I’m so excited to share this nursery tour with you! I am the first to admit that I’m not much of a decorator but I’m really pleased with how the nursery turned out. I texted photos to my mom a few nights ago and she responded, “I think it will be a cozy, calm place for you and baby.” And this is exactly what I’m hoping!
My inspiration was to keep the nursery as clean, white and bright as possible. I kept it neutral with pops of color. I didn’t want to go overkill with a theme but I did lean towards wild animals and adventure.
BABY BOY NURSERY TOUR
The room is very small and has one window. This is the view looking in when you stand at the doorway. The crib and closet are on the left and the dresser/changing table is on the right.
How about a before picture? This room was a hot mess. We never did anything with it after moving in because the hope was that it would become a nursery so it was one of those “shove everything random and close the door” kind of spaces.
The first thing that I did was have the walls painted. I knew I wanted white and bright because the room is so small and I just love white walls. The issue was that we are in a rental and the carpet and trim are far from “white and bright.” I painted the walls Sherwin-Williams Dover White. It’s one of their creamiest whites with yellow undertones but I was shocked to discover that once it was on the walls it didn’t look the slightest bit creamy and actually looked cool because of the trim and carpet.
I thought about changing the trim and even bought paint and hired my painter to do it but then decided to leave it. I knew it would drive me crazy to have the trim and doors a different color in one room and again…it’s a rental. At least the walls weren’t that terrible yellow color anymore!
Here’s a view of the right side of the room.
- The glider was a gift from one of my yoga students who so kindly handed it down to me since her littles are out of the rocking stage. It’s a a great chair and so comfortable! I have no doubt we will spend a lot of time sitting here!
- My great grandmother crocheted the afghan. It’s one of the things I took with me when my grandmother moved out of her house.
- I love how this lamp hangs over the chair. It provides the most perfect warm light for reading.
- Babyletto 3-Drawer Changer Dresser. I went back and forth between doing white furniture or dark brown and I’m so glad I went dark. It would have been a bit much to have all those different shades of white in the nursery. The changing table is removable for when you no longer need it.
- Ikea Raskog Utility Cart for diaper organization. I have one downstairs in the den too. I also loved this one from Target but it didn’t come in black.
- The wall decal is from Etsy. This company has tons of options and can also make custom decals!
- The clothespin collage photo frame is from Marshall’s but I can’t find an exact link. Here is something similar and there are tons of options on Etsy. Can’t wait to hang some photos of a cute baby on there!
- I found the side table on Wafair. I wanted somewhere to place our salt lamp and drinks and wanted two levels so that I would also have somewhere to put the white noise machine. (We are just using an Echo Dot for that.)
- The throw rug is another Wayfair find.
Books and the sweetest little elephant chair/seat next to the glider. The elephant chair was a shower gift and ended up matching the decor of the room perfectly!
Since the room is so small I wanted to do floating shelves instead of a bookcase. I found these shelves on Amazon and filled them up with book that I received at my shower as well as some stuffed animals and plants from Ikea. The giraffe was a gift from a friend. She brought it back from Bali!
This is the Etsy corner of the room! 🙂
- The crib is Babyletto Modo and I love the clean and simple lines! It’s a 3-in-one and converts to a toddler bed. (I know the stuffed animals can’t stay in there…just decoration for now.)
- My mom gifted me this organic crib mattress.
- The elephant mobile is an Etsy find and made it Thailand. I’m obsessed.
- The colorful elephant crib sheet is another Etsy find. I got the minky fabric and while it was a splurge, it’s incredibly soft!
- The black and white prints are also from Etsy.
- The “Keep it Wild” banner…Etsy!
- And finally, the welcome baby boy frame was a gift and matched perfectly with the photo collage frame on the other side of the room.
For being such a small room, the closet actually has plenty of space.
- I did an over the door shoe organizer for blankets, burp cloths, wash cloths and bibs.
- Inside the closet, the two bars for hanging clothes didn’t make sense for our needs so we installed some cheap shelving from Home Depot. We were going to install something a little more sturdy/permanent/custom from The Container Store but it was crazy expensive…and again…it’s just a rental so it didn’t make sense.
A few final notes…
- The room had an awful chandelier style light fixture. We switched that out for a small 42-inch three-blade fan with a light. I read a lot of things that said it was good to have a fan in the nursery for air circulation.
- The entire house has these awesome shutters. They’re great because you can open them wide to let a lot of light in or just open the slats. Also, if you flip the slats up instead of down, they almost blackout the entire room, no matter the time of day. I think that because of this I can avoid blackout curtains!
- The fiddle fig is not real and an Ikea special. 😉 I really wanted some green in the room but without a baby playing in the dirt or me having the responsibility of keeping up with it.
That wraps it up! I hope you enjoyed my little nursery tour. I’m not sure how much we’ll use the nursery in the early days as I’m planning on having the little guy sleep in the same room as me in a bassinet but I’m sure I’ll use the glider and changing table a good bit!
Oh and a related question about sleeping…so newborns nap a lot. Where do they nap? Do you put them in the bassinet? Or in the crib even if you’re using a bassinet? Or just anywhere around the house? I also have a Rock n’ Play downstairs. Help!
Can’t wait to share more nursery photos in the weeks to come…with a cute little babe in there!
xo
Jen
It’s beautiful and a room that he will be able to grow into!! For my daughter I did an Alice in wonderland theme because I wanted to do a take on an “adventure” type room as well but we did kind of an old fashioned look to it with cream colors and light pink. Now she is 10 and is all about purple and puppy everything so curious to see what she will want in a few years. Great job on the room!!☺️
Cute nursery! You’re going to want a couple options for naps around the house when baby is still little. Personally we loved the LeachCo Plush Podster. New babies love to be cuddled in on the sides and at an incline, and it’s perfect for plopping on the couch or literally anywhere in the house! Also a little bouncer seat is nice, or a swing… think of the places you’ll be in the house (i.e. the bathroom or the kitchen) and plan on a small (ideally portable!) option to put baby in while you’re in there ?
I have a 1 month old (today!) and he naps in the swing and in the napper that came with the pack n play. Or on me. When he was brand new it was mostly on me. At night he’s in the bassinet or recently in the rock n play because he’s a little congested and the angle helps.
Good luck!!!
My baby boy is 2 months old and likes to sleep in motion. He naps in his swing and sleeps overnight in his rock and play. Even though the rock and play isn’t recommended for overnight unsupervised sleep, my babe has always had great neck control and I’m not worried about it. I started allowing him to sleep overnight in there because around 3-4 weeks he started having terrible gas pains and allowing him to sleep at an angle was great. He did sleep in the top mattress portion of the pack and play next my bed. They’ll sleep wherever you put them when they’re very tiny (at least my babe did) doesn’t mean they’ll stay asleep for very long lol but around 3-4 weeks my babe woke UP to the world and started needing some help (motion) to sleep. Every day will be different though some days he’ll love a swing or sleep perfectly in his crib other days you’ll be be like whatttt happened? My husband always reminds me “what worked yesterday worked YESTERDAY. Today is today!”
It looks wonderful!! Calm and inviting for sure! So exciting that baby boy will be here and you’ll be using this space so soon!
For naps: my son is 9 weeks and still naps all over. Lots of naps while I am holding him (or my husband is), or while I am wearing him in a wrap; he also naps well in his swing (we make sure he is supervised when he naps in his swing since he isn’t lying flat). We have brought his bassinet into the living room for naps before too, or brought him back into the bedroom to nap on his bassinet there. He’s only napped in his crib a couple times so far. We haven’t bothered yet with blackout curtains or even being precious about noise and he still naps well. (Phew! That’s kind of the luck of the draw though I think and could change at any time ha.)
We have one of those Boppy Loungers too, and he doesn’t nap well in it (many babies do though technically they say not too since it isn’t lying flat); but now that he is more aware he loves hanging out in it while awake and chatting at us or staring at the ceiling fan!
Anyway basically you will figure out what works for naps for you and your baby but I think at first they are super flexible which is convenient!
At first, the baby will probably nap a lot on you (while holding or wearing him) or your visitors (everyone loves to snuggle a baby!). 🙂 My son also napped in his bouncy chair and/or rock ‘n’ play in the living room if I wanted to set him down to get something done. And here’s the assvice you’re going to hear from everyone, because it’s true: In those first weeks…just hold that baby. You will never regret letting him nap on your chest. It goes so, so impossibly fast.
pretty! So my son never once (I swear, never once) napped in his crib. Most of the time as a baby, naps in the house were on me or in the bouncy seat. Sometimes the swing. The car was our best nap spot. Sometimes I did rock him in the stroller in the house — gotta do what works!
Love the life is an adventure sign! Definitely a cozy room for baby boy to come home to!
I love the nursery- it is absolutely adorable and such a great space for you to create memories in.
For the naps … we use the Boppy lounger or Leach co. Lounger (we have one upstairs , one downstairs) Most newborns have their days and nights mixed up, so I keep the daytime naps out of the crib (or whatever they are sleeping in at night) on one of the pillows or while I’m wearing/holding her and in a bright room with normal noise levels until they’re starting more routine nap times and sleeping stretches at night. Once they start getting predictable (around 3-4mos) I move them to their “sleep environment “ for naps – crib, dark room, white noise machine.
What a sweet nursery! I love the cheery pops of color and all the animals. Absolutely adorable. Wishing you all the best as you welcome sweet baby boy!
When My son was first born he napped on the top of a pack and play in my living room and slept overnight in the rock and play in my room. Then it got a lot harder to get him to nap so we found out he loved a fisher price swing that swayed from side to side and he napped in that until
We transitioned him to the crib at about 4.5 months.
The room looks beautiful! Some of my favorite things for my daughter are blankets that were knit or crocheted for her. I love that you have that afghan from your great grandmother! And that elephant chair is adorable.
Ergobaby, ergobaby, ergobaby. It’s the gift they keeps on giving. That said, every baby is so different, there is just no predicting. But ergobaby.
It’s perfect! The mobile over the crib is ADORABLE!
The nursery is so cute! Very calming! When my daughter was little, I tried to have her nap in the crib sometimes. I wasn’t super rigid about forcing it, but she was a pretty good sleeper and I figured why not get her used to it. The transition to her sleeping in the crib at night was really smooth, I think in large part because it wasn’t a foreign space. But again – whatever works! You can’t “spoil” them in the early days! <3
The rock n play is perfect for naps. Or the bassinet if he prefers that. The crib eventually but likely not at first.
My daughter napped in her baby nest on our coffee table downstairs OR while being held / in a baby carrier for the first 6ish weeks of her life. Then I started trying to put her down for naps in her crib during hte day – again in her baby nest. For the first 12 weeks we moved the baby nest from the coffee table to the bassinet to the crib. Now that she’s 5 months old she only naps in her crib!