Up until a few months ago, all things nursery were pretty foreign to us! We’ve seen lots of gorgeous baby spaces around the blogosphere, but beyond that, we were (and still are) a bit clueless.

But a few months ago when my sister recruited the DIY Playbook to help her prep her then office for the arrival of her little one in early July, we had no choice but to dive into all things baby (temporarily)!

We instantly started planning a space Katie, her husband, and their future baby would l-o-v-e. Of course we still have a TON to learn about baby decor, but we have learned one thing while planning this space — the world of babies and nurseries and products and research and reviews is a TAD overwhelming. Throw some pregnancy hormones into that mix, and we can imagine that designing a nursery can be a pretty daunting task for any expecting mother… especially with a DEADLINE looming in the distance (hello due date!).

Before baby, this space was a bit of a catch-all (we all have one of those rooms, right?). After Katie enlisted our help, the first thing we did was go visit the space (snapped a few pics) and sat down with her to chat about how her and her hubby envisioned the nursery. It was important for us to create a space that SHE and her hubby loved, not just a space that we dictated.

Here’s what she told us:

Katie’s Wishlist

• Gender Neutral (they aren’t finding out the gender in advance, so the nursery needs to be ready for baby boy OR baby girl)
• Colors flow with the rest of the house. She wants the space to be appropriate for a baby, but she doesn’t want it to scream “nursery” since this space is right off of their family room/kitchen.
• Neutral Walls
• Rustic
• “Theme”: Outdoorsy-ish <— KT & her hubby love the outdoors, they are both very active, and love camping/traveling/exploring. I’m hesitant to give this space a specific theme, but the general outdoorsy word helps me identify what “vibes” she’s hoping to get in this space.
• She liked this crib and wanted the design to work around it
• Wood wall

It helped to get Katie’s insight before we started planning. Once she gave us that wishlist, we encouraged her to start a Pinterest board where she pinned ideas she really liked and we followed along to get a better idea of what she was visualizing. (<— It really helped, so much so that we added it as one of the first 5 steps in decorating a nursery post)

From there, the DIY Playbook got to work creating a space that Katie and her husband would be excited to bring their new happy camper home to!