Baby Elephant Rocker

My best friend just had her first baby - it's a boy - he's so cute, cuddly, and fat!  Meet Gary.  He's such a cutie-patootie!  See?  (I get to call him fun little names like that while he's too little to realize what's going on.)

Before he was born, my friend was decorating the nursery (which is super adorable, by the way), and she asked me to make her a copy-cat rocker that she had seen on Pinterest as her baby shower gift.   It was an elephant rocking chair - baby sized.  

Here's a picture of it from Pinterest:

I'm always eager to please, so I immediately turned to Daniel: my go-to, can-make-anything-guy - and asked if he could make one.  He said, "sure, no problem" and so it began.

We had some leftover plywood from a previous project, which turned out to be just enough to make this little guy.  He made the pattern, cut out all the pieces with a jig saw and screwed them all together with his pocket hole jig.  It was only 4 pieces total - 2 sides, the back rest, and seat.  I can't take any credit for anything besides a little sanding and painting it once it was all put together.  I also don't really know how to tell you how he put it together... he's the muscle and the brains behind most of my operations... I just put stuff in place and make it look pretty once it's done.

I even put it through quality control inspections.  Leon, my inspector, said he loved it.  Super comfortable and great for napping.

 Leon said it was great for playing games like 'peek-a-boo' as well.

 Unfortunately, he had to relinquish his seat long enough for me to get some paint on it.  It only took 1 sample can of paint from Lowe's Hardware to cover it with 2 full coats.

And here it is, finished up, all decked out in the nursery after Brooke worked her magic on it - complete with a quilt, pillow, and cute stuffed animal.

How adorable is this thing?!  Still not as cute as this handsome little guy!  

"WAHOO!"

"My Baby Elephant Rocker is #1!"

I can just see this guy in a few years, climbing on it, race-rocking, using it as a ladder to climb up on other furniture he's not supposed to be on... the possibilities are endless!  He's definitely going to keep his mama and daddy on their toes!  

The fun thing about this project is that you could customize it to your particular nursery theme.  Just cut out the silhouette of your animal of choice, add a seat and a back, paint, and you've got a sweet, personalized baby rocker of your own!