The One Room Challenge™ starts today! Linda, at Calling it Home, challenges home décor and design bloggers to renovate one room in their home and document it every week for the next 6 weeks.
This is my first time participating in this bi-annual challenge, and I can’t be more excited to share the process from start to finish with our nursery. Many bloggers will be sharing a live 6-week renovation, but since the girl should be here before the 6 weeks is up, we’ll be showcasing our recently finished nursery instead of starting it this week and finishing it 6 weeks from now.
Here’s a quick look at what the room looked like in the midst of the clean-out phase.
Out of all the rooms in our home that I’ve designed and decorated, even our recent kitchen renovation, the nursery has been my favorite. There’s just something about designing a nursery or kid’s room that brings out your creative side. You have the freedom to go a little more bold and whimsy and do things that you might not do in a living space or master bedroom.
The Inspiration
I love Pinterest’s secret boards. I’ve had a Nursery Ideas board for a few years now, but I didn’t want to showcase it to everyone because people might suspect something if I all of a sudden pinned four nurseries in one day. By the time I was actually pregnant, I had a decent idea of how I wanted my nursery to look. At first, I was trying to come up with ideas for either a gender neutral or boy nursery because we both just had a feeling we were having a boy. Then at 16 weeks, we learned that we were wrong all along. Read all about it here. The days after I found out she was indeed a girl, my mind went into overdrive. Just a couple weeks later, I had an entire mood board in place and projects planned.
Here is just a glimpse of my design inspiration before I began piecing together my mood board.
The Plan
Glider / Blinds / Shelves / Picture / Pouf (Similar) / Bedding 1, 2, 3 / Fiddle Leaf Fig / Wall Hanging / Crib / Rug / Dresser
I had just painted what used to be the guest room last spring, and I was happy with the color. The walls are Swiss Coffee by Sherwin Williams, but I color matched it with Behr paint in eggshell. I love keeping most walls in our home neutral so that I can easily change out the decor. Also, neutral walls are great for nurseries because it allows the child to grow into the space without having to paint over the princess mural that your daughter adored when she was 2 but is now into soccer at 5. If you’re a regular around here, you know I love practical design. Having a neutral base that can easily change from stage-to-stage or child-to-child just makes sense.
To Do:
- Paint and install a closet system
- Refinish changing dresser
- Install plank wall and crown molding
- Build Book Ledges
- Create Yarn Wall Hanging
The Specifics
There are several features that have held true to my initial design board, but a few things changed once I got certain pieces in place. My ultimate goal of a neutral Boho/Scandinavian-style nursery has remained the same. I focused on natural wood, plenty of plants, navy/blush pink decor, and a few quirky elements to make the nursery an inviting place to bring our daughter home to for the first time.
More inspiration:
I knew I wanted natural elements with muted colors. Pink was not in the plan. I just didn’t want to it to scream, “Hey! A baby girl lives here,” but as you girl mommas know, pink is tough to avoid. I found the perfect rug at Urban Outfitters and my colors were set. It had a touch of blush pink, but it was mostly navy and beige. My initial plans were to stick with the navy and beige and add pops of green and blush pink. You’ll see how that has slightly changed over the next 6 weeks.
So now that I had a piece to use as a pallet and tons of inspiration in my mind, the nursery was set. I lined up the projects, and we got to work.
Follow along as we share specific projects, DIYs, and the big reveal on May 10!
