The Alphabet (I need your input!).

I'm desperate to start playing nursery - but am feeling kind of stuck, as we still need a lot of stuff (glider, bookcase, rug, crib mattress are the big things). Meanwhile, I've been assuaging the nesting instinct by crocheting a baby blanket and a cute hat and infant mittens.

I've seen some really nice alphabet collections on nursery design websites - where people have collected letters from different places and made a very eclectic grouping on the wall. I love that.

Here's an example of what I mean, from the great site Project Nursery:Isn't that awesome? I love how colourful it is. BUT - I'm not sure I have the time (or budget) to go that route - imagine, if each letter costs between $5 and $10, that's $130-260, and if it ends up being hard to find, say, a Q and a Z, I'm left with an incomplete alphabet. If I go with eBay or other online shopping for letters, add 26 x shipping to that cost and it really gets prohibitive.

So my big idea was to do the alphabet in cursive, in wire. I picked up some galvanized wire at the hardware store (a whopping $3.47) and spent some time watching tv and bending wire. Here's how it turned out:

Wow, looks really unprofessional in comparison. sigh.

I left the switchplate in the photo for scale - it's pretty big! Don't mind the tape; I'd like to make sure my husband's with me on this one (he liked the collected alphabet idea, not so keen on the wire one going by my description) before I hang it - after all, he has to live with it, too. You really can't get a sense of the colour on the wall by this photo, either - it's not a greyish pinky yellow at all. It's Behr's Tiddley Pom (from their Disney collection), and it's a very, very pale and almost neutral yellowy-green.

The other thing I was thinking of doing was getting my husband to spray paint it. I was thinking bright, shiny red, but could go with another colour (it would be fun to do the rainbow colours, one for each row, but I'm not sure I really want to buy 5 cans of spray paint just for this).

What do you think -

• Spray paint (colour ideas?) or leave it?
  
• Should I abandon the wire idea, and - sucks to the budget - try for a collection?
  
• Should I give up on both and pick up an alphabet print from some Etsy seller (like FancyPrints or Ink Tree Press) and frame it Ikea style? (again, a pricier option)

update: see the finished alphabet & nursery here!