Questions about how you decorated your nursery

[amp]

What color did you paint your baby's room?

Did you use a border or something like a chair rail or wainscotting or similar?

Did you know the gender of your baby when you decorated?

If you used a border, where did you buy it, what was in it, etc?

The reason I ask these questions is that for Jacob, we didn't know his gender and we painted a very neutral two tone beige, divided by a chair rail. It looked really nice, but not very nursery-ish, which could be bad or good. It has more universal and long term appeal, but it didn't really feel pulled together with any theme or even gender.

So, we have to start deciding on nursery #2. We have not yet decided whether to find out the gender of this new baby, but will probably decide before we ever get to decorating. I am at a loss as to what to do decor-wise. I never wanted a border in Jake's room, and I LOVE the chair rail in his room, but don't necessarily want to repeat it. I would LOVE wainscotting, but that might be cost prohibitive for us. I am somewhat interested in a border, but don't even know where to start. I perused some books at Lowes and googled, but so far it's still a brand new world. Might seriously consider animals of some sort if we have to go gender neutral.

Anyone want to share what they did or offer suggestions to a baffled mama? Thanks!

[Torster]

We're having a girl, but wanted to do something gender-neutral so we wouldn't have to redo the room if/when we have #2. After looking at many paint chips and accessories, we decided on Behr's Kiwi Squeeze from Home Depot (color 450A-2), which looks fresh and bright. We're both really pleased with how it turned out. You can look it up at:

http://www.behr.com/behrx/workbook/index.jsp

We decided against a border and other bells and whistles mostly because I thought that the furniture and the many toys I'm sure we'll accumulate would liven up the room enough. A few accents here and there can make the room more nursery-ish without costing a lot or requiring a lot of work. Once we put in the mobile (a gift), the bumper (a loaner), and a Koala Baby Big & Little lamp (which matches the wall color perfectly), and the toys we got at our shower, the room really looked like a nursery, without the bother of a border or anything else that would be a pain to change in a few years.

The flash on my camera washes the wall color out a bit, but here's a picture that gives you some idea of what it looks like.



http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/15835.jpg

[amp]

Thanks for the link to Behr. We were looking at some Behr colors last night, but I had no idea you could do so much online. Thanks for cluing me in!

We are considering a green, similar to what you have, but possibly a bit more subtle or sagey. Thanks for sharing the pic!

[smilequeen]

Well, for ours

We knew he was a boy when we started decorating.

The walls are blue and we did a yellow star and moon stencil around the ceiling. It was a Laura Ashely paint I think, but it was custom mixed, so it doesn't have a name.

We have a basic star and moon theme :)

It's not 100% finished, but there are pictures at the bottom of this
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=4478528&uid=579020
if that helps

[new_mommy25]

Sorry to hijack the post but..

Karen, everything looks fabulous!!! I love what you've done with the room. Little Simon is lucky to have such a wonderful mom. He has more clothes than my DS!! Good luck, you're almost there.

[crayonblue]

Well, we are just now decorating Lauren's room as we are just now moving out of an apartment and into a house. I bought blue and white gingham bedding for Lauren and we are painting the top half of her room white (a barely off-white. Still very white but not glaringly white) and the bottom will be blue patterned wall-paper with a border on top of it. I have been searching wall-paper books and have found a few I like but I am not in love with any of them. The one I liked the best was blue-striped wall-paper and the border was blue bows. I know blue isn't traditionally for girls, but I love blue and this wall-paper and border are VERY girly.

Good luck!

[ellies mom]

We used Gliddens Secret Garden for DD's nursery. Twice actually, I liked it so much. To me it is sagey. We did not use a border although I was considering a quotation from www.wallwords.com . I wanted to put up big fat crown molding but figures it was more than my marriage could take. I'm attaching a picture so you can get an idea of the color.

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/15860.jpg

[smilequeen]

Aww...thanks :) He's a first child, and first grandchild on both sides...I'm afraid he'll have too many clothes and toys for quite a while :)

[HallsofVA]

We painted the nursery with a light green on the bottom and a pale yellow on top with a border in the middle where the colors meet. We'd already decided on a barnyard theme before we knew the gender, and picked the specific paint colors to complement the colors in the border that went along with the bedding set. We ended up having a boy, but felt that we could have accessorized the nursery to match either gender. We opted for a Kidsline bedding set, and bought the border that matched the set.

This was our first time doing a wallpaper border, and it turned out to be very easy. Admittedly, it doesn't have very long term use (not a "mature" nursery theme) but we figure by the time we're ready to change it, he may be old enough to have his own preferences. We'll see! In lieu of the border, we thought about a decorative transition between the two paint colors, sort of in a wave pattern, but the border was easier, and added more color. Early on, my son seemed to spend many moments talking to the animals on the border and the bumpers!

Anyway, here's a picture to help you out. (Note, the border's not wavy as it looks in the picture. The picture became distorted when I made it small enough for the site.)



http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/15862.jpg

[lampes]

We knew we were going to have a girl and so we decorated it for a girl, but when we didn't know, I was planning on doing stripes and color blocking for a boy in brown, blue and cream.

We did a high border and painted the ceiling. I love painted ceilings as it makes the room look so finished. Someday, we plan to put up a quote along the 18" upper border.

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/15866.jpg


http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/15867.jpg

[amp]

Cathleen - This is precicsely one of the borders I am considering. Where did you buy yours and were you happy with the company/order?

Everyone else - You guys do great work! Thanks for sharing what you've done. I'm getting excited about the daunting process of deciding how to decorate. And the more I see of green in nurseries, the more I'm liking it, although I've always been a "blue" kind of gal! I do like the blue in Simon's nursery though and if I knew I was having a boy, I might do all blue. If we don't know gender, I may put some blue in there, but it will not be a dominant full wall color unless it is light with some gender neutral accents, etc.

Anyone else want to share?

[vdrake71]

We painted DS nursery 1/2 green (bottom) and 1/2 blue (top and ceiling). The paint came from Home Depot. The chair rail was hand made and it looks like a farm fence. We did not know the gender of our child at the time we decided on the theme. We went for a farm theme since we live on a farm. The bedding came from Wendy Bee and it has farm animals on it. We did not use a border, but painted clouds on the blue paint (including the ceiling) and painted grass on the green paint.

[Thatchermom]

We didn't know gender and went somewhat neutral. We had ideas for different accents if DS was a girl but didn't need them. We used a tan paint 2/3 of the way up the wall, DH made a peg rail border around the room. The top 1/3 and ceiling are a creamy tanish white. We use his pegs for all kinds of things now - decorative and useful. His crib is long gone now and replaced with a bed, but this is what it used to look like.


http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/15890.jpg

[bobacat]

We're in the middle of decorating. I guess I should say I, not we. My husband could pretty much care less. :) We waited to start until we knew it was a boy.

We started with a blue crib we bought at BRU that looks similar to this one at Pottery Barn.
http://ww1.potterybarnkids.com/cat/pip.cfm?src=shpab%7Ccfrncrb%7Cda%7Crshop%5Fb%2Fshp ab%7Ccfrn%7Cda%7Crshop%5Fb&pkey=cfrncrb%7Cab&gids=k650

Then we decided on bedding from House Inc. They let you choose your patterns. We chose a blue harlequin, blue giraffes, blue and green stripes, and green polka dots. We bought extra fabric in the green polka dots to make penant valances (the valances that look like flags).
http://www.houseinc.com/fabrics.html

I debated back and forth whether to buy new furniture, but I decided against it because the nursery is not very boyish and I figured he'd want to change it when he was older. I opted to paint a dresser that I already have. It's white, and I painted stripes and harlequins on it in blue and green. I ordered a hutch from the unfinished furniture place where the dresser is from, but that hasn't come in yet.

Then I ordered a green microfiber glider from Best Chairs, but that hasn't come in yet.

Now I am trying to choose paint. I think so far I like White Satin (which is actually a light blue) from Ben Moore and Herbal Mist from Behr. I plan to do harlequin diamonds on the walls in blues and greens, probably with a white base.

It's kind of hard to continue until all of the stuff comes in, which will not be for at least another 6 weeks. Yuck. I'm not a fan of wallpaper or borders, so I didn't want to use them in the nursery. My husband and I have done lots of funky wall treatments with paint before so it's not a challenge.

You can see a few of them here. The house no longer looks this way. I decided my weird treatments were ugly and went neutral instead. But they are good inspiration for a nursery!
http://roxannesworld.com/newhousepics.htm

[punk mama]

Karen, I love your changing table/dresser...what brand is it?

[HallsofVA]

It's the Kidsline Barnyard pattern. Once I decided on it, I shopped around and ended up ordering from a variety of vendors including BRU, Babycenter and from a website run by a brick & morter company in Florida. The borders I got from BRU. Quick shipping, so I really couldn't complain about either BRU or Babycenter.

I ordered the bulk of the bedding set from the Florida company (FLBabyandKids or something like that). I found them by doing a google search on Kidsline Barnyard, and price comparing each item I wanted and available discounts. They had the lowest prices on most of the items. It took forever for me to get my order though, and their responsiveness was less than impressive to my requests for order status. I did get everything I ordered, but thank goodness I ordered early (late Sept. for a Jan baby), or it never would have arrived on time! Hindsight, I probably would have gone with a slightly higher but more responsive company to give me some peace of mind. We ordered almost every piece they make in the pattern (too much probably), though, so we were definitely looking to economize.

[emky]

Veronica,

We are also doing a farm nursery as husband and I both grew up on farms. I think the chair rail sounds like a great idea. How did you do it? What does the Wendy Bee bedding look like in person? I have only seen it online.

I would love to see a picture of your nursery.

Thanks,
Emily

[smilequeen]

Thanks :) It's from the Bonavita Carmel collection.

[HannaAddict]

We must have tried at least 10 different greens on the walls before finding Benjamin Moore's Potpurri Green. It was on the cover of Real Simple magazine Feb. 2004, I was due in March!. Tried it, it looked great and so much better than anything else we tried. It is similar to PP Kiwi color. Very spring type green, not really a sage type. Our room faced north so wanted something brighter and less sagey. It looks great with yellow, light blue, would look great with pink too for a girl. I don't have my regular computer so can't post a photo, but wanted to throw it out there.

[jayali]

I was pretty determined not to have a themed nursery. I ws afraid I would end up hating it even before the baby was born.

We went with Vermont Precision crib and furniture. We did real furniture, not baby furniture and I am so glad we did. I am hoping that our son will use his furniture forever. We are still using my husbands maple dresser in our guest bedroom!

We were planning on doing a painted "dental molding" border, just like in the PBK catalogue, however, the painter didn't quite get it and it came out horrible. Soooo, I picked out a border, which I really didn't want to do, and we had it hung midway up the wall to separate the white (on top) and blue(bottom) on the walls. Turns out I LOVE it, and so does our son. He wakes up and talks to "the bears". All of the pictures of him in his crib look great because the border makes a great backdrop.

Bedding, again, I did not want a theme, so we did a plain blue chenille bummper from Bella Notte, with the matching bedskirt. I ordered some of their accent pillows and throw to keep in the crib when Matthew isn't in it. Since the bedding is neutral I have the luxury of accenting with anything I want. The border has all sorts of soft primary colors. It looks a little like a soft version of Ralph Lauren, but I don't recall the name or maker of the pattern.

Since Matty's room doesn't have a theme we have been having lots of fun collecting things we love (like old fashioned tin toys and handpainted picture frames) to decorate. I am really glad we decided against the theme and went with neutral colors. It really helps since you get gifts from people who don't really know you. We haven't had any major problems with things that don't go - we are lucky.

I will probably do the same if we have another, no theme and real furniture.

Enjoy

[vdrake71]

I have included two pictures. One shows the chair rail and the other shows his crib. For the chair rail we purchased some wood modeling at Home Depot and cut the vertical pieces to look like the fence.

As far as the bedding, I love it. I was looking every where for farm bedding, but I really didn't see anything that I liked. As soon as I saw the Wendy Bee bedding in the crib store, I knew that I had to have it. I also enjoy the different colors of the farm bedding because I was able to blend in the many colors of his room.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[TonFirst]

We installed wainscotting and a chair rail. Here's our nursery album - we're *almost* done:

http://pumpkinpatch.typepad.com/photos/the_nursery/index.html

We're having a boy, but I wanted something fairly gender-neutral as my grandmother is making our crib bedding (fabric swatches are in the album) and I want to be able to use the same bedding for all of my children.

We haven't put anything up on the walls yet - we're using vintage reproduction alphabet flashcards as a border near the ceiling, and a friend of ours who is a fantastic artist is doing a painting of our dog - sort of a "D is for Dog" theme - that fits with the rest of the alphabet theme we're using.

The wainscotting wasn't very difficult, but we installed it with the help of a friend who had both a lot of carpentry know-how and a pneumatic nail gun.

[[email protected]]

this room is amazing are you guys "interior decorators" if you are not you should be this room looks like something out of Better Homes and Gardens.

[lampes]

We are not decorators but I admit to stealing every idea in the room from a magazine or TV show! Thanks so much for your compliments.