like it's tall enough to eat from the tree in our nursery.

-Yeah.

It really does.

-Yeah.

It looks really good.

-Yeah.

The spots are really coming out.

-I really like that.

-All right.

I think we're done.

How easy was that?

Less than 10 minutes.

-Yeah.

It was great, and it looks really awesome.

So that's sweet.

-I love it.

-Yeah.

-Easy but very meaningful.

All right.

Ready to rock the next one?

-Yeah.

-Let's do it.

-Okay.

Let's go.

♪ -Building the nursery is going a little slow right now.

We only have space to build one project at a time.

Okay, Dylan.

So it looks like we're into the Dutch door project, and you've done quite a bit of work up to this point.

Maybe just give us some ideas of what you've done.

-Yeah, sure.

So originally, when the door was up here, there were three hinges holding it up.

So first thing we did was basically made this mounting point for the hinge go away with some putty.

-Right.

-Sanded it smooth, and then we've taken a new door.

It's a solid panel door.

It's also a solid core door as opposed to the door that was there before.

It was hollow.

A hollow core door is really just the sides.

And then in the middle, it's pretty much just cardboard to keep it, you know, the right shape.

-Right.

-But there's not much to anchor to.

So it's not really a suitable door to use since we're wanting to put a shelf right across the top of here.

This door has a solid core in the middle, so we're going to be able to make a nice way to mount the shelf on there, and it'll be sturdy.

What we've done is cut the door in half to make a gap for the shelf.

So our shelf's going to be around 2 inches thick on here, so we cut 2 inches of section out of the door.

Then we routed in hinges on the back of both of the door panels.

We used the top and the bottom hinge that were already existing, and then we added two more locations for the hinge.

It's pretty easy to do this with this jig.

This is really friendly to use, several different ways to set it up.

One way, it goes on the door.

Look.

You can see where we had marked it, and then you just lay the template over it.

So it sits right on the door just like that, and then the router bit just guides right along in here.

Next step is actually to hang the door and see how good of a fit we've got.

-Okay.

-So hopefully it'll fit great.

If not, we'll be able to just trim the door a little bit to fit the right size of the space.

-Right.

So minor planning, and it should be good to go.

-Yeah.

Hopefully we're great on the first try.

-Right, perfect.

-Yeah.

-Building a Dutch door is a little complicated, but it's extremely functional when you have pets and kids.

All right.

Let's see how it closes.

-All right.

Give it a little test run.

Voila.

-Pretty ideal.

-All right.

So let's hang that second piece.

-Sounds good.

Let's do it.

All right.

Looks like it's pretty great.

-Yeah.

-Let's see how it closes.

-Yeah.

Let's test this one.

-Nice.

Yeah.

See what our gap looks like.

-Two and five eighths.

-It looks good.

Now the only thing we have left is the shelf, right?

-Yeah.

That's right.

So we're going to go ahead and get started on the shelf.

I'm going to make a template again, the reason being this door, it's moving around here.

So we need to make sure there's clearance everywhere.

So by making that cardboard template, we can cut it if we need to, to make sure everything fits right, and then we'll transfer that to the actual piece of wood we're going to use for the shelf.

-Right.

That's awesome.

-What we're going to do is we're going to drill part of that down into the door, so it'll be right in the middle of the core.

So we'll have these little dowel pegs coming straight up out of the door.

Then we're going to use the lipstick again to mark them on the piece of wood that's going to be the shelf.

And we'll drill them into the shelf.

And then we'll mate the two pieces together with some resin glue.

♪ -This about it?

-Yeah.

This will take 30 minutes to dry, and then we'll put the knob on the door, and we'll be finished with it.

-Good deal.

-I love the Dutch door, to know that I can see into the nursery while I'm in here but that our little one is safe and not running around, or if we need to keep the dogs out.

I just think it's such a great feature.

-Kate, I know you have a passion for sewing.

So I wanted to bring a project that you could incorporate those skills, and this is going to be the crib canopy, and we're so lucky to have Elaine O'Neil, who's a textile artist, with us.

And she's going to lead you through this project.

-Great.

That sounds wonderful.

Thank you for coming.

-Oh, I'm excited to help you with this.

My name's Elaine O'Neil, and I'm a textile collage artist, and I create original pieces of artwork using fabric only.

Most often, I focus on special places or a sense of place, places people love to go.

And I try to make my places look the way you feel when you're there.

So it might be kind of quirky or whimsical, but it's that happy feeling you have when you're at a place you love.

So now that we've gotten our two pieces of fabric cut, the fun part starts.

Now we're going to add some things for baby to gaze up at.

We looked at some monkey designs.

-Mm-hmm.

-We're going to use these pieces now as your pattern.

It's much more interesting to have different fabrics and different textures going on in this piece than just using one.

And if we want to add a few vines or leaves to pop in some colors, you've picked these.

A product that we need that we've used on these other pieces is a fusible webbing, which can be ironed on.

It gives you more stability when you're cutting, and it also, when we peel the paper backing off, we can iron that on, and it kind of sticks in place and holds it until you sew it.

So in order to make these shapes, we're going to use our pattern, lay it on top of the fabric and cut each piece out individually.

-So I chose monkeys for underneath the canopy not only because it goes with the safari and animal theme, but we actually call our two boxer dogs monkeys because they love bananas.

So we thought it'd be cool to have monkeys there too.

Let's first pull the paper off the back.

-Okay.

-So this is the paper-backed webbing that we're taking off.

So now we can kind of place these how you think you'd like him.

Have his little face tilted.

What do we think?

-I love it.

I think it's great.

-So now, we're going to use the iron to adhere this onto the fabric, which will help you when you sew around the edges.

Why don't we start sewing this down?

-Great.

-Let's try that.

-I grew up around sewing.

My mom's a big quilter.

So the hum of a sewing machine is very familiar noise of my childhood.

The project with Elaine is going well.

I think it's going to turn out really nicely.

We just need to take our time and put all the pieces together.

♪ -So what do you think?

How do you like the design?

-I think it's going to be great.

And I love the textures and the colors.

And it really does look like the monkeys are hanging from the vine.

So I think it'll be great for a little one to look at.

-Yeah.

It's really whimsical and fun.

Nice job.

I love it.

-After giving our canopy a final pressing, we'll be inserting dowels in pockets left by Elaine and Kate.

These will give our canopy the shape we need over the crib.

Right now, we're going to add foliage to our tree mural in the nursery using a sponge-painting technique.

Dink Densmore, our muralist, created our tree earlier.

-Now we're going to get into the fun part.

Now, this is where you guys are going to get involved.

It's super simple.

You can do it at home.

We're going to start with some sponges.

-Okay.

-And here are our sponges.

You can get these at any craft store, any home-improvement store.

-Got you.

-They're used by painters for texture in bathrooms, on walls, that kind of stuff.

What we're going to use it for is we're going to use it for creating the canopy.

-So let's get started.

-Absolutely.

-All right.

Great.

-All right.

Let's do it.

-The key to this is not to push down too hard... -Got you.

-And to get it too soaked up because you want that pattern to work.

-Express itself.

-So if you want to, hold that.

-Sure.

-And you can see that we're going to start with a darker color because, obviously, the leaves in the back or underneath are going to be shadowed by leaves on top.

So they're going to naturally be a darker color.

-Got you.

-Okay.

-So what we do is we actually just take the sponge, get a little on there, and then we just literally go and start applying.

What we're going to do is we're going to start building layers right on top.

And the acacia tree is going to have a very shallow canopy.

So we're not looking at going real tall.

We're just looking at making kind of a straight line, maybe a little taller right in the center, and then it kind of tapers off on the edges.

-Okay.

-So if you want to, take this and just apply a little on there.

-And just go right over the top limbs there?

-Yeah.

We're just going to go over to the edge and just kind of keep on going.

We're going to make one row of this.

-All right.

-Cool.

-And then, we don't clean the sponges off.

We'll take, actually, the green, and we'll do some green over the top.

And then after the green, we'll come in with a lighter brown, and that will create kind of the outside of the foliage that's going to be hit by the sun, is going to be a little lighter.

-So, Dink, I've heard it's better if you use natural sponges.

Is that true?

-Absolutely.

And the reason is you're going to have a variety of different patterns in natural sponges, none being the same because, Mother Nature, you're not going to have two trees that look identical.

When we get the shelves installed, it's just going to look awesome, especially when you set stuff on the shelves, it's going to look like we're setting stuff on limbs... -Right.

-Yeah.

-Which is going to be a really cool effect.

-A little tiger or whatever.

-Yeah.

-You know, what's nice about this is how just, you know, random it is and how easy it, you know... You can't mess up at all.

-Oh, absolutely.

-Sponges.

-Yep.

Some paint.

-Paper plates.

-Yep.

-Some craft paint, and you literally can create this in your own home within hours.

-That's cool.

-Absolutely.

-To complete the tree feature, we'll be adding log-round shelves to our tree limbs.

Before painting began, we anchored our shelf brackets to the wall with toggle bolts.

These log rounds are significant to our couple because they were the centerpieces on the tables at their wedding.

Now, we are securing them to the brackets with aluminum rods, which can be found at your local hardware center.

We'll mark log rounds with an everyday lipstick and drill pilot holes into the shelves themselves.

Glue and insert, and we're all set.

So I think it's really unique to have something from our wedding also in our nursery.

Those are two really big life milestones, so it's cool that, on the day that we became a family, they were there.

And then they're incorporated as we grow our family.

A few days ago, Kate and Alex visited Carolina Tiger Rescue with the "Baby Makes 3" team.

We helped them create a special piece of art for their nursery.

But more importantly, we planned to use our safari-theme nursery as a learning tool for understanding animal welfare.

-It's really cool to be able to come 15 minutes from our home and see something like this.

-Hi.

Kate and Alex, welcome to the Carolina Tiger Rescue.

This is our educational director, Katie.

She's going to take us on a tour, and we're going to see some of the animals they have here.

-Welcome.

We're so excited to have you here.

So just a little history: We have 40 animals here, seven different species.

Our two big cats are tigers and lions.

And then we range down to smaller cats like cougars and ocelots and caracals.

So we're really excited to get started.

-And we'll get some inspiration for the nursery.

-Okay.

-Safari inspiration.

-Yes, exactly.

-Hi.

I'm Katie, and I'm the education director here at Carolina Tiger Rescue.

We are a wildcat sanctuary here in Pittsboro, North Carolina.

Our goal is to eventually not exist, really.

We want for people to understand that these are wild animals and not pets and give them that respect.

We have 55 acres here on the sanctuary.

We're using, currently, about 35 of it, so we do have room to expand as the need comes up.

For me, personally, it was kind of eye-opening to come and see what a gorgeous place this is and how well-cared-for these animals are and the dedication that all the employees and volunteers give to these animals.

They are here, and we are here for them and will be for as long as we're needed.

But I can't imagine being any place other than here.

So this is Raja.

He's 12 years old.

He came here with his sister, Kayla, when they were about 6 months old.

They were rescued off the side of the road outside of Charlotte.

All of our big cats are rescues from the side of the road, people's backyards.

People actually own these guys as pets, unfortunately, roadside zoos that have been closed down or failing rescues.

-Is there any way that you can introduce these animals back into the wild or... -So these guys have never lived in the wild.

Likely, he was bred in somebody's backyard to make money.

But there is no space for the wild tigers in the wild, let alone sending a captive tiger out to the wild.

They also get very used to humans, as you can kind of tell.

But so that would also be very dangerous for him.

He could go wandering up to people.

So in the wild, these guys usually live 8 to 10 years.

But here in captivity, we're able to extend their lifespan because of they are always guaranteed a meal.

And then they are also given veterinary care.

-So we are about to do a really special project.

It's called a Paw-casso.

And I'm going to let Katie explain what they actually do.

-All right.

-So what we did was shift the tigers to the other part of their enclosure so that we did not go in with them.

We went in and put poster board down, paint on top of it.

And so what we'll do is now we've locked up, and we're going to let the tigers in and paint.

This is a form of enrichment for them.

So we try to keep them as engaged as possible.

Tigers who live in captivity can get very, very bored and destructive in that manner.

So we try to keep them engaged and using their brain and all of that.

And so this is a fun way for them to do that.

The paint is tempera-based, which is egg-based.

So it is...

If they ingest any, which they ultimately do, it is safe for them.

-Great.

Wow.

-This is so unique.

-Yeah.

-Well, we are ready to see it happen.

-All right.

We'll get Mona and Moki out.

-Oh, yay.

-Look.

What are you doing?

A little painting?

-Oh, yeah.

Wow.

Oh.

-Oh, my gosh.

I love it.

-Yeah.

He can definitely smell.

-Oh, he's rolling.

Look.

-He's going at it.

-Now he's painting.

-Yeah.

He's painting.

-Oh.

-Oh.

-We can say we'll definitely have the most unique nursery piece of anyone I know.

-That's right.

That's right.

-So we think that kids can learn a lot from animals.

We have two dogs, so just respecting all species and taking care of them but also the difference between, you know, our dogs are pets, and these are not pets.

So we would definitely emphasize that.

♪ -Our projects are complete.

Now it's time for the finishing touches.

In our small-space nursery, we are replacing the ceiling fan with a beaded light fixture that picks up our white accents.

We suggest using a licensed contractor when working with electricity.

Our giraffe growth chart sits on the baseboard below and is mounted to the wall with a single toggle bolt.

I love the built-in, especially when you don't have a lot of space, so building it in and using the closet is great.

I love those baskets because you can take baskets into the other rooms.

You've got toys in there.

You pull it into another room.

They child can play, but then you can tuck them back away, bring them back into the bedroom.

So I think it's great.

Our elephant silhouette, which is lit by battery-operated LEDs, is being mounted behind the crib.

Not only will it be hanging on sturdy hooks, we are also securing it to a wall stud to ensure that it can't be dislodged.

Baby's safety is number one.

On all of their wall outlets, we put this kid-proof safety plate.

Works like this.

You just open it up.

And then you can use it.

And let go.

It closes.

I use these at home.

They're much better than those little plastic plugs, which can be a choking hazard for small children.

Our nursery is complete.

Let's go find Kate and Alex.

-Both of us are really busy.

So the fact that our nursery wasn't another project or a job added to his already full plate was really nice.

-Yeah.

-And it was a very, very busy 4 days and a little bit hard when you're really pregnant.

-Yeah.

Like most things in life, you know, they can be hard while you're in it.

But then you get to a point, and you look back.

And you're like, "Man, that was a lot of fun..." -Yeah.

-Certainly well worth it, and especially something as unique as this has just been really fun to be a part of.

And we're just really excited to see it all come together.

-We can't wait to see the nursery.

-It's going to be awesome.

Can't wait to see it.

-You two have put a lot of work into this.

Are you ready to see it all together?

-Yes.

Absolutely.

-Can't wait.

-Check it out.

-All right.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh.

-Oh, man.

Everything came together.

Wow.

That's incredible.

-At only 90 square feet, space was tight, but our nursery turned out beautiful with plenty of storage.

The umbrella tree, canopy and backlit elephants bring our safari theme to life.

-The monkeys are hanging there.

-Oh, my gosh.

-Oh, man.

-And look at the lights.

-Yeah.

Oh, yeah, the light's behind the elephants there.

-Oh, my God.

-Wow.

And look.

Yeah.

We've even got... -Ready with wipes and everything.

-Yeah.

-It looks great, you know, with the wallpaper and everything.

It all fits in here perfectly.

-It does.

-Small, little place, but it all works.

Yeah.

-Your safari theme has come together, hasn't it?

-Yes, it has.

-I can't believe it.

-You guys saw your Paw-casso?

Isn't that amazing?

-Yeah.

It really is.

You can see the paw prints on them a little bit there.

-I know.

It turned out so beautiful.

-It even has a little bit of tiger fur.

-And what a fun memory to like, you know... We're going to use that spot a lot for changing baby, and to, like, look up and think of tigers rolling around is pretty cool.

-Yeah.

And look at this, your Dutch door.

-Wow, yeah.

-It's amazing.

-Yeah.

-That shelf.

-Of course.

Look at this.

-Wow.

-Yeah.

-Look at that.

-Classiest, most usable baby gate.

-Nice.

-So we really maximized the storage.

You've got your drawers underneath your crib.

-Yeah.

-Great.

-You've got this big hamper over here.

And then, of course, if you come over here, you've got four baskets.

You've got your drawers.

-Wow.

-And now you have much more space here because... -Right.

It was not usable space at all before.

-Yeah.

-So this is just complete improvement.

-And then, of course, your changing table is full of drawers too.

-It's awesome, yeah.

-Yeah.

-So we've maximized this space for you.

-Yeah.

So much, so many great places to put things in.

Yeah.

-Right, and things that we would never even have thought of where we could add space, so it's really incredible.

-So did it feel like we maximized the space and you have your safari theme?

-It's that and so much more.

-Yeah.

You guys nailed it, really.

I mean, just incredible.

-Yeah.

-Really amazing.

-Well, thank you for having us in your house and letting us do this.

This was such a pleasure.

-Thank you.

Yeah.

We are just so grateful, and... -Really, yeah.

-It's going to be wonderful.

-I'm Melissa Lozoff for "Baby Makes 3," and it's time to put this one to bed.

♪ -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.