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Bryce’s Rustic Meets Modern Monochrome Nursery

When I found out I was having a baby boy, I’ll be honest and say that I felt a little sense of panic when I thought about decorating a nursery. Before my daughter was born, I felt like I had a clear vision of the type of nursery I wanted for her, and had so much fun bringing that vision to life. But a boy’s room felt so foreign to me; I’ve grown up with all sisters and boy things were just not on my radar!
When it came time to really start putting the room together, I actually started finding my inspiration through Instagram. I’d found some Mama-owned shops that I’d been following for a while because I loved the beautiful and unique products they created. I started paying attention to their items that were more ‘boyish’ and began to see a pattern with the things I liked – they were mostly monochrome – black, white, gray, and natural wood tones, and had a whimsical edge to them. When I think of boys, I think of the outdoors, and starting pulling together items that featured mountains, camping, and various woodland creatures. I also needed the room to fit with the style of the rest of our home, which has a modern farmhouse vibe, and thought the wood planked wall would tie it all together.
For several months I continued to find more and more fantastic small businesses through Instagram and built a collection of my favorite finds. I loved that the items were unique and that I was helping another Mama somewhere in the world (so many of them are in Australia – I think there must be something in the water there that sparks incredible creativity among the ladies who live there!) I wasn’t sure how or if it would all come together, but once I really began decorating the room, I felt like it did and I’m so happy with the result.

Beau’s Monochrome Nursery

I was very attracted to a monochrome room for my baby boy since the color scheme looks crisp, fresh and clean. I started with white walls and accented with one grey wall. I originally wanted wallpaper, but I found these amazing bicycle decals which were easy to apply and will be easy to remove one day when he’s ready for a refresh. I found prints for the walls from Etsy with pops of color here and there. I wanted the room to be cheeky and fun. I’m really into pandas so I custom ordered these adorable panda closet handles and have other panda and bear accents in the room. One of my favorite accents are these little peg people from Peg and Pin with Beau’s name on them. I’m so excited to bring my little guy into this playful oasis.

Monochrome Zoo Nursery

I have to say, coming up with a plan for a boys nursery was a challenge for me. I am very girly and for a while everything i came across while searching for inspiration was geared towards girls. One thing that helped me was the fact that my choice of color schemes for just about everything tends to be very neutral, black, grays, nudes, olive green, white, and the occasional blush tend to me my go-to’s. It actually drove my boyfriend Petey, crazy because when he thinks of a boys room he wants loud colors, super heroes and all of that fun stuff. Which i am totally okay with! Well.. maybe not the loud colors part lol but super heroes yes! once he is a little older. For now we had to think baby, i knew i wanted to choose colors and patterns to really get his eyes trained and for the first three months or so i knew that they can only see black white and grey. This was my starting point.
Petey and i ended up battling between shades of grey or shades of olive green/nudes. Grey turned out to be the winner and once i found the crib and furniture i loved from Babyletto it was game on! With the paint and furniture picked out we could finally get started… the design on the wall came inspired by a Pinterest photo of course, i knew i wanted some type of geometric decal on the walls and thats where the dots came in.
For about a month all we had was a painted room with furniture because holy crap did finding decor give me anxiety. I had trouble committing to ordering so many things because they needed to flow together and it was an expensive commitment. I searched high and low finding inspiration through Instagram & Pinterest which lead me to SO many beautiful decor shops, and a camera roll full of screenshots..which quickly lead to a decrease in my bank account.. but who cares right?! this is my first baby so I was on a mission to have fun with this. I was beyond happy with the outcome of Dominic’s nursery, i enjoyed every minute of creating it with Petey (probably more than him) haha.
My favorite parts of the room have got to be the accent wall for sure, Petey worked so hard on it and it was quite the challenge because our walls are not smooth so he drove himself crazy trying to make straight lines. My favorite part decor wise is the crib & the play-gym.. these play-gyms by Little Pine and Co are absolutely beautiful. They are handmade so nicely, and make the perfect little sensory toy. I will say I still have a few things that I feel need to be added to make it complete but with baby here I’ve been a little distracted. My best piece of advice i can give when designing a nursery is take. your. time… you’ve got 10 months !! Also for the sake of not being turned down by every idea… instead of talking about it to your significant other, SHOW him, trust me it makes things a whole lot easier! Start planning as soon as you find out the big news and add a little here and there on the way so that you get EXACTLY what you’d envisioned :) xo

Ashton’s Modern Monochrome Nursery

Designing and decorating Ashton’s room was such a blast! I have always loved the simplicity of black and white so it was an easy choice when I found out baby number two was a boy. I also relished in the fact that this project was drastically different from my daughter’s Restoration Hardware inspired room that was designed around an ivory Bratt Decor iron crib with a pastel pink and gray color palette. Don’t get me wrong, her nursery will always be one of my favorites but I enjoyed going a completely different direction this time.

I started this project early, purchasing items sporadically until I felt I had all the pieces of the puzzle. I also knew I wanted a book wall and carefully curated the books I wanted to display. My favorite item in Ashton’s room is the beautiful Babyletto Lucite Crib! To see more of Ashton’s Room, please visit The Millennial Mama.