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Yellow and Gray Arrow Nursery

With surprisingly little time and expense (but a lot of help), we were able to transform formerly unused square footage into a third bedroom on our second floor, perfect for a nursery. We used some old, bought some new, and got creative with the theme—one that morphed from arrows to geometric shapes to a mixture of the two plus others.
We just added slowly, layering a patterns, textures, and colors. After finishing the Sharpie paint pen wall design, I was on a roll.  The rug was tough, didn’t want it competing with the wall, but ended up finding the perfect simple shag rug, one smaller than the edges of the furniture, anything bigger looked wrong. Next came the big gray pouf and adorable hex table…both are still used every day.
Storage was top on our minds when designing the room so anywhere we could sneak it in without ruining the fun, we did. Like the Ikea spice rack book shelves next to the rocker. The ledge shelving for pictures, and the industrial pipe rod down below where we’ll hang baskets and other hang-able items. We snagged the blue arrow shelf at Home Goods for more book storage…we have a lot of books and without good, close storage they pile up quickly. The under-the-crib real estate was too valuable to pass up so I found these two large baskets to store all kinds of bedding, burping, and pumping supplies.
Other than actually building the room, the changing table was probably my biggest “project”. When I was about one minute pregnant I randomly fell in love with a simple little mid-century-ish dresser at a local consignment store. It was in rough shape. Once the nursery plans started to form I realized with a little work, it would make the perfect changing table for our tiny room—we left the closet door-less for just this purpose. I think the fact you can see under the dresser, due to the tall legs, opens things up a big in the small space. Plus it’s just really fun seeing those angle mount tapered legs!
Artwork for the room popped up sporadically. I’d see a cute print on Brickyard Buffalo (a great flash sale site everyone should check out!), then I’d find a free printable or some wrapping paper I thought may work. The pant hangers were a fun addition to hang some of the prints while others got stuck in old frames I found long ago at Goodwill. Feathers, arrows, and, for some reason, antlers were the end result. The “F” print is amazing and by a local artist. I picked it up at City Sprouts and love when Ethan tells me about all the little images, always emphasizing the “F” sound. I even made some art! When I saw this geometric stitched elephant art I just had to give it a try. Once I had my canvas and some embroidery floss leftover from our felt alphabet project, things went very quickly. I followed the instructions exactly and it was enjoyable to spend a few evenings stitching away. The result is pretty adorable if I do say so myself
I made Ethan’s mobile so when I saw this little ditty on Design Mom, I knew it was the perfect solution for Finn’s nursery. I picked up some air-dry sculpting clay on one of my million trips to the craft store and gave it a try. Ethan even had his own little clay project going on while I worked. After a couple hours of rolling and cutting, a few days of drying, and another few minutes of painting, we had a beautiful mobile I think Finn will love.
Last but not least, there’s the bedding. I considered for a minute paying a premium for a crib sheet from Etsy, but after finding this ridiculously easy tutorial, I decided to order the fabric I wanted—adorable yellow herringbone—and make one myself. My sewing perfectionist mom was doubtful about the simple instructions, but we gave it a try and it worked perfectly! The cost for fabric and elastic was about $22 per fitted sheet and they took maybe 20 minutes to align, cut, and sew. As for the skirt, I ordered enough of this simple grey and white stripe fabric to make three rectangles, one for the front and one for each end (I figured why do the back?),  hemmed them, then secured them to the mattress support with ribbon. We were able to easily shorten the skirt when we lowered the mattress by just tying it higher on the mattress support.
So there it is! Our itty bitty nursery perfect for our itty bitty Finn. He’s turning 2 next month (!!!) and we still love the room, it works perfectly for him and has plenty of storage to fit all his needs. The space is fun and visually stimulating in the daylight streaming through that big window, but peaceful for a good nights rest.
See how this all came together on my blog www.preparingforpeanut.com

Miles Modern Safari Nursery

We wanted a bold and bright modern safari nursery for our son. The stripes were really the jumping off point, and the yellow and grey set the tone for the rest of the items. When we found the rug it really grounded the room and the curtains allow for a lot of natural light during the day. He loves the lights, they give a great glow at night and soothes him while he gets his diaper change.
 

Yellow & Gray Arrow Baby Boy Nursery

This room started as a second floor landing…not a room at all! When planning for our second baby boy we knew adding a room would add value to our house and be more functional for us. When it was originally renovated, the small room at the top of the stairs was removed so we just put it back.
A deep grey, arrows, antlers, geometric shapes, and a pop of yellow was the theme, so I got paint on the wall and went from there. The back wall features a paint-pen arrow design that is mimicked in the leading on the transom windows.
I tired to use what we could from our first baby, but did buy a few new things like the Urban Outfitter’s side table, the Jenny Lind crib, the inexpensive barn light from Home Depot, and the under-crib baskets from Crate & Barrel.
The big orange chair was repurposed as well as almost all the shelving and frames. The new closet, well in our case the changing space, features a refinished dresser and some new floating shelves from Lowes.
It’s a small room but it meets our needs perfectly. In the future it can be used as an office or kids room. It’s sunny and cozy and we love it! Baby boy seems to love it too.
 

Hazel’s Yellow and Gray Gender Neutral Nursery

We did not find out what we were expecting while we were pregnant so we wanted to create a gender neutral room that could easily adapt to a boys or girls room. One of our goals was to create a calm and comforting room, I really feel that the colour of gray we went with and the white furniture really gives that feel when your in the room. We kept all the furniture really simple, we wanted items that would transition well into a toddler room. We kept that in mind when picking items out, such as dresser height, I wanted the baby to be able to get items from their own dresser and not be to tall for them.

Wesley’s Yellow and Gray Elephant Nursery

I wanted to design a room that would be perfect to grow with our baby boy, nothing too babyish but still very fun. I love the neutral, gray color scheme and adding in a pop of color with the accents (that could easily be changed out at a later time). There is still a lot more I want to incorporate into the room (a rug and more DIY decor projects), but with my due date fast approaching this will be an ever-evolving project!

Penelope’s Woodland Fairy Tale Nursery

Penelope’s nursery is calming and cozy in soft tones of grays and yellows, yet the woodland fairy tale elements make it an inspiring space that will encourage her to dream and use her imagination. A combination of new objects, like her gray suede rocker and white jenny lind crib, combine with old heirlooms and found objects, like her antique bird cage and yellow vanity, to create a timeless and comfortable feel.

Claire’s Nursery

For Claire’s nursery we chose the color scheme of yellow and gray. To steer clear of too much pink, we chose an aqua for her walls. I wanted to incorporate as many handmade items as we could. I am so grateful for my husband’s love of furniture building and am so happy with how the bookcase and window seat he built turned out. I am sure Claire will appreciate the hard work he put into making these pieces just for her  . He also added crown molding to the room, which I believe makes the room look much more feminine! My mother in law is a sewing queen! She was able to make many pieces for Claire’s nursery, as well as her cradle bedding (not pictured). I’m not as crafty as my other half (and his family), but I did manage to create the wreath we hung on Claire’s door. It was one of the few handmade items I made while nesting!