Nursery layout and design board!

Finally! After jumping in and sharing various elements of the nursery piece meal, I’m getting around to giving you a whole picture of the room in its soon-to-be fabulous state.

When Nicole and I first started talking about the nursery, there were only a few “mandatory” things I requested:

1. a sophisticated, not “baby-ish”, gender neutral color palette
I really wanted the details of the room to say nursery but not the color scheme. And I wanted to keep things gender neutral so it would require minimal re-working down the road. Originally I was obsessed with this wallpaper from Julia Rothman for Hygge & West and I thought it would make a perfect accent piece on the wall behind the crib (ok truth be told, I actually started out wanting to wallpaper the ceiling in this but hubby quickly put the kibosh on that).

2. A re-do of the closet in the room complete with removing the existing doors, hanging a coordinating fabric panel and reconfiguring the storage space to be more baby item friendly. That is well underway.

3. A general understanding for how the room would be used. Nicole is simply awesome at space utilization and really thinking through how to lay a room out such that it will provide optimal ease of use for what you’ll be doing in the space. I like all the pretty stuff as much as the next girl but I was really focused on making the nursery a very usable (and easy to use) space. So thinking about how to keep diapers/wipes, etc within arms reach of the changing table, black-out shades to help with middle of the day naps, a feeding “station” area for prepping formula were all hot topics.

4. Incorporating a few items into the design that I either already had or that had caught my eye.

After sending off detailed measurements on the space, collaborating via email on what I liked, didn’t like and couldn’t live without Nicole sent back this room layout and design board.

I am immediately in love with so many things that I almost can’t stand it. It is the perfect marriage of style + function, color + texture, sophisticated elements I can clearly use in other spaces + whimsical baby items to keep the room fun. And perhaps the best part – Nicole‘s creativity and bargain hunting ability kept every item in this design but 2 under $200 (only the rug which is big at 5’x8’ and the pouf which I had to have break the $200 barrier). Missing from this design – yup, the Julia Rothman wallpaper. Though I still love it, Nicole talked me out of making such a committed decision for the decor in this room. Apparently future buyers may not share my love of pretty gray birds (or if you’re hubby, perhaps you prefer “dive bombing pigeons”?)

The light fixture continues to be a point of discussion (I like the simple one seen here, hubby wants to consider something “more funky”). And though I love the elephant hamper, this frog has recently caught my eye (but it doesn’t really fit in with the loose safari-ish theme that’s developed).

Aside: What is happening to me? I am debating the finer points of an elephant vs. frog hamper!!! This.must.stop.

Can’t wait to share the final product and all the adventure along the way!