When we learned we were having a girl, we were overjoyed!  When I went to design her nursery, I was sort of unimpressed with the options for a girl’s nursery that weren’t purely pink.  I knew I wanted something feminine and soft, but not overtly “girly.”  Once we decided on the name “Adeline”, a “sweets” theme seemed to suit nicely.  Sweet Adeline, like the song.

I loved the idea of a mint color on the walls and some sort of “sprinkles” design feature on the wall with her crib.  Once we found the “Love You” conversation heart pillow, I used that as my original inspiration and moved on from there.  I was surprised that there really aren’t many “sweets” themed nurseries on pinterest, etc. so I had to compile pieces as I went and try to stick to the theme without being over-the-top.  I found a lot of sweets parties that I tried to garner ideas from, but the aesthetic I wound up liking most was when I would look up “bakeries.”  This especially helped with choosing the chandelier and the shelving.  I thought the gold accents would also be fun and give a more modern feel in addition to using clean lines for furniture like the crib and glider.

Designing a girl’s room without primarily using pink (I was very specific to try for peach or coral over pink) wasn’t easy.  Once I found the crib sheets and skirt that were more peachy, I was happy to know it was possible to decorate without all pink.  I also found a lot of good sweets decor options around Valentine’s Day.  Again, I consciously tried to keep the thematic in mind without buying every single dessert decoration I could find – although they’re so cute, it was hard to restrain.  My mother is a fantastic artist and I asked her to design some of the art for the collage above her changing table.  She also gave me some vintage china that belonged to each of my grandmothers to add to the collage.  I love the sentiment behind the heirloom pieces along with original artwork that my mother created.

The room itself is fairly small – maybe 10×9 feet – so I had to be conscious of space.  Taking the doors off the closet freed up a lot of space and gave me another area to design.  I also wanted to be mindful of mixing items from pricier places like Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware with more inexpensive stores like Ikea and Target.  In the end, I actually had to go to several different stores to get all the pieces I wanted to complete the room and the look.

My husband was a great help in executing my vision…because I was so large toward the end of my pregnancy, I couldn’t help much.  He happily obliged my requests like sticking sprinkles on the wall where I couldn’t reach, installing her chandelier with a dimmer, spray-painting a gumball machine gold, and painting the whole room and closet.  We were ecstatic with how the room turned out and feel all our hard work paid off.   Even now that Adeline’s 3 months old, I feel like her room is a very peaceful sanctuary and such a relaxing space full of special touches.  Girls truly are the sweetest!

Photo Credit: Bethany at Maypole Studios Chicago; http://blog.maypolestudios.com/