When planning the nursery, even before we knew the gender, I knew I wanted to incorporate soft blues, ivory, and white. These colors are so calming and peaceful and let’s be honest, I am sure life with a newborn could always use a little more peace and calm.

Once I had the colors in mind, I immediately began thinking of the beach. As a child, I spent every summer in Northern Michigan and these have always been my fondest memories. Playing in the waves, building sandcastles with Petoskey stone bridges, exploring magical birch tree forests, climbing sand dunes as big as mountains, building campfires, and eating s’mores until I could burst. Is there a more perfect place on earth? I wanted to bring the sense of adventure and tranquility that Northern Michigan embodies into my baby’s first room.

Our first two projects in this room were painting and installing the hardwood floors. We decided on White Dove from Benjamin Moore and  this French Oak hardwood flooring. We were able to install the floors ourselves over the course of a weekend. We also installed the board and batten wall which is one of my favorite features in the room! We loosely based the project on this tutorial but went with larger squares. We really enjoyed working on these projects together but I would make sure if you are doing anything labor intensive to get it out of the way in your second trimester. I don’t think I would have been able to comfortably saw, hammer, and paint with a big belly.

My husband created this adorable owl and bear mobile. He is constantly impressing me with his creativeness and craftsmanship. He also refinished the mid-century dresser which we found on craigslist a few years ago for a steal of $75. I’m so excited to see what he makes for this baby in the future! I see a lot of amazing wooden toys, maybe an indoor rock climbing wall.

As a kid, one of my favorite things to do up north was to peel birch bark and make “paper”. I’d draw pictures of animals or write notes to my friends. I knew I wanted some birch elements in the room and when I saw this amazing that beautiful birch wall art on Etsy, I knew it was the perfect addition to the nursery.

Living downtown we may be surrounded by concrete and car horns, but I hope that this little room in the middle of Chicago can bring a bit of nature into my baby’s every day life. Our first trip “Up North” is next month and I can’t wait to bring him back year after year to the happiest place on earth

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