The Nursery: Ideas

(So I starting writing this post yesterday and in the last 24 hours I actually changed my nursery ideas yet again. Can't make this up.)

I've been known to change my mind often when planning out a room...but this nursery is ridiculous. Not sure if we can blame it on hormones or pregnancy in general, but I cannot seem to get it together with this project. Much of the reason (I think) is that (a) I'm am not girly and (b) patterns and bright colors give me anxiety. So just take a second to Google 'girl's nursery' and come back when you're finished. Done? Yea, welcome to my world. WHY do 92% of the nurseries out there have to be so loud? Loud colors, crazy patterns and 'themes' (gag). Initially I wanted to go neutral/gray/greige, but I knew that a baby's room was my one opportunity to go outside my comfort zone. Of course, outside my comfort zone is problem most people's 'safe' bet. 

 

Anyway, after some internet/pinterest searching, I was convinced that BM's La Paloma Gray was the one. Just to be sure, I bought two other samples...one was Portland Gray (and the other I cannot remember the name of). Here they are on the wall:

 

 

The first color was supposed to be gray, but it looked so blue - I hated it. The second was my La Paloma...and it sucked. It was darker, grayer and more depressing than I could imagined. The third was Portland Gray and even though it has very lavender tones, I actually kinda liked it. I mean, in what other room will I ever be happy to see purple tones? My only complaint about Portland Gray was that it was just too light for the look I wanted. That weekend I decided I would try one shade down on the strip and go for Elephant Gray. I also found a great fabric that was girl-ish, but remarkably not super busy or too kid-ish. First, here is Elephant Gray (excuse the lighting - this room has very little natural light):

 

 

 I loved it. Brian loved it. Everyone I sent a picture to liked it...so what is the problem? The only trepidation I have is that the color seems too dark for a room with little to no sunlight. How do we solve that? Well, my first thought was board and batten. I have jumped on and off the board and batten bandwagon probably ten times since we started this nursery. We want it, we like the look of it, but it's just a lot more manpower and money that could easily be used elsewhere. The biggest issue is that most existing baseboards don't work (aka: don't line up) with board and batten...and Brian and I are just way too anal retentive to let that fly. Thankfully my husband is sometimes even more rational than I am...and we talked ourselves out of doing any kind of wainscoting in the nursery.

 

Enough about paint, right? Let's talk furniture. We already own the Ikea Hemnes Dresser in White, which will be transplanted from the guest room to the baby's room:

For a rocking chair, I racked my brain for at least a month trying to decide on which way to go. I just could not justify paying $800-$1,000 for a upholstered rocker and there was nothing on Craigslist. Then I thought of going with a stationary chair and re-upholstering the one we have from my in-laws. Honestly, that just seemed like a waste of money too. So who saved the day? Ikea, of course. Meet the Poang Rocker: Okay, it is a bit more modern than I would normally go...but it's comfortable, affordable and once you throw a pillow and blanket on it, look how good it can look:

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Our friends had generously given us a free crib that they had, but I needed to add a few more 'big-ticket' items to my registry and ended up falling for the Graco Mason Crib from Target. It's also very cheap and I love the straight, classic (almost modern) lines.

 

Those are the three basic pieces we have for now...eventually I would like to find an area rug and put up some ledges for books. Above the crib, I was thinking of getting a large version of this fawn print:

 



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Well, that's where we are so far. Who knows what else I can change my mind about between now and May. This weekend our to-do list includes: installing crown molding, new doors, quarter-round on the baseboards, new window and hopefully priming all the old wood trim. Wish us luck!