Our Neutral Nursery

If you can believe it, this is the first nursery I’ve ever designed!!! And they are soooo fun. Small space, lots of options to be as colorful or as playful or as whatEVER you want?! I love it.

When Eleanor was born, we lived in a rental in the city so we were brave enough to paint but the rest was minimal decor.

Oliver was born when we were renting in Brooklyn and pretty sure we’d been in the apartment for 3 weeks when he came along… so a trip to Ikea for a new bright rug was sadly the only decorating he got.

Martha never even had a room… she shared with us in Brooklyn and then we up and headed to Connecticut. Technically, this was her room, but it was hardly decorated FOR her. It was a guest room that doubled as her nursery. Ditto Louisa… guest room/ nursery combo.

But Baby #5 gets his or her very own pimped out mack daddy designarama nursery and I’m SO into it!!! This space came together in my pregnancy addled brain without too much planning or nosing around. I did start a Pinterest board, but I can’t say that I took anything specific from these spaces… more a feeling of calm and texture and serenity. Here’s how the room looked before:

And here’s the after!

I’ll share a tutorial on the plank wall and tips I’ve learned about wallpaper (I still have a long way to go before I declare expertise with this…). The room used to be beat up. Tired ol’ wallpaper border, holes from goodness knows what in the ceiling, scuffed walls, old glow in the dark stars all over the ceiling… Before I could start anything, I had to go to battle with the wallpaper strip… I’ve been spoiled by wallpaper removal in the past, but this one gave me a run for my money. Affiliate links included for your convenience. This scoring tool was essential, and then I sprayed it with this remover and slowly but surely scraped it all off.  For the large holes in the ceiling, I needed to bring in some of this drywall joint tape and spackle. This tape is self adhesive so I just cut it to cover each hole, stuck it in place, spackled over and sanded sanded sanded. I’m NOT a perfectionist even a little bit about my prep work, but this tape makes it pretty easy. The ceiling is nice and smooth now!

If you follow me on Facebook, then you saw this image I shared of the first gray I tried: Behr Marquis Dutch White… not gray. Lavender to the max. Behr’s Tin Smith to the rescue for the ceiling, inside the closet and one adjacent wall.

Rather than pull apart a jillion pallets 35 weeks pregnant, I just used some 1x4s from Home Depot. Took a couple of hours to stain and an afternoon to install. WAY easy. (Tutorial HERE.)

The wallpaper is heaven. It’s from Hygge and West and you’ve probably seen it pop up elsewhere because it’s so great… now I got some for myself!

The glider has been around since Eleanor was born and the dresser was something I stripped down ages ago for a blog post.

The curtains are from Homegoods and I love them. I could use block print fabric in every room for all eternity. I found the curtain pull backs at the flea market (which you knew if you follow me on Instagram) and the two hot air balloon prints are thrifted as well. The string art was just shared over at Classy Clutter… DIY.

Other sources? The mobile is this one from Amazon, the Buddha and the brass jewel were both from Homegoods, and the rug we’ve had forever… it’s this one. The lamp and the Moroccan table are two more flea market purchases.

We love a minicrib for newborns and have used this one for a while… I know folks have different opinions on a crib bumper, but for the first couple of months, let’s be honest… baby’s not moving anywhere so we keep it on until we see signs of mobility!

The closet doors need to be custom fit (who knows where the previous ones ended up…), so stay tuned for a possible post on how I’ll make that happen. For now, it’s just open storage! I’m a few weeks away from inserting an actual infant into this space, but… I walk by the one finished room in this new house and smile. I love it and can’t wait to bring more spaces into focus over here!!