One of my new “hobbies,” as it were, is researching nursery decor. Oh, it’s so inspirational. (But also a little demoralizing because our budget for this is wee. See: adoption.)
There is a split camp among prospective adoptive parents regarding the nursery. Some feel as if they need to nest and prepare for the baby. It brings reality to the “expectant” part of waiting on a child. Others leave the room bare, because the thought of seeing an empty nursery for an indefinite period of time is too difficult.
I am in the former group. I have a great urge and desire to nest, and it gives me a satisfying feeling of preparing for our baby, wherever he may be. And it’s physical—there will be painting and moving and cleaning. It feels good to physically prepare for Little Bit, as I am not the one blessed to grow him.
I have both a clear and a muddled picture of what I want in a nursery. I say clear and muddled, because though I have a nice mental image, much of it may not be possible for us. (We have oak trim, not white. The upstairs is carpeted, not hardwood.)
What I want: clean, traditional with touches of modern, classic, simple. I want it to feel beautiful and lovely. I want it to feel like a baby’s room, not a big kid’s room. (As many nurseries do.) I want to buy as many used/vintage pieces as I can and repurpose them. I don’t want a theme per se, and I am mostly drawn to white, gray, light tan, yellow.
And obviously, it needs to be gender neutral, as though I refer to him as a he, doing so is just for simplicity/consistency.
Here are some images I am in love with today …
Love the elephant and the light fixture. If I were to have a theme, it would be elephants. (So beautfiully gray!)
{image by kenziepoo}
Love the vintage dresser and that wall color:
{image by catharticflux}
The image below is more tan/white than gray/white, but I really like it, because it’s likely more of what we’ll go for, what with our oak trim and all.
{image from decor pad}
I would really love to be able to do wainscotting, and Aaron is open to the idea, but again…oak trim. Not sure how white wainscotting would look against oak trim.
{image from color me happy}
Oh my goodness. The old barn siding on the wall? LOVE.
{photo by jhiner}
I love this type of bookshelf, and if we have the space, I definitely would like to do this.
{photo by big duff}
And finally, one of my favorite nurseries of all time. Please go check out the entire nursery on Flickr. I love everything about it!
{photo by thebline}
What I know for sure: we will have a white (likely Jenny Lind) crib, a white dresser to use as a changing table (IKEA if I cannot find a suitable on on Craigslist to paint), and a fun yellow & white rug to go over the carpet.
Edited to add pictures of Marlo’s nursery, of course!
If you have images of your child’s nursery online anywhere, I would LOVE to see them.
adoption, interior design
omg, the last one is awesome. I love it.
those rooms are gorgeous. Love the colors.
My friend’s nursury for her daughter was Glenna Jean’s Jitterbug (picture here: http://babyandmeboutique.com/products/glenna/jitterbug.htm )…those collections use Waverly fabrics that have nice coordinating patterns. She painted what was the office (which happened to be the darker tan) with the vertical stripes like they are in the picture first, then when they found out the gender she played up the ladybugs a bit more with some accessory pieces. She would have played up the dragonflies if it were a boy. She bought new drawer pulls for a dresser to put in there.
Also, read this: http://ourjourneytoclaire.blogspot.com/
for some inspiration. Her father is a minister, she is in education and they adopted their daughter last year.
Oh to have an endless design budget! Those are so beautiful, I would just LOVE to do interior design.
i love that book shelf idea! i have a whole book with nursery design ideas that i feel the need to go pull out now…..
Those are all so cute they make me want to re-do Maisie’s nursery (which we will be doing soon anyway because she is headed for a big girl bed in the not-too-distant future, probably). M’s room has a very similar wall color to the color in picture #2, and her crib is the same as the one in #5, except she has the version with the walnut trim. So fun!
I just searched through my facebook pictures looking for pictures of River’s nursery…but couldn’t find them. Maybe I will have to do a post to show it off. ;o) We did have a theme though, it is Turtle Bay by Cocalo. We have a wave mural painted all the way around the room.
Here’s a nursery I had book marked when I was looking for ideas. http://chikaustin.com/2009/09/07/the-nursery/
I love fabric and mixing patterns so many of my searches were looking for nurseries using Amy Butler fabrics (LOVE!). Neat ideas!
Some other baby blogs/nursery ideas I had bookmarked:
http://cadenlane.com/crib-bedding.html
http://projectnursery.com/blog/
http://growinglimabean.blogspot.com/search/label/nursery
http://www.pregosaur.com/2009/08/my-baby-gear-101.html
http://baby411.typepad.com/babybargains/
See you tomorrow!
absolutely gorgeous!! I so could look at nurseries all day long. And i am in love with the last nursery you posted too. it is perfect!! Ill definitely have to check those links out that you posted. Thanks!
So when are you adopting?! that’s so exciting! very happy for you.
hope you are having a fabulous weekend!
Libby
For the crib in the last photo – a similar one is at walmart online. I got black because that is what the store had in stock but they have it in white and it is only $99. It does not have a dropside but it is a little lower than the average crib so it doesn’t need one even with the mattress on the lowest setting. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Storkcraft-Sheffield-Stages-Crib-White/13399621 The only difference from the picture is that the mattress support is wire not a solid wood piece.
For the rug – I don’t live near an Ikea but if I did I would buy this http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30112572 and do this http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2010/06/diy-chevron-rug.html
Ha, I never have pictures of my kids’ rooms either, which I just discovered when I tried to find some for you. I didn’t have a theme for A’s room but everyone kept ASKING me so I went with stars and moon and it worked well, to have a general theme like that. One thing I’ve done is have their name on the wall, in one way or another. I bought letters for Anthony and Maria and then with Veronica I was just going to write her name in a Sharpie on the wall of the closet (ha!) but we ended up taking them all down when we put our house on the market. But I do like an initial or their name or something. I love your color theme, it sounds dreamy.
Ummm…am I the only one who didn’t know you could design your own fabric and have it printed at this spoonflower place?? That is amazing to me! Also, I have that exact light fixture in the first picture, I got it at a yard sale years ago, and have seen many at yard sales/thrift stores since then. Would it be weird if I said I would keep an eye out for you? I mean seriously, I think I paid $5 for mine, MAYBE $10.
Not weird at all! I would appreciate that. I love that fixture! Thank you.