Arden’s Nursery Peg Rail

I didn’t want a super girlie-girl room, since the ultrasound tech didn’t seem 100% sure that Arden really was a girl (she was).  So, I went with two shades of green – lighter on top and darker on bottom for most of the room, and used the lighter green for the funky angles and little nook where the bench and two closets are.  Pardon the picture of my gigantic belly, but it’s the only picture I have showing the painted room before the peg rail.

25 Week Bump

Then I had to source the knobs.  I wanted to find vintage/antique glass and metal knobs, but a couple of trips to the local antiques center yielded nothing.  I found a few knobs at Home Depot, but I still wasn’t finding the right mix of knobs.  I found an online store called myknobs.com (I know, a bit obvious, but they had what I was looking for), and rounded out my selection of knobs.

I got 7/16″ x 2 5/8″ pine molding to make the rails out of and painted them white.  Since these were cabinet knobs and meant to mount on something of which you could access the back, I had to attach the knobs to the rail before installing it.  As the lumber was thinner than a standard cabinet, I also had to get shorter screws of the same diameter so the knobs would lie flush to the lumber.  I measured and cut the boards to the lengths for the wall sections, and planned out where the knobs would go.  I think I used 11″ spacing, with the knobs centered on the wall sections for shorter sections.

I drilled the holes for the screws at the marked intervals.  I needed the screw head to be below the surface of the board so it would mount flat on the wall, so I drilled a shallow hole on the back of the board larger than the screw head.  I put tape around the drill bit to ensure I didn’t drill too deep.

Drilling the shallow hole on the back of the board. Sophie is “helping

Then I attached the knobs using the shorter screw.  They needed to be on good, as I wouldn’t be able to access the screw again once the boards were installed.

Awesome sign made by my AXO sister Tina Doepker

I put up the curtains and all the bedding and had carpet installed.  The dresser and desk were my childhood set that I painted black and changed out the hardware several years back.  We got a black crib and everything looks really nice together.  The crib is convertible to a toddler and then full size bed, so it will grow with Arden.
The peg rail has turned out to be way handier than I ever anticipated.  We have signs, the diaper stacker, wet bags, coats, blankets, and towels hung on the knobs all around the room.  Here’s a photo showing it in action during Arden’s first bath at home: