I mentioned in my last post that if I were to choose a One Little Word for May, it would be ACTION because holy moly, do we still have a lot to do before our little guy arrives. At the top of our action list is the nursery so I thought it’d be fun to share a peek into what I’m currently planning for the design.
The Nursery Layout
To give you some context, we currently live in a two-bedroom apartment here in Houston which means we’re going to be turning our current office into an office/nursery.
It’s thankfully a decent sized room but the downside is that it only really has one full wall and corner when it comes to furniture placement which has made things tricky. The other three walls include:
- One wall with an awesome bank of windows but low window sills (and we’re several floors up so safety is an issue)
- One partial wall which holds both the door to the hallway and the adjoining bathroom
- One full wall where the hall door swings in losing about 3-4 feet of usable space
After arranging and then re-arranging the furniture in this room, we ultimately decided to keep our desks along the one full wall and the window wall where they are now and use the other two walls for the nursery half of the room. We’ve measured it all out and while it’ll be a tight fit furniture-wise, we think we can make it work. Plus I like that this layout will keep the office and nursery areas separate rather than having say, a desk in-between the crib and glider or what not.
As far as storage, the room includes a large attached bathroom and a huge walk-in closet (so big my 16 square 4×4 Ikea Expedit fits into it) so we’ll be relying on those spaces heavily for any additional storage and since we’ll be moving again next summer, this layout really only has to last us until he’s just around one years old.
Here’s a quick visual to give you an idea of the layout:
We’re planning to put the dresser on the half wall between the doors (it currently has an office stand with my typewriter on it – not sure where that will go) and then the crib & a glider on the wall with the door. It does mean you’ll walk into the end of the crib when you walk into the room but that should also mean we can peek in on him without too much trouble.
We’re also going to be moving the desk area along the windows over to the left a bit to give more breathing room around the chair/crib but since that requires me to move all my scrap/sewing stuff out of it first, I haven’t been motivated to do it yet.
The Nursery Mood Board
That’s our plan for the layout, now on to the fun part: the design!
Since the outdoors and camping are near and dear to our heart (the first gift Adam ever bought me was a tent and he proposed to me on a trip to Sequoia National Park) we thought a camping/outdoor theme would be a fun direction for the nursery.
Because this is a shared adult/kid space, I wanted the nursery side of the room to feel child-friendly without being too over-the-top cutesy.
For the color scheme, I’m sticking with blues & greens (my faves) plus some reds (Adam’s fave) as well as gray, wood tones and some gold thrown in there as neutrals.
I’ve been saving ideas for months and months on a secret Pinterest board so it was fun to finally put my ideas down into an official mood board!
1) Blue Danube Natura paint from Benjamin Moore: We used this for an accent wall in our living room so we already had some on hand. This is the third time I’ve used this color though so it’s safe to say it’s one of my fave shades of blue paint ever.
2) Be Brave Gold Foil Print by Charm & Gumption
3) Birch round from Michael’s: Found this on an end cap there and plan to add his first initial once it’s settled. For now I went with a J for Jackman.
4) Modern Moose Owl from Target: Just picked this up on Monday and they were on sale for $10. They had some other cute ones too (moose, etc.)
5) Let’s Go Camping Card from thelittlecanoe: We bought this at the Austin Renegade Craft Fair awhile back so I’m excited to finally have a place to use it.
7) Vintage Inspired Science Posters – FEATHER PATTERNS Vol. 3 by vol. 25: Got this for $10 off in honor of Mother’s Day – sale ends May 9th. I own like 4 or 5 vol. 25 prints already so clearly I’m a fan.
8) Olin Grey 2’x6′ Runner from Crate & Barrel: The room is carpet and there isn’t a ton of floor space so I thought this could work to add some pizazz to the floor. Plus the price is right for a rug.
9) Bright Moose and Squirrel Camping 6×6 Print by leearthaus
10) Charcoal Luca Glider from Land of Nod: This is our one splurge item for the nursery but we figure it’ll be worth it since it can be used well past the baby stage.
11) Elk Throw pillow by Tangerine Home: I don’t think these are sold anymore – we bought ours at the Renegade Craft Fair a few years ago for Adam’s man cave.
12) Ikea HEMNES 3 drawer chest in white: The size and price are right and I love the idea of possibly spiffing it up to be more custom. Thinking something like this but maybe not chevron since the curtains are already chevron.
13) Arrow Wall Hook from CB2: Not sure what I’ll use this for yet but it seems fun!
14) Premier Prints Indoor/Outdoor Zig Zag Blue Moon from Fabric.com (curtains): This is the fabric I used for the curtains that are already in the office. I originally made them for the living room in our last house but they’re working for us in the office. I may end up adding lining to them or adding an additional blackout curtain since that room gets an insane amount of sun. We’ll see.
15) Giant Sequoia Plush Toy from hitree: Kind of pricey but I’m seriously tempted to splurge on this since it’s so adorable and it’s a Sequoia!
16) Adventure a Day print by littlelow
17) Happy Camper Quilting Flannel by Allison Cole: I’m currently working on a triangle quilt for the baby using these fabrics. More details to come once it’s done!
And that’s the plan so far! Now to just get everything ordered and put it all together. Will be interesting to see how it works out and I’ll be sure to share the end result once we get there!
