When my husband and I found out that we were expecting, the aspect of my pregnancy that excited me most was putting the nursery together. I had already envisioned how I wanted the room to look and feel and was excited to start working on it right away. As a “non-girly girl”, I knew that I wanted a gender-neutral space that was going to be calming and peaceful but also fun and magical. Knowing that I would be spending a lot of time in the nursery, I wanted to create a room that I, as well as our little one, would enjoy. 

THEME

As a way to pay homage to my husband’s and my love of books, my initial hope was to have a subtle “classic children’s literature” theme that honored some of our favorite stories when we were little (think Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, etc.); however, when my husband sweetly asked to have his favorite “story” featured – Star Wars (A.K.A. not literature) – the theme took a turn to more of a whimsical representation of our favorite childhood stories. The stories that we decided to feature were Star Wars, Peter Pan, and Harry Potter.

LOOK & FEEL

My goal was to achieve a soft, sophisticated, yet playful room that wasn’t too theme-dominant. I wanted the room to flow with the rest of our house’s decor, which is pretty transitional in design style. With the stories that we chose, this wound up being a more difficult task than I thought. Harry Potter and Peter Pan were easy enough to manifest in that style. Star Wars, on the other hand, was a major challenge. Most of the Star Wars items I was finding were very “harsh”, plastic-y, bold in their color palette, and just didn’t fit the vibe I was going for. Then I stumbled into James Hance’s amazing creation – Wookiee the Chew. His sketches of Star Wars characters superimposed on Winnie the Pooh characters were the perfect amalgamation of Star Wars and the aesthetic I was trying to achieve. His drawings completed the nursery and I actually fell so in love with the adorable little Wookiee that we had a special stuffed animal version of him made for Delaney. We now take her weekly update photos with him sitting next to her.

THE CLOSET

The closet was another challenge. Due to its small size, we did our own DIY version of “built-ins” in the closet with IKEA shelving and added a tension rod for additional hanging space to maximize storage. We then had to address the doors. The closet had sliding doors which meant we would never be able to access the full closet all at once. As bi-fold doors weren’t an option, due to drywall around the doors’ tracks, we decided to try curtains. Although I swore I would never use curtains for doors on a closet (it looks unfinished to me and reminds me of my college apartment days), with a DIY’ed cornice board and some fun curtain tie backs, the closet has morphed into additional decor for the room that has jazzed up an otherwise boring part of the nursery.

DIY PROJECTS

When it comes to the items in the room, the main staples were purchased; however, much of the decor has a DIY element to it if not completely made from scratch. The branch mobile and the play canopy with Delaney’s name bunting are definitely the projects that I most enjoyed creating. Not only are they unique, but they bring an element of magic and whimsy to the room that I wouldn’t have been able to find in a store-bought item. I love knowing that my little girl will be able to grow up with pieces that I made for her with so much love!