I always knew that I would want to find out the gender of my babies before they were born - that is just my jam. Mostly I wanted to find out because I know my weird self and if I bonded with said baby for nine months thinking "it" was a boy and then instead "it" was a she, I knew it would mess with my mind. Now having actually been pregnant, maybe that wouldn't be the case because I clearly didn't know Dean was a boy until 20 weeks, but I also loved being able to talk to him the rest of the pregnancy and call him by his name.
All of that to say, I always thought I would want to create and elaborate, gender specific nursery, until we renovated two houses and I painted more walls than I care to remember. So one night before we knew Dean was a Dean, I was laying in bed and made the declaration that our nursery would be fairly gender neutral. We knew we would always want to use that room for the nursery because it is across the hall from our room and the smallest bedroom, and I just realized that I had no desire to re-paint it between each child (if God decides to entrust us with more) so I wanted the main items to be neutral. Therefore, the walls became a nice warm khaki color, the trim is white, and the other "base" color was decided to be navy (because I heart me some navy) and I feel like I can throw almost any accent color with those two bases for boy or girl to slightly change it up with each child. I decided the curtains, ottoman, and table cloth needed to be in the base colors, but the mobile, crib skirt and wall art could change from baby to baby. So after looking at tons of fabric I decided on a giraffe print for our little Dean and the accent color to be a golden yellow. I just wanted something warm and cozy for our little nursery and I think it worked out perfectly. Could it be more pinterest worthy or Better Homes & Gardens ready - sure. But it works for our little boy, and I can't wait to continue to spend more time in there playing as he grows versus just sleeping, nursing, and changing :)
All of that to say, I always thought I would want to create and elaborate, gender specific nursery, until we renovated two houses and I painted more walls than I care to remember. So one night before we knew Dean was a Dean, I was laying in bed and made the declaration that our nursery would be fairly gender neutral. We knew we would always want to use that room for the nursery because it is across the hall from our room and the smallest bedroom, and I just realized that I had no desire to re-paint it between each child (if God decides to entrust us with more) so I wanted the main items to be neutral. Therefore, the walls became a nice warm khaki color, the trim is white, and the other "base" color was decided to be navy (because I heart me some navy) and I feel like I can throw almost any accent color with those two bases for boy or girl to slightly change it up with each child. I decided the curtains, ottoman, and table cloth needed to be in the base colors, but the mobile, crib skirt and wall art could change from baby to baby. So after looking at tons of fabric I decided on a giraffe print for our little Dean and the accent color to be a golden yellow. I just wanted something warm and cozy for our little nursery and I think it worked out perfectly. Could it be more pinterest worthy or Better Homes & Gardens ready - sure. But it works for our little boy, and I can't wait to continue to spend more time in there playing as he grows versus just sleeping, nursing, and changing :)
Here was my mood board so to speak:
Here is what ended up happening in reality (we have an old house with normal ceiling heights and smaller openings so it makes taking pictures of whole rooms a bit of a challenge, FYI).
This first picture is taken from the door to give you an idea of what the whole make-up of the room is. I did make the curtains, the crib skirt, the table cloth, the letters over the crib, the giraffe painting, the mobile, painted the cubes and recovered the ottoman a while ago so then I ran out of steam to make it more perfect, but I should stop apologizing because I still love it.
Another shot from the doorway:
Our rocking chair and nursing nook (I started out with a wooden rocker that I love, but it was not the most comfortable for middle of the night nursing, which we are still doing so I found this slipcovered pottery barn like rocker on Craigslist for $95 and I LOVE it. I think it is for sale at Sears and Walmart still. Anyway, I was able to still buy a new slipcover to keep for the future if the current one gets too worn.) I am a lover of tradition and family so the two pieces of art on the left are from my nursery growing up and the upper right is a custom made sign from the husband's mother - a song she used to sing to him when he was a baby. Also, my mom made the quilt hanging on the chair and the lamp was my grandmother's.
Our little bookshelf/cubbies (I originally wanted to have more but realized that might have been too overwhelming for our short ceilings):
The changing station and dresser (just an old tiger maple dresser we found on Craigslist). I hung photos of family above it so he can see everyone who loves him everyday because sadly we don't all live in the same town:
Lastly, this is the little mobile I made. I had ideas for something grander and more creative, but this is where I ended. I love the balls and the fact that they just kind of float there, but I think I thought I would have something more creative there in the beginning. However, I didn't really want to drill into the ceiling so the scale shrunk significantly - I still like it though :)
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