Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The Anatomy of a Nursery

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of themed nurseries or bedding sets. There are exceptions to this rule - I think that Pottery Barn Kids and Land of Nod have some amazing bedding sets and that their "themed" rooms are very pretty and well done. But when someone says to me "Jungle themed nursery", this is the image that pops in my head: Ick.
(No offense if you are a fan of this type of room for a baby, these are just my opinions on the issue)

I'm just not sure why retailers seem to think that new parents want to plaster their babies room with cutesy designed bedding and matching lamps, curtains, wallpaper, wall hangings, etc. It's also funny to me because one of the questions I'm asked most (mainly by strangers) is "ooh, what theme are you doing for the nursery?" Like I have to pick a central image and base an entire room around it. You should see the looks of confusion when I say "umm, we're not doing a theme". It's like I said that we're planning on having the baby sleep in the coat closet or something.

Anyways, since there will be no "theme" in our son's room, I have been busy pinning inspiration pictures and searching sources like Project Nursery to find rooms that I like. We are keeping the walls in the room the same green that we painted when we moved in - Minted Lemon (not sure why green paint is named lemon, but oh well). Here's the color:
It's a nice, neutral sage green color. Since forever, I've wanted to do baby boy's room in navy blue, and since that goes well with the green walls, that became our main color. To throw in a little bit of brightness, we'll also be doing yellow accents.
Because we're not re-painting the walls, I got a great idea (thanks Pinterest!) to do a horizontal striped accent wall in navy and white along the wall in the room where the crib will go. Here's my inspiration for the stripes:

I love how bold and graphic it is and I think it will look great with the soothing green on the other 3 walls.

The crafty bug has also bit me, so I plan on making the crib skirt and curtains for the room, as well as some throw pillows. I finally settled on these two fabrics (from fabric.com):

One of our main goals was to furnish and decorate the room on a pretty tight budget, so I've been bargain shopping for most everything. I became obsessed with ottoman poufs to use with our rocking chair/glider and was determined to find one without breaking the bank - some of those suckers are pricey! I couldn't justify spending $150+ on something that may get thrown up on. Imagine my delight when I found this one a few weeks ago, for $34.99 on Joss and Main:
(I was testing it out with the couch in our living room).

I'm seriously obsessed with this thing and I can't wait to see it in the nursery, in front of this rocker: We also plan to find a dresser on craigslist or at goodwill to use as a changing table/dresser combo. I want to paint it yellow or navy, but J is fighting me on that and wants to keep it nuetral by painting it white. We'll see who wins that battle! We haven't found the perfect dresser yet, but I seriously stalk craigslist every day, so I'm hoping we can get something soon. Here's what I'm thinking for the dresser:My wonderful parents gifted us with the little man's crib, which was just ordered last week. We went traditional and inexpensive - the Graco Lauren crib. Highly rated by Baby Bargains and you really can't beat the price! We found it at Walmart of all places, with a mattress, for $175.
So that's the plan for the baby's room - I'll be doing a TON more posts about how it all comes together and a final budget breakdown when we finish as well!

3 comments:

Kate said...

I can't wait to see how it all came together! My sister did an animal theme nursery (if you can call it that) mostly from Land of Nod and Dwell. I'm going to be posting photos within the next couple of weeks.

Sara @ Russet Street Reno said...

Oh man, those crib sets are so ugly. I love your navy and yellow theme...and I think a dresser would be great in white, or one of your accent colors.

Always Organizing said...

So with you on the themed nurseries!! Love the crib you picked, I'm cruising Walmart.com right now to look at it since we haven't picked a crib yet. I know we want a plain white one and this one is adorable! May have to copy you :)

Loving the chevron too, I'm planning to use it in navy for the curtains. Our room is green with navy blue and white accents. Can't wait to pull it all together!

 
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