My husband and I built our very own house last year! It was probably one of the most stressful times in our lives but it was so totally worth it as we are now living in our dream home. We moved in on our third wedding anniversary, November 3, 2015. Just five short days into living here we found out we were expecting our first baby! I guess the new house bought us a little luck. I am a bit of what my husband likes to call an “impatient perfectionist”, which basically means the house was decorated top to bottom within a week of living in it. Great for aesthetics, terrible for our bank account! Anyway, once the house was pretty much done I turned my attention to the nursery. I knew exactly which room would be home to our newest addition – the smaller guest room in the front of the house with large windows overlooking the front yard and beautiful lighting. I have to tell you, as much as I absolutely love decorating and design, the nursery really through me for a loop for awhile! Being a first time mom the line between pretty and practical can get a bit blurred. I knew I didn’t want a very traditional nursery, this should be a space that I would enjoy being in often as well as a cozy, warm space that would grow with baby. I also knew I would really have to be a bit thrifty with my finds since we had just finished building and decorating an entire house! As soon as we found out it was a boy my eyes immediately took to pinterest and of course project nursery to get some “nursery inspo”. After much too many hours of clicking through what all looked to be the most perfectly styled nurseries and also in keeping with a theme we have throughout the house, I decided I wanted to go with a more rustic vibe. The woodland theme seems to be trending now so I came across a lot of ideas and decided to incorporate that as well. My first “woodland” purchase were the baby animal prints from James River Studios on Etsy. I just thought they were so sweet and not as cartoony as many I had seen. I found these cool rustic hanging picture frames at home goods and this was basically my inspiration for the room. At first I had thought of doing a very neutral color scheme, but little by little aqua starting working its way in – which is kind of ironic since aqua was my favorite color as a child! Now I am in love with the little pops of colors, from the tribal pillow and the woodland bedding to the hand painted L’s on the bookshelves, everything really tied together perfectly. It took awhile to figure out what to do on the wall behind the crib – I wanted to do some sort of feature wall but two sets of stencils later I ripped it down and enlisted the help of my very talented friend to paint something. I found a cool picture of a white birch tree mural and we went full steam ahead. I could not be happier with the way it came out! It is rustic and whimsy and so much more real looking than stencils! I love the room so much that I often find myself just sitting in the glider looking out the window. Can’t wait for the new tenant to move in in just a couple of short months!