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Blue and Gold Graphical Girls Nursery

Description

Looking back on my high school years I feel terrible for my parents, because I wanted to redecorate my bedroom at least every 6 months. And not just redecorate to what was in style, but to these crazy ideas I had, like making the walls bright blue with hand painted flowers adoring the door-ways or a wall that looked like a curtain was being held together by a button. Thankfully, I would settle for re-arranging instead of full blow re-decorating every time. This of course resulted in strange re-arranging with my bed at the oddest angle in my room making it impossible for anyone to actually get into my room, except for me. Even though I am sure it was a pain when I had a new idea, I’m thankful my parents humored my creativity.

While my decorating style has toned down a bit it is no surprise that I become obsessed with decorating our house, and not in a style like anyone else. My crazy style especially came out with Olive’s room, because we painted it blue. Yes, she is a girl, but I’ve always HATED the boys need blue things and girls pink. Bleh! So to be completely defiant her room is dark blue with touches of gold and rose.

My original ideas were a bit wild, and probably a little ambitious being pregnant, but we finally settled on a blue and gold graphic style nursery with polka dots, triangles and stripes. I, of course, had crazy ideas for the arrangement of her furniture but Josh wasn't so keen on her bedroom furniture being completely funky. Thankfully, we finally settled on a more traditional arrangements for her tiny 9×9 bedroom.

I do have to thank both of our families for their awesome contributions. Josh’s mom gave us the dresser and frame for the chalk board. Which perfectly fit the modern/vintage style I was going for. My parents bought her the white crib. My mom spent hours sewing the curtains, pillow for the chair, and ruffled crib skirt. My mom also sent us the gold mirror that was hanging in her house. I love how well it fits in Olive’s room. So neat for her to have a piece of grandma’s old things. 

For all you who are curious of what we invested, I would say probably under $150 since most of the big items were gifts. The changing table tray, rocking chair & lamp were thrift store finds all under $10 each. We painted the lamp stand and tray. I think the paint for the room actually cost us the most. The posters, rug and lampshade are from IKEA all under $20! I did paint the lamp shade. Then the triangles are actually poster board my second shooter, Brittany actually help me cut out.  The chalk board was part of the dresser Josh’s mom gave us. I got a sheet of metal from Home Depot, chalk board painted it and Josh cut it out to fit into the frame. My aunt helped me make the changing pad cover from scrap fabric she had around. The crib sheets are from Target, which we received from our baby shower. Oh, and I cannot forget to mention the graphic of her name! The original drawing was done for us by a sweet friend, Sarah (who I actually took her maternity pictures). Josh then took the drawing and screen printed it in gold to match her room.

My original inspiration started with this binder I found at Target. Surprisingly, it was really hard to find decor to match these colors, but we eventually did! This binder now hold’s Olive’s baby book, a work in progress but I am so excited to give it to her one day!

Design Inspiration

A blue and gold notebook from Target that we are using to create her baby book

Decorating Style

Vintage modern, oxymoron I know.

Project Details

Summer Infant Changing Pad: Amazon

Valentia Crib: Amazon

Rug: IKEA

London Paris Posters: IKEA

Mirror: Hand Me Down from My Mother

Dresser and Chalkboard Frame: Hand Me Down from Mother in Law

Chalkboard: Made from sheet metal purchased at Home Depot with paint on chalk board paint nailed to frame. I used three coats of chalk board paint.

Gold triangles nade from gold poster board from Hobby Lobby Cut out by hand stick on using poster 3M stickers.

Side table painted and lampshade from thrift store painted with gold acrylic paint using a round sponge.

Changing pad tray painted placing painters tape to create lines. Tray from thrift store.

Curtains, crib ruffle skirt and pillow for rocking chair hand made/sew. Curtains and crib skirt fabric from fabric.com pillow fabric from JoAnns Fabric. Curtain pull backs were just tubes of the same fabric with a button sew on.

Changing pad cover was hand made using leftover fabric from around the house.

Rocking Chair: Thrift Store

The wood hangers were from a friend's old closet collection.

"Olive painting" was a screen print made by my husband from a hand drawing a friend made for Olive.

Striped Sheets: Target

I also used the same ideas for her birth announcement, which I designed myself. I'm a professional photographer and graphic designer. You can see my work here.

Favorite Items

The gold triangles and frame chalkboard. They will be fun to use later when she gets older and can write on the board herself. I also love the gold mirror. I always loved it growing up as child in my mother's home, it is a neat thing to have a as a hand-me down for Olive.

Advice

With a little bit of dedication and time you can really make a room beautiful shopping at Thrift stores. But you definitely have to be a DIY person because most thrift store finds need some TLC. Our favorite thrift store is the Arc because they have great saturday sales and aren't over priced like most Goodwills are now.

Also if you have a fun graphic you can always use poster board to cut it out and use 3M stickers to get it to stay. The store bought decals are expensive and don't always stay up.

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