Let me begin this post by saying I am obviously in no way a fabulous decorator or designer. When it came time to put together a nursery for our baby boy, I knew I could never replicate the incredibly gorgeous Pinterest-worthy rooms I bookmarked as my inspiration and instead set out to create a space that felt comfortable, calming and baby-friendly.
I am sure our nursery will evolve many times over as our baby grows and we learn more about what we do and do not need as first-time parents, but I still wanted to give you guys a little glimpse into our baby’s nursery in the meantime!
Nursery Tour
Whether Ryan and I were going to have a girl or boy, I knew I wanted a fairly neutral nursery that didn’t feature tons of blue or pink. As far as color schemes were concerned, I gravitated toward warm beige, crisp white and creamy ivory, but as we began decorating, pops of a gray/blue color naturally began to surface and I didn’t mind the color as much as I anticipated.
Since the nursery is a fairly small room with only one window, it can look very dark. Ryan and I wanted to lighten up the space and began our decorating adventure by painting the gray nursery walls a light beige color. (We used Olympic Paints Brandied Pears from Lowe’s.)
Ryan tackled painting while I was out of town once weekend (wonderful!) and I arrived home to a room that felt 10,000 times more welcoming. I loved it and immediately got to work selecting furniture that I thought would continue to brighten the nursery up a bit. My wonderful friends at Wayfair offered to outfit us with a few key things for our nursery and I could not have been more thrilled and grateful to them! I ended up selecting mostly white furniture and ordered a crib, changing table and side table from Wayfair.
I swapped out the previously plain white nobs on the dresser with decorative ceramic nobs I found at HomeGoods and love the way they made the piece look a little more unique!
(Changing Table/Dresser: DaVinci Porter Three-Drawer Dresser Changer)
Our glider and gliding ottoman also came from Wayfair and I chose it after speaking with my friend Leah who owns a similar glider and loves it. (Topped with a pillow and blanket from HomeGoods!) And yes, the bare wall space on that wall is driving me crazy right now. We’ll hang something there eventually!
(Gilder: Baby Relax Swivel Glider and Ottoman // Side Table: Safavieh Milan End Table)
The glider arrived and was a much deeper beige than I initially anticipated, but Ryan loved it and the color slowly grew on me. Plus, the glider seems like it will be crazy comfortable, so it’s a keeper.
Our second step was figuring out how we wanted to layout the furniture in the room. Since the room is rather small, it was a bit of a challenge and we ended up going with a layout that made the most sense and allowed us to fit every piece of furniture into the room without things looking too crowded. This would have obviously been easier had we not included a twin bed in the nursery, but this was something I felt strongly about keeping in the room, as I’ve had several friends recommend keeping a small bed in the nursery if you can and we already had a spare bed from my grandmother on hand that I wanted to incorporate into the room.
I purchased fluffy white bedding that reminded me of the bedding I’ve loved for years from Anthropologie! Throw pillows from Safavieh (on sale via RueLaLa) and Interior Define (c/o) were placed on top along with two adorable stuffed animals dressed in blue outfits that my mom gave to me for our baby.
And then it came time to add some color and life into the room! I was fortunate enough to stumble upon beautiful crib bedding from Aden + Anais at HomeGoods and picked up a crib sheet with tiny blue and beige stars and a soft baby blue changing pad cover. (My mom made the beautiful ivory blanked draped over the side of the crib.)
(Crib: Graco Lauren Convertible Crib)
I also grabbed a distressed crate and cloth hippo toy bin at HomeGoods to use to store adorable stuffed animals and blankets.
As for the prints in our nursery, I bought them on sale via Zulily and placed them in four matching beadboard frames from Michael’s.
I’d like to eventually (safely!) hang something over the crib as well, but I’m not quite sure what just yet. Maybe a photo frame with pictures of our little one once he’s born?
So that’s it! A little glimpse into our ever-evolving nursery! Thanks so much for joining me on this little tour!
P.S. The formatting on this post is driving me crazy! I was having uploading issues this morning and had to use WordPress rather than my beloved Windows Live Writer and it’s not letting me center images or resize things properly! Still working on it now to no avail…
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We have a space above the crib that needs something as well, I am also thinking a picture of the new babe once he gets here and has his newborn pics done. I am sure I will have a shrine of him thru out the house once he is here lol
It’s so beautiful Julie!! What a lucky little boy 🙂
Thank you! <3
Julie! This is stunning! It feels so calm and perfect in the room. I love what you did and love that twin bed. Such a perfect space. I’ve gotten some great things from Wayfair at amazing deals before. I am a fan.
Booo on the Live Writer. I use it , per your recommendation no less, and love it. It goes down on me sometimes too and I am at a loss! Such a time saver.
thank you!! and i agree about WLW — it’s amazing most of the time but absolutely infuriating when it doesn’t work!
Absolutely precious! The finishing touches will come and it will be perfect for your boy.
The nursery is too precious!! Love the neutral colors! The little cloth toy bin is adorable, but that’s a hippo on it–not an elephant. Thanks for sharing!
omg where is my mind this morning? duh. just updated the post. can i blame pregnancy brain?
Haha of course you can! 🙂
You did a wonderful job decorating! Love the calming and neutral feel of the room. Baby boy will be very happy to fall asleep in his beautiful room!
I highly approve of the presence of stuffed animals.
Hey Julie! The room looks great!! Might I give a recommendation, regarding curtains? I looked for cute, white, frilly curtains for our little girl’s room for ages before she was born and finally gave up. I ended up being so glad that I didn’t buy the cute curtains because once she was born and in her room, I realized that I wanted BLACK-OUT curtains! They were a big help when it came to getting her to nap/sleep well. Just a tip that you can take or leave haha! Take care! 🙂
yes!! i think that’s what’s taking me so long — i want to find black out curtains that still look okay in the room. where did you end up finding yours?
Yes, highly recommend black-out curtains. Our girls room (now 3) gets the west sun and it’s bright at 9pm most summer nights! I made mine…found fabric and black-out liner. It was much cheaper and turned out nicer than just a plain color that most stores have for blackout curtains. If you can sew a straight line, you can do it. Or have someone else, but it’s an easy job! The nursery is so peaceful and sweet, baby boy will love it and you will enjoy the peaceful place!
We got ours from somewhere boring, like Home Depot or Lowe’s! It was a chocolate brown color, which fortunately went with our color scheme. But I will say that once you have the baby, the nursery will likely be more about functionality vs. cuteness. 😉 Us moms want everything to look perfect before baby is born, but after, you realize you just need it to work practically for you! That being said, if you somehow find a cute black-out curtain, please share on your blog where you found it. We’re expecting baby #2 in November, so even though I just told you that you’ll eventually want a practical room, I’m still at the point of wanting a cute one again haha!! Take care and enjoy this season! <3
This makes me feel better lol — we moved into our house the day after my first was born, so I never got the nursery this pretty. I worried about unpacking and making it functional first, and once that was done I never got around to making it pretty. When I got pregnant the second time I spent all my time sorting and boxing hand me down clothes and making sure there were no toys that could be thrown into the crib. Anytime I look at Pinterest I feel like I total mom failure because I don’t have the room decorated yet…but at least it’ll save me from having to redecorate when the boys get older and don’t like lions and airplanes anymore. 😛
We got our blackout curtains at JoAnn’s fabrics!! You make them yourself if you don’t mind sewing!
I bought ivory faux silk blackout curtains from Overstock for our little one. I think the brand was Lights Out! Even in the ivory color, it does a great job of blocking out the sun!
Love the nursery! Where did you get the diaper tote that you have on your changing table? I love it! We’re moving our son from the bassinet in our room to the crib in his room tonight. 🙁 I so wish I had a bed in his room so I could sleep in there with him.
Amazon! We registered for it when one of my girlfriends recommended it for easy portability! The brand is Trend Lab –> http://amzn.to/1C2h2nd
Thanks!
gorgeous! i love all the light / neutral colors!
Such a beautiful nursery! With all the neutral colors, it will be very calming (and hopefully help with sleep!!)
I love it! i love how you kept things simple and not cluttered. I really like the hippo toy storage – it will help maintain small amounts of toys in the future. The prints are adorable!
thank you! i am sure keeping clutter away will become increasingly difficult, but i’m determined right now because that room seems to fill up quickly!!
You should check out the posts by YoungHouseLove (I wish they’d come back to blogging!) when they were doing their youngest child’s room, in regards to what to put on the wall over the crib. They had some pretty cool ideas.
I miss their blog, too! I’ll definitely go back to check out their nursery photos. Thanks for the rec!
I love the nursery! I have anxiously been awaiting the tour. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you, Casie!!
What a cute nursery!
I had a friend leave a futon in their nursery when their second child was born and she said it was a lifesaver.
The nursery looks beautiful! I’m so excited for you to welcome your little boy into the world!
Beautiful! Recommendation – Use one of the storage bins next to the glide to have bottle water and snacks available at arms reach! BF hunger and thirst is intense and comes on strong! 🙂 Don’t worry to much about the blank wall space – you can just fill it up with newborn baby/ family pictures 🙂
Great idea!! I have one bin full of books right now but will definitely use the other for snacks and water since it’s currently empty!
One of my best friends had a little boy in April and her nursery is similar to yours- mostly white and grey- pretty neutral but there are elephants everywhere! It’s super cute though- decorating a nursery seems like fun!
Yay, I’ve been waiting for this!! It is such a relaxing space and those animal pics…adorable!! I think that space over the rocker would be the perfect spot for a large version of your first family photo.
The nursery looks great!! I wish I had as great of taste as you do. We just got done painting our nursery but now my mind is overflowing with decorative ideas and I don’t know where to stop them.
AWWW this is such a beautiful nursery!!
Love it! And really love that you didn’t go overboard with decorating – calm spaces are so much more pleasant in my opinion. I definitely second the blackout shade suggestion. You can always hide it behind curtains too! As for above the crib, I ordered a handmade bunting hanging that had my son’s name on it from etsy. I love it and since its cloth and light, I hung it over the crib without worry. (And up high enough that he could never grab it if he wanted to).
Such a cute nursery.! If you can find good black out curtains to go with your colors/theme, do it! They have made a world of difference in getting my 4 month old to sleep longer stretches. It might not be a huge deal since the days are going to start getting shorter now and your little one might be in your room at first anyway (not sure if you’ve covered this or not), but come next spring/summer when the days are longer and you want him to sleep before sundown or past sunrise and you’ll be glad you did!
We have the exact same glider from Wayfair, except it is gray. I love it!
So glad you are a fan!! I wanted something comfortable (#1 priority!) but also something that looks like a more normal comfortable chair rather than the traditional glider. So happy to hear you are enjoying yours!
I’m having the hardest time decided on a glider. With your two endorsements, I’m headed to Wayfair to check them out. I also wanted a chair that looked like it belongs with the living room instead of the traditional nursery chair. Is it tall enough you could lean your head back?
Love the neutrals! We aren’t finding out the sex of our little one and everything we are doing is cream, taupe, grey and light green – all based on a custom print of an elephant I commissioned for my husband on our first wedding anniversary! 🙂
It’s a little too short for much neck support so if that is important to you, I might look elsewhere. It’s really comfortable but definitely not the tallest chair out there!
Very cute nursery! Love the colors scheme you went with. Your little guy will be here before you know it! 🙂
Super tasteful! I love your choices. 🙂
Love the nursery! The glider looks great, Maybe I will get one of those. Mine broke in our move 🙁
Just beautiful, Julie! You did a fabulous job with it! The glider you got looks gloriously comfy. You will appreciate it so much! 🙂
We received a beautiful crib set at our shower and while I loved the crib sheet and skirt it came with, I knew I would not put the bumper or quilt in with the baby. So I got rid of the bumper and hung the quilt on the wall over the crib. Everyone always compliments it and now that our baby is older (4 years old) she still wants it hanging on the wall! She doesn’t want to take it down.
You did such a great job! I love how neutral everything is..I wouldn’t mind this for my bedroom! I bet the baby will love it..looks very soothing. Great job Julie and thanks for sharing!
You have done a beautiful job, Julie! My husband and I are doing very similar colors and are basing our color scheme off of a giant world map that we purchased from Ikea (we are doing a travel themed nursery). I think the lighter colors definitely help brighten the room, especially if there isn’t much light to begin. I think you will find the one window a good thing when it comes time to sleep! 🙂
It looks wonderful! Where did you get your diaper organizer? I need one of those!
Love it! I am a big fan of the “neural” nursery feel, and we are doing a similar brown/beige/white/ feel but with little accents of soft pink and olive green for our girly 🙂 I think keeping a bed in there is a great idea, especially for the first few weeks if you need it! We have a small loveseat in ours currently and I’ve debated keeping it or not! And I agree with Kristen above, you will be thankful for a bit of a darker room once he’s here and needs it to sleep better!
They don’t recommend hanging anything over the crib, in case it falls and hurts baby. We went with a custom name decal from Etsy. You could always check there!
I recommend adding as much storage as you can. The 3 drawer dresser will fill up quickly with clothes. Then you’ve got bibs and burp cloths (tons and tons of them if your baby is a spitter like mine), various swaddling sacks, etc etc. that you will want right next to the changing table. I also suggest a laundry hamper very close to the changing table. In times of diaper emergencies, you’ll want somewhere to put the soiled stuff.
We started with a super minimalist look in our nursery and then added a ton of storage once we had trouble containing all the stuff. Babies use so much STUFF.
I love the way it turned out! We have very similar style… I love neutral colors and clean, comfortable design. You want this to be a calming environment, not a room filled with noise and too much clutter. You did an awesome job and those prints are THE CUTEST!!!
Your nursery is so so cute! I love it! The color scheme is perfect! I think it is super smart to put a bed in the room with the crib because my little girl never ended up sleeping in her nursery because I wanted her in the room with me 🙂 She is 1.5 years old now, and I am just barely considering putting her in her own little room 🙂
Absolutely adorable room. I love seeing the Bobbsey Twins book! I have some that were my mother’s that have the same binding. Please send me your address again, I have misplaced it. I have a little happy for you.
Just beautiful! What a lucky little boy 🙂
What a beautiful nursery! My room has never come CLOSE to looking so nice– if I could have that room (crib included), I would so take it!
Your nursery is so cute! Love the little framed animals! My little guy is one and I ended up putting decals above the crib from Target since he is a little wild man and I was afraid he would pull something down on himself. I was unsure what to do with pics since they change so quickly so I took some twine and hung it in 3 rows(kind is like a clothesline with command hooks) and used blue clothes pins(from Michael’s) to clip pictures to it. He loves looking a pictures and it is super easy to switch them out when you want. Also, that twin bed is beautiful and you will love having it in there.
Your nursery is so calming and fresh. I love it!
Love it! The nursery is so adorable. He’s going to be a lucky little boy. 🙂
Beautiful color palate. You will not regret having a bed in the nursery. I slept in ours frequently in the early days of having a newborn when I was nursing all hours of the night. I got pretty adept at nursing while lying in bed.
Your nursery is gorgeous!! I love the neutral colors and how clean and peaceful it seems. I also had a twin bed in my baby’s room and used it A LOT in the first few weeks! And you will be so happy to have a comfy glider when you’re spending hours rocking that sweet baby! 🙂
Beautiful color scheme! The nursery looks gorgeous.
what a lovely space! i really like the color palette you’ve chosen — so calm and soothing.
This is really adorable. And you guys were SPOT. ON. with the warm hues! I just recently had lunch with a student who is pregnant and working in the obstetrics department at the hospital, and she said she picked beige and green hues for her nursery because they’re scientifically proven to be calming now only to the newborn but the parents as well! And you know the saying.. If mama ‘aint happy, ‘aint nobody happy! 😉
Beautiful nursery!
It’s beautiful! I adore the neutral, comfortable color scheme! And isn’t it amazing how the smallest details can make the biggest difference? New knobs, vintage children’s novel, and small toys that mean the world – they really make a space feel like home. 🙂
Thank you!! The little things are my favorite, too. 🙂
I love the way the room turned out! It is so simple and elegant.