It's about time I gave y'all some photos of the nursery! I realized I can be so hesitant to share a room until it is absolutely perfect, which can be so paralyzing. DIY and design take time for us because we both work full time jobs that are quite time consuming (Casey is an IT consultant and I am a pelvic floor physical therapist), so we only have the weekends to work.
As for the design part...I am obviously not a professional, so sometimes there is a lot of trial and error of what size rug I need, what size art, etc. But lucky for y'all, I make the mistakes and then share them with y'all!
SHOP NURSERY SOURCES
Here is the first view of our nursery and I do not think I could love a room any more. I am still very uncertain as to what is my "design style" and quite honestly I think it keeps evolving with every room. However, there are two things I do love, and those are a white wall and decorative molding. If y'all have been following along on our Instagram account and stories, then you know that I have sloooowly been painting our entire house white (previously grey from the builder) with the exception of some of the offshoot rooms.
To date I have painted the dining room, kitchen, entryway, guest (Roe's) bedroom, master bedroom and now nursery white. And yes, I had to paint the ceiling in every room as well, which I might officially list as my least favorite DIY task. The white I have used everywhere is Pure White by Sherwin Williams. I always recommend testing out a few whites in various rooms of the house before choosing one because all whites can look drastically different in natural lighting depending on the direction from which the light enters the room (north, south, east, west).
The first thing we did in this room was paint the ceiling and 2/3rd of the walls white. I originally wanted to paint the entire room Sulking Room Pink by Farrow and Ball, which is the color of the shiplap color matched through Sherwin Williams, but the room is quite small with not a ton of natural light, so I wanted some white in the room to help brighten the space. I also decided to do color on the wainscoting instead of the traditional white because I feel it is more modern and not as traditional as typical wainscoting.
After painting the room white, we installed the vertical shiplap. It took a few days of playing around with heights of the boards for me to finally decide on the perfect height for our wainscoting. You can read more about how we decided on the height for the wainscoting here. We also went for a more minimal chair rail rather than something thick with several trim pieces. Once again, modern and minimal is the look I was going for, and I think it turned out just as I imagined.
We had painted and installed vertical shiplap in my mom's Emerald green bathroom prior to this project, so we felt well versed in the ins and outs of installing vertical shiplap. The only thing we changed this time versus the Emerald bathroom was we used brad nails and liquid nails/construction adhesive because the boards were going to be shorter and less likely to hit a stud at the top of the wall. We also used our Graco TC Pro paint sprayer for the painting all of the shiplap and wow did it make a HUGE difference. You can read our review of the paint sprayer here.
With the painting completed and wainscoting installed, the rest was relatively easy...except for getting the crib into the nursery. The crib was delivered two weeks before we were ready to move it into the nursery, so we had the movers install it in Roe's room, which seemed like a great idea at the time because her room is directly across from the nursery. However, we did not measure the doorway beforehand and quickly realized we would need to completely disassemble the crib in Roe's room, move each piece into the nursery and then reassemble it, which is exactly what we did. Casey was thrilled. Like I said before, we make the mistakes so y'all don't have to!
We also installed the curtain rod differently than I normally would prefer. This was because the window is only a few inches from the corner wall, so we could not hang the rod "high and wide" as we typically would. Additionally, I opted for a wrap around curtain rod to allow the rod to get as close to the corner wall as possible and to make the blackout curtains as effective as possible.
BEFORE
AFTER
Virtually ALL of my friends with babies suggested we invest in blackout curtains because you want the room as DARK as possible when sleeping training your baby. The curtains we bought from West Elm came with the option of lined or unlined, so naturally we opted for the blackout lined. We might add a roman shade as well for additional darkness, but we have time for that before the baby comes and we need a break from this nursery!
The one thing that I am still pondering is whether or not I should paint the doors pink. We painted the doors black in our Moody Office as well as the Emerald Bathroom, and I love the way it looks. My only concern is that as our baby girl grows and potentially wants a new color in the room, do I really want to pain the doors again? I mean we have done it before and have the necessary materials, so it truly would not be a huge deal. I just cannot make up my mind.
A few other notes. The marble side table is actually from our living room and we are debating keeping it in the nursery and making a wooden waterfall table for the living room. TBD. The stems are repurposed from our master bedroom, but we will likely purchase the same ones for both rooms! And finally the gold hexagon mirror was from my childhood room at my mom's house, so I am glad to pass it along to my baby girl! If we had not repurposed some of these pieces from our own home we likely would have found much more budget friendly options.
BABY REGISTRY
Which brings me to our baby registry! A few weeks ago I asked for y'all's suggestions on what we must have on our registry, but to keep in mind we want as few things as possible. We have heard from so many of our friends that you do not end up using more than 50% of the things you register for and we simply do not want to fall into that trap. The fewer things to clean and launder, the better!
There were a couple of items that were suggested over and over again such as the Hatch night light and Ollie swaddle, so we were sure to add both of those to our list.
As a pelvic floor physical therapist myself I want to suggest that a registry is a great place to add a few postpartum items to care for YOURSELF as well. For instance, you might consider adding a fund for a childbirth education class, a pelvic floor physical therapy appointment, a pregnancy or postpartum exercise guide, a lactation consult or a newborn sleep class. There are SO many great courses now offered online and I highly suggest taking advantage of them. Remember, the focus tends to fall on the baby and the baby's needs, but don't forget to take care of yourself as well.
Here are so favorite professionals of mine who have courses on all of the above listed topics:
You can find our baby registry linked here, and I will list the most common items shared below:
-Keekaroo changing pad: suggested instead of traditional changing pad with sheets and liners because with the Keekaroo you can simply wipe it clean...no laundry (hallelujah!)
-Ubbi diaper pail: this was suggested by SO many as the best diaper pail to keep the smell at bay
-Hatch night light: a favorite among our followers this was suggested by many because it doubles as a night light and sound machines which we will need for white noise to help with sleep training
-Ollie swaddle: many simply suggested swaddles, but a few of y'all were VERY adamant about the Ollie swaddle because it has velcro and is designed for both arms in or out depending on your baby's sleeping preference
-Swaddle blankets: Muslin blankets seemed to be the favorite
-Cheap crib sheets: this makes sense because the sheets will become stained quickly!
-Grooming kit (thermometer, nail clippers, brushes)
-Boppy nursing pillow: can be used as a pregnancy pillow, nursing pillow and tummy time pillow!
-DIAPERS and WIPES: duhh this is a no brainer
-Solly wrap: a TON of y'all suggested going the route of wraps and slings rather than fancy chairs and bouncers which I think we will try as well!
See More Related Posts About the Nursery!
Nursery Sources Roundup
Comments