Colorful, Gender Neutral Nursery

A Project For: Cason
Age: 4 months
Location: Florence, KY
Description:
We wanted to have a gender neutral nursery since we did not find out the sex of our baby before birth. However, we also wanted to have something colorful - going beyond your standard beiges, greens and yellows. We found this to be very hard to find examples of that didn't skew too much boy or girl. Then I saw the Skip Hop bedding and knew it was the perfect color palette for our colorful nursery. We used a slightly lighter shade of the blue found in the bedding as the wall color. We love blue for boys or girls. To balance out the intensity of the blue, we opted for a significant amount of white in the rest of the room to keep a bright, light feel.
Design Inspiration:
I actually saw alphabet wall art on Project Nursery and fell in love with the idea. Then of course, everywhere I looked I kept seeing more and more alphabet wall art (thank you Pinterest!). It made it tough to figure out exactly how I wanted the letters to look! The differences in all the letters allows for funky and personalized art. We also love that they are something we can keep for the long haul - possibly even moving them to a playroom once we no longer need a nursery.
Decorating Style:
Fun, spirited, twist on classics.
Project Details:
1. Maternity/Newborn Photography and Frames - Kelly Michelle Photography: http://www.kellymichellephotography.com/
2. Vinyl Tree Art - Simple Shapes shop on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/listing/62329970/tree-with-two-owls-and-butterflies-decal
3. Alphabet Wall Art - DIY with most of the letters and decorating items coming from Hobby Lobby or Michael's. I used spray paint, fabric, scrapbooking paper and yarn to decorate the letters. Many of the techniques of how to decorate them I found through searches on Pinterest.
4. Bedding - Skip Hop Treetop Friends http://www.skiphop.com/product/treetopfriendsbedding.htm
5. Cubbies, Dresser, Chair - IKEA
6. Lamp, Curtains - Target
7. Personalized Cason Print - Little Lion Studio shop on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/listing/67598151/baby-print-botanical-garden-and-little
Favorite Items:
I love, love how the alphabet wall turned out. It was time consuming but well worth it. The bead board looks awesome, my hubby did such a good job with it! I also love the photography and frames. This was one area of the nursery that we knew we could personalize since we want to keep most of the nursery the same for all our future baby's. With the photo's, we can swap in other beautiful shots from Kelly Michelle of Cason growing up or of a new babe. These amazing photo's will be something we will always have and treasure!
Advice:
I laid out what I wanted for the letters in the computer so that I could figure out first the sizes and fonts for the letters. It helped make it easier to pick out the right types of letters seeing it this way. And as I tried to figure out where the various color pops should be, I laid out all the letters on the ground with the respective paper, yarn, etc so I was using to decorate the letters with so I could see how it looked before I decorated each letter.

Hollyjwsmall

Love the colors and the owls!
Ysczabel

I love your alphabet wall art. It’s very colorful and interesting. I also love the color of your wall; very refreshing and cool on the eyes. Love your bedding and your vinyl tree art, too.
Cristina

I just wanted to say that I love your alphabet wall art! It’s so cool!!
marchbaby

love your room :) where did you get the baskets for the ikea cubbies?
sludwig119

marchbaby,

thanks! they are from target
laceyb

The letters are FABULOUS!
Lindsey McMillen

Hi, where did you get the white picture frames? I absolutely love this room!
Irene

O.M.Gosh! Super cute. Where did you get the letter C?
Traci

Love the nursery! We are using skip hop bedding too. What paint/color is on the walls? It is a perfect blue!
Lauren Winiarski

I love your alphabet wall! Where did you find the O, L, U, and T?
Lauren

Oh, and where C?
sludwig119

Lauren,

The O was from Michael’s. U from Hobby Lobby. T was a cross I’ve had for a really long time. L I painted onto a canvas from Michael’s. I found an L I liked, printed it at the right size and then traced around it with paint. The reds C I found the art online and then traced it on foam board and then covered it with fabric.
sludwig119

Traci,

Sorry for the delayed response! We used a local company. I just took the bedding to the store and went a few shades lighter than the blue on there.
Cat

Love this nursery. Where is your crib from?
Jena

I love your nursery! I was curious what your cubbies are called? I can’t seem to type the right combination of words to find them on Ikea’s website.
sludwig119

Cat,

It is the DaVinci crib. I bought it on CSN baby online.
sludwig119

Jena,

The cubbies are EXPEDIT from IKEA.
Angela

Love
Bethany P

Where did you find the lowercase g? and the i? thanks!
Sandy

Bethany P,

Hi Bethany,
I actually made them out of foam board. I printed out fonts I liked and then traced and cut them out of the board. Then I midge podged fabric on them.

I was thinking of buying from craftcuts.com but did it myself to save money.
Bethany P

wow!!! I haven’t worked with foam board but will be giving it a try! What do you need to cut throught the foam board? exacto? Thank you very much!
sludwig119

Bethany P,

I used an exacto knife. It wasn’t the easiest thing on curves but it worked. The edges were kind of wragged but it didn’t matter since I covered them with fabric. This is where I got the tutorial on how to wrap the fabric.

http://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/2008/08/fabric-covered-letters.html

If you want other idea’s, this is my Pinterest board for all things letters.

http://pinterest.com/sandykylug/letters/
Erin G.

What a great room…I love everything! Where did you get the side table next to your chair? Thanks!
Sandy

Erin G.,

I had the hardest time finding something low, small and cheap in a color i wanted.I know Ikea used to sell them but had no luck there. I just searched online (can’t remember the exact store). But I know now you could get them at Target, I think they may actually be considered a stool. I ended up painting the one I got white because it was a weird color.
Erin G.

I feel like I’ve seen them before, but now that I need one, I can’t seem to find :) Thanks for getting back to me!
Sharon A.

I LOVE your nursery! I see the photos of the crib and ikea shelves, but I would really love to see photos of the rest of the nursery. You mention (above) some of the other items you used, but I must see photos! Will you please email me a few? Thank you so very much. Thanks for sharing your beautiful design. I’m inspired!
http://www.facebook.com/kgiteles Kristin Giteles

I as wondering how you or your hubby hung the letters….
Melissa

Can you please tell me the blue paint color you used? It’s perfect.
jesshutt

where did you get the Cincinnati Reds “C”??
stacey

Do you remember where you found the color orange and purple you used on the letter wall? And what they were called?
Rockabye Mommy

Love the alphabet wall.

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Colorful, Gender Neutral Nursery

Project By: sludwig119