I love Pinterest and how easy it makes collecting inspiration.  I started pinning ideas for the nursery weeks before we knew what we were having.  I was really fixated on two prints that I found, one for a girl’s room and one for a boy’s.  Both gave me inspiration on the direction I wanted to take the nursery.  The first print, by Joni Lay, had flaminogs… and I decided I had to make a flamingo themed nursery. For a boy, I found a vintage race car print on Etsy and just knew that if we had a son, his room had to be vintage car themed.  But, that’s the funny thing about inspiration… once you start putting ideas together, they inspire others, and so on and so on. In the end, we designed a watercolor nursery in our original color scheme for a girl: coral, mint, navy and gold.

We reused and re-purposed as much as possible in this room.  We had it painted when we bought the house in 2009 and I love the color so much.  I didn’t want to change the paint color (it’s Benjamin Moore Stone Castle color matched by Sherwin Williams), but we did put new laminate flooring in all our bedrooms this summer.  The carpet was old and gross, and it had to go.  This room is very small – maybe 10×10 – and we knew we had to maximize space.  Since this room is so small we bought new furniture in white to make the room look larger.  The laminate flooring helped make the room look bigger and brighter, too.

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I had previously used this room as my home studio, so some of the wall decor was already drilled into the wall.  It ended up being a great focal point for the room.  Instead of buying a mobile, I had a custom tassel garland made in the nursery colors to hang underneath the wall shelf above the crib.

I designed this print and knew it had to be framed for our little girl’s nursery.


Lindsay Letters was having a huge sale, so I snagged a bunch of prints that I’ve had my eye on.  I was able to get four prints for $30.  This one reads “Life is But a Dream” and looks great above the crib.


These wall shelves are from Target, and were also a part of the room before it became a nursery. The candle and lantern are from our wedding reception, and so are the picture frames. I got them all from TJ Maxx in 2007.  My friend Jacin showed me the Be Still print that she had Julie Song Ink comission for her a few years ago, and I’ve always loved it.  I was so excited when I saw that it was a desktop download, available on DesignLoveFest, and had it printed as a 4×6 print at Target. The glider and vintage pillow (found on Etsy) were both a part of Chloe’s nursery, so these items were re-used.  The diaper genie is being re-used as well.  The LOVE vase was my late aunt’s, and the books are mine and Chloe’s favorites.  The two crown wood prints were something I found on clearance at Marshalls years ago, and have always had hanging in the room.


There is one large window in the bedroom, and it’s slightly off center.  The air vent for the room is directly below it, so we didn’t have a lot of wiggle room when it came to placing furniture in the bedroom.  Our crib had to go on one wall, and the dresser had to go on the opposite side. We bought a dresser from IKEA for Chloe and loved it so much that we wanted the same one, in white, for Charlotte’s room.  It’s a six drawer MALM dresser and fits all of her clothes, blankets, towels, and sheets, and I still have two drawers to spare!


I made a gallery wall above the dresser.  We decided not to use a changing table this time around.  In Chloe’s room, we had a changing pad on top of the dresser and never used it, so we decided not to use one this time either.  I had two large glass jars from IKEA in my closet, so I used one for baby hats and another for baby hair bows.  The smallest jar is from Michaels and I filled it with confetti from my best friend Phebe, who sent me some confetti poppers when we found out we were having a girl!  The lamp was a gift from my mom when we got married in 2008.

I framed an 8×10 print in a 11×14 frame, two 5×7 prints in an 8×10 frame, hung an 8×10 print (my Sparkle print) from a sequin hanger & made a 12″x12″ canvas for this wall (based on my favorite Maya Angelou quote).

The Gold Sequin C is a gift from my darling friend Phebe. She sent it to me after we had chosen a name for our sweet girl, and was kind enough to send one for both Chloe and me!

Most of the frames we had laying around the house. I know, I have an obsession with framing things!  I also re-used a white metal bucket that I bought at TJ Maxx years ago to hold her stuffed animals, though she doesn’t have many yet.  We also installed a small closet system (we got it for $80 at Home Depot) to maximize the teeny tiny closet space in the bedroom.

I love the way our nursery turned out!

S O U R C E S:
Crib, Babies R Us  $139
Bedding, Carousel Designs $34
Crib Skit, PBK re-used from Chloe
Curtains, Amazon (used a gift card toward purchase) $15
Tassel Garland, Glam Fete on Etsy $29
Ribba Wall Shelf, IKEA re-used from studio
Life is but a Dream print, Lindsay Letters $30
Be True print, Lindsay Letters
Whatever is Lovely print, Lindsay Letters
Malm Dresser, IKEA $149
Be Lovely print, Plum Pretty Sugar
Sparkle Print, designed by me, available on Etsy
It’s the Truth print, Joni Lay
Sequin Hanger, Ruth Eileen on Etsy $13
Closet System, Home Depot $89

Total Spent:  $498