GENDER NEUTRAL NURSERY DESIGN

Nesting is real, guys.

I was 8 months pregnant when my husband Tim and I bought a house. Upside: I had the best excuse to not lift a single finger while we moved! Downside: We had an entire house to furnish and decorate before our baby was born…and my nesting instinct was in OVERDRIVE. I was like a very pregnant little bumble bee buzzing around trying to get things done–but in reality I was just bumping around aimlessly with no idea of where to start. It was so overwhelming! I finally decided to focus my attention on the nursery, where I could really let my nesting flag fly.

Because Tim and I chose to not find out the gender of our baby, I was tasked with creating a gender neutral nursery that wasn’t jungle themed, elephants, or yellow. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of these things! But I wanted to go outside the box a little and give myself a challenge. I settled on LOTS OF GRAY (super creative, I know! haha) and found inspiration from a framed cactus photo and a set of little woodland creatures wearing tribal headdresses. And thus, a theme was born: a desert/woodland vibe with lots of foxes and touches of gold. For those of you who don’t give a crap about designing a nursery (and where everything came from), I promise I’ll have non-baby related posts in the future.

1. INSPIRATION: Woodland Creatures Wearing Tribal Headdresses & A Cactus Photo

The first thing I found when planning out the design of the nursery was a set of prints from Etsy that were so cute I could have cried. They still bring me so much joy every time I look at them! You can find them here. I also stumbled upon this framed cactus photo from World Market and I knew I had to have it. As I mentioned above, those four little guys and the cactus photo set the tone for the rest of the room.

2. THE ESSENTIALS: Crib, Rocker, Dresser with Changing Table

Who knew there are things you actually NEED in a nursery? Apparently it’s not just about cute wall hangings! I found the whole process of picking out the crib, rocker and dresser extremely overwhelming and relatively boring. They all seemed to look fairly similar, but yet I found that I suddenly became very picky. I finally settled on a crib by Babyletto, a dresser with changing table by Delta Children and a rocker by Baby Relax ALL of which I got from Target. I am so happy with all of these items, but just as an FYI the dresser was a bit of a B to assemble (And that is coming from my wonderful Dad who put it together–God bless him–and who is the handiest person on the planet). But hey, the rocker arrived in only two parts and took 30 seconds to put together. Tim put the crib together and besides an issue with a part, the assembly went very smoothly. I also changed the knobs on the dresser to better match my theme. I found the gold knobs at HomeGoods and they were super easy to switch out!

3. A PLACE FOR TCHOTCHKES (and some added storage): Side table, Shelf, and Cube Organizer

Would life be any fun without a good (and totally pointless) tchotchke? I think not. I also just like saying it–spelling it is a whole other story. I found the side table at Target, and was immediately obsessed because the two tiers meant there was room for both tchotchkes AND more functional things like a lamp. It’s from a new line at Target that I really love called Project 62. The triangle wall shelf is from my favorite store of all time, World Market. It was a bit of a splurge for a shelf, but at the time my mindset was, “THIS IS FOR MY UNBORN CHILD AND HE OR SHE DESERVES THE WORLD,” so I got it anyway and I have no regrets. Finally, the cube organizer was also from Target (are you sensing a pattern yet? Basically Target owns my soul at this point…) and it was very easy to put together. I got the cube storage bins from Target too, because duh.

4. LET THERE BE LIGHT: Reading Lamp and the Coolest Chandelier Ever

I don’t usually become obsessed with light fixtures, but when I do it’s because said fixture was sent from the lighting Gods above. That’s how I feel about this bad boy, which I found on Etsy along with the lightbulbs. It really changes the whole look of the room, and my Dad even put it on a dimmer which is perfect for late night nursery visits when I’d rather not be blinded by the light. The reading lamp is from World Market–the base and shade were sold separately.

5. ALL OF THE THINGS: Foxes, Furry Stools, Rugs and Wall Art

Now for the fun part! Screw elephants, I have officially become obsessed with foxes! Pretty sure I hit an up and coming trend, too, because I feel like I now see them everywhere. So when you start seeing foxes everywhere, send them all to me.  All of the foxes seen in these photos were from Target. The fake cactus and wire book basket are from Target, too, because why wouldn’t they be. The geometric tchotchkes were repurposed from my wedding and were most likely found at HomeGoods. My furry little stool is from World Market, as well as the gold disc wall art and the basket I use for laundry. Finally, the curtains are from Ikea, and the rug (which unfortunately I can’t find the exact one) is from LOWES! Weird, right? But I love it!

Now for THE REAL STUFF. While designing and decorating the nursery went pretty smoothly, there are a few things I would like to ‘expose’ if you will. First of all, I definitely became obsessed with this project, and not in a cute mama bear preparing for her cub way. I almost became a bit neurotic with obsessing over every little detail. I’m not sure if this was my nesting instinct coming into play, or the fact that I was so anxious for the baby to come that I wanted everything to be PERFECT. It’s funny looking back now at how particular I was about every single thing in the room and where it was placed, because after all it IS a nursery where a child is legitimately supposed to play and mess it up. This neurotic behavior also meant that I let Tim help with ZERO parts of the design other than putting the crib together (and eventually the ‘feng shui’). Which is SO not cool. Thankfully he really loved how it came out, but if I could have been a little less obsessed with my ‘vision,’ it might have been a better experience for both of us.

I also didn’t think about the fact that we would barely use the nursery when the baby was born. I was so intent on having everything ready in the nursery, that I kind of glazed over the fact that our pediatrician told us the baby should really sleep in our room for the first few months. The week before my due date, I found myself on Amazon Prime searching for bassinets to use by our bed because this is something I didn’t even think to have on our registry! (I will do another post with all the things I DID have and needed and those that I should have added and/or taken off.) As it would turn out, we also change the baby downstairs in the living room 90% of the time, so the nursery really doesn’t get much use yet. If you’re stressing to finish your nursery in time, give yourself a break and just focus instead on having a safe place for the baby to sleep!

I also 100% spent too much money on this damn room, and as Tim pointed out we basically gave part of our baby’s college fund to Target. As I mentioned above, I somehow got into the mindset of ‘no cost is too ridiculous for my baby!’ which was fun at the time, but looking back I definitely might have gone overboard. But hey, ya live and ya learn. And every time I go into that room with my sweet little babe, I think about all the love I put into it. Someday I hope she will name each of the woodland creatures on the wall, and I’ll smile and know it was all worth it.