Baby Girl Nursery

Delicate/Vintage/Rustic Inspiration

We found out we were pregnant just a few months after moving into a new home and after completely renovating the kitchen. Our house projects were on hold, so we told ourselves that we’d wait and do the nursery after the baby arrived. She wouldn’t sleep in there at the beginning anyway, right? Then the nesting kicked in, for Joe and I both. We dove headfirst into decorating and were unstoppable.

We started with the color palette. I knew I wanted soft colors, nothing too bright or saturated. Some may find that crazy to avoid in a kid bedroom, but light colors are much more calming… I need all the help I can get in that department. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Father of the Bride 2”, you’ll remember the part when they reveal the renovated nursery. Obviously they took it to another level with an entire addition on the house, but the vibe is on point. Soft colors, soft lighting, soft music…. like a little oasis.  We knew white, grey, and pink would be in the mix, but we also really liked the idea of adding some hits of light blue. (You’d think I’d want to stay far away from blue at this point, but the right blue combined with pink and white is so pretty!)

This is the little inspiration board we put together. Lots of lace and flowers to add to the femininity…

The Result…

On a scale from 1 to Diva, I’m definitely closer to the tomboy end of the spectrum. My favorite color has always been blue, the color palette of our home is white, navy, and grey, and I’m almost always in athletic attire with my hair in a ponytail. A friend even told me that she was shocked I was having a girl because she could only picture me as a boy mom. I’m not sure what that means, but at first, I felt the need to prove myself as “girly”. Sounds funny, I know. Anyway, I got over that pretty quick and in the end, stuck to my own comfort level. The room exudes a ton of femininity in the best way possible.

There were a few ideas that ended up being above our level of expertise, but overall, we were able to include most of the elements we wanted to. We’re really happy with how it turned out!

Just for fun, this is what the room looked like before we bought it…

The room is extremely small and a far cry from my dream of the “Father of the Bride” nursery, but I think it’s kind of perfect for a baby. And knowing my love for minimalism, we wouldn’t have been able to pull off a bigger room filled with even more stuff anyway.

Obviously the dominant colors are the white/cream and grey, but the rug is a good hit of pink and was found on houzz (link here). The huge glider doesn’t really fit, in my opinion, but we had to go with it. It’s the one we’ve always had in the nursery, and it’s too nice and comfy to just replace.

The Frame/Flower Wall

I love so many of the details of this room, but this wall might be my favorite. It was definitely the hardest but most fun thing to do. We couldn’t find any inspiration photos that properly illustrated our vision. There were photos of gallery walls that we could somewhat reference, and there were a lot of pictures of floral walls in nurseries. There just weren’t any photos combining the two.

We found the set of vintage frames and the ampersand on Etsy (link here). I wanted to source them myself, but there were so many pieces to the wall, it was helpful to get a large chunk of the frames from one place to make sure they went well together.

The flowers are all from Hobby Lobby. One set is made out of some sort of foam, and another set is white ceramic with little outlines of gold around the edges. The mixed materials make the wall so much more interesting.

I honestly fell in love with the framed paper dress from Restoration Hardware (pictured on the inspiration page), but it was almost $1000 which seemed a little nuts. Our “solution” was hanging this lace dress on the gallery wall.

The little lace shoes are so adorable and are another Etsy find (link here). Our hope is to use the dress and shoes for her christening party, and then we will put them back up on the wall. They’re too beautiful to not have them actually worn!

The Other Details…

I’m a sucker for a wood sign… Evidenced by my post about the Inspirational Sign Trend … so I knew I wanted at least one in the nursery. We found this one on Etsy (link here). We love the small hit of pink from the frame and the gold lettering that ties into the chandelier and mirror. I’m somewhat determined to find a place in the nursery for another sign from this shop because I love it so much.

We had bought this mirror while living in the apartment a couple years ago, and we hadn’t found a spot for it in the new house. After we decided on the chandelier, we realized that another gold element would be good. The antiqued finish also went with the overall feeling of the room. (mirror link here)

The frame is another Etsy find (link here) and is made out of reclaimed wood to tie back to the gallery wall and wood sign above the crib.

We already had the dresser/changing table from the previous nursery, but we updated the knobs to antiqued metal ones from hobby lobby. It’s a small detail, but it makes a big difference and looks great.

I wasn’t as successful adding vintage lace to the room as I would have liked, but this crib skirt from Pottery Barn Kids was a big win in that department. It’s a subtle touch but beautiful!

All You Need Is LOVE

The chandelier looked lonely in the corner until we found this shelf at PB Teen. Not only does it look good, but it also provides some much needed shelf space. Shelf space is almost nonexistent in this small of a room.

I had fun collecting some of my girly books to put in her room. Mainly fashion and design-related books, and I wrapped the ones that didn’t really match the room colors.

These flowers are made from book pages from “Alice in Wonderland”… Such a cool find! (Etsy, of course… here) Someday, I will have fresh flowers in all my vases, all the time, but until then, something like this is perfect. It’s so unique and looks so pretty.

Our first girly project is now officially under our belt! I don’t remember anything about having a newborn, but I’m pretty sure she’ll even sleep in there someday:)