Boy and girl shared room

Our current home has just 2 bedrooms, so when we found out we were having a boy I knew I wouldn’t be putting together a nursery just for him. A shared boy and girl room seemed like a challenge, but I put a lot of thought into making it a space that my girly girl would love while still keeping some boy-friendly areas. My daughter chose the theme, but then I took over from there. She wanted mermaids, so I generalized the theme to make it a little more gender neutral. We went with Under the Sea… mermaids for her and whales for him!
We painted the room a beautiful light aqua color. Most of the furniture was left from my daughter’s original nursery and we added a mini crib for the new baby. The bedding and accessories are a mix of handmade, Target, Pottery Barn, Tiny Prints, and a couple DIY projects. Some of my favorite detail are listed below.
For her:

Mermaid Scale coffee filter wall art
Big girl bedding of mermaid sheets and a wave quilt
DIY bubble chandelier
Coral, the handmade mermaid doll
“A Mermaid Sleeps Here” pillow (see below to make your own!)

For him:

Navy and aqua quilt that was handmade by my aunt
Personalized name pillow including all of his birth stats
Wood California rattle
Customized whale canvas with the quote “Dream Big, Little One”
Handmade wood rocking horse that was lovingly crafted by my uncle
“You Are Loved by Me” watercolor painting from my baby sprinkle decor

A playful shared girls and newborn boy room. The room was my sweet girl’s nursery, but I wanted to update into a playful and fun room for a growing girl and her new brother.

With our first child, Chase, I had preterm labor and was on bed rest.  Chase ended up coming three weeks early.  So, I never really got to put his nursery together the way I wanted.  However, any pieces we bought for the nursery I tried to make sure it would work for either a boy or girl as we planned on having a second child.  About two months after Chase turned one, we found out we were expecting.  When we found out it would be a girl, I wanted to make sure this time around I would have everything ready.  This wasn’t too lofty of a goal since they would be sharing a room.  This is actually their second room since we recently moved back to Southern California from San Francisco.  This room is actually a lot smaller than the one they had in San Francisco.  However, it helped me pare down all their things and focus on key pieces for the room.

This particular nursery design project was a gift from a former client to her sister, expecting twins. Twin nurseries are always double to fun, but to be able to design one for a combination of twins, boy and girl is just heavenly! Mom-to-Be loves soft vintage fabrics and muted, earthy colors. We quickly decided upon the antique white iron cribs and a beautiful french farmhouse crib bedding set which we custom designed with blue gingham trim for the boy’s crib and lavender gingham trim for the girl’s crib.  The room was extremely small, so the nursery glider had to be small, but extremely comfortable. The brown toile nursery glider coordinated beautifully with our french nursery theme. We selected a smaller changing table which fit perfectly under the window. A sheepskin nursery rug added the perfect contrast between the cribs and the existing beige carpeting to really anchor the crib area, which was our focal point. I painted a whimsical tree silhouette mural on the two walls by the cribs and hung our custom designed monogram wall plaques to sweetly mark each child’s personal space in the nursery.

A neutral gender shared space for a toddler girl and baby boy.