Need inspiration for neutral nursery look, crib bedding

[bostonsmama]

I have always loved the John Lennon Real Love bedding set by Carter's. Baby Bargains gave them a pretty stellar review for having good, quality stitching, cotton threads, wash/fade resistance, elastic all around the sheets, and 100% cotton/200 thread count items. They have the most beautiful pastel shades of blue, green, yellow, pink, purple, and orange with the most endearing animals...very similar to a jungle theme and could easily turn into a Noah's Ark theme. I have everything from the collection (comforter, sheets, skirt, bumper, valances, lamp, organizer, mobile, receiving blankets, toys/rattles, wall border) and everything is extremely gender neutral. We figured when the baby came we would paint the top half of the wall yellow and the bottom half either blue, green or pink.

If you're looking for a more upscale look, check out Susan Turner bedding. They have the most adorable bunny motif, including all sorts of toiles and checks. I think toile is perfect in red, black, light blue, light green, and yellow....so nongender specific. She has her own website, and the Bellini in Atlanta, GA sells some of her bedding and accessories. Frankly, though, after seeing them in person, I cannot justify their outrageous expense: $1500-$3000 for a 4-piece set. The fabrics were stiff and somewhat scratchy, not soft at all. But that's just me.

[decbaby04]

Hi...saw your message, hope this helps:
Our baby was also camara shy when we went for U/S. Tech says "probable girl", hope to find out this week for sure. Anyway, my husband and I fell in love with Carter's Joy Hide N' Seek Bear. This is available at Babies R Us. It is sage green gingham & white with pink, yellow and blue. Has litte bears & bunnies playing hide and seek pattern. They carry all accessories for this theme too. Really cute. 4 piece crib bedding runs about $139.
www.babiesrus.com

[babymama]

Hi there! I have an example of what NOT to do.
We didn't want to know gender either. So in a moment of bad judgement (pregnancy brain), we chose light green and lavender.
The lavender is looking pretty girlie now. Wish we had gone for another color scheme. We'll probably paint again soon.

Mama to Santiago, born 11/16/03

[sniknshelb]

My wife and I also decided to go with a neutral theme, and there's alot of baby bedding to look at.

We found and both very much liked "2" designs by Lambs & Ivy.

Their "Tuscany" and "Verona" themes...both share the same color palate.

The Tuscany which is an exclusive at Babies 'R Us has little lambs, ducks.

The Verona has Star & Moon.

We decided to go with the Verona :)

http://store.yahoo.com/dreamtimebaby/verona.html

Good Luck...

Todd & Sherry
Toledo, OH
edd: 10/02/04

[KrisM]

We didn't find out either, and figure any future kids would be sharing the room anyway, so neutral was good. We painted the walls and ceiling a pale blue, just to have a bit of color. Other than that, we're using primary colors plus green - hey the room will soon be decorated by Fisher Price, why not start now!

The dresser is white, but we painted the drawers in blue, red, and green. The background of the book case is yellow. We have solid color sheets in blue and red. The crib skirt and valance are polka dots of blue, red, green, and yellow.

We put quilted wall hangings of balloons on the walls.

I really like it and it doesn't scream baby's room, which I also like.

Kris

[kitmama]

Our nursery is mostly a celestial theme in yellow, blue and white. I was inspired by the stars and moons bedding from PBK- several things in the nursery are from that PBK line, but I bought it all on ebay. We have bedding with stars and moons, or clouds. The curtains have stars on them, I have a sparkly star mobile over the changing table/dresser, and a blue star chenille rug on the floor. The lamp and nightlight both have stars. The room was already painted as a nursery when we moved in, and luckily I love it. It is painted in yellow and pale beige, in vertical stripes about a foot wide. The alphabet is painted along one wall, and on another wall is an adorable mural of the "Hey, Diddle Diddle" nursery rhyme. Both murals have lots of stars, so the celestial theme seemed like a natural extension that I would enjoy.

It has really come together nicely, but it's still a work in progress! (Since I get so much stuff second-hand, it can take me awhile to pull it all together). I have a quilt that I will hang on one wall, and I still want to get my hands on a particular curtain rod from PBK. Also, I need to organize ds's toys and books. really, though, it's one of the nicest rooms in the house to spend time in. I LOVE the whole stars and moons thing. Very gender neutral, and certainly doesn't scream "baby".

I will try to take some pics for you in the next couple days and get them up.

[hwin708]

I like this set for a gender neutral room.
http://www.yummybaby.com/webeehoevaf.html
It has a frog prince on one side and a frog princess on the other - perfect!

[noahcraigsmom]

We didn't find out the sex either (although I was pretty sure I was having a boy, which I did) so we went neutral.

We found a great border at Babies R Us called 'Believing in Dreams' - it's actually an Eddie Bauer pattern. It has tan, mocha, maroon, navy, sage, etc in a series of stars and moons. We painted the walls two different tan colors and put the border up about 2/3 of the way (put the border out of baby's reach - I know so many people who's kid has peeled the border off once they are older and bored in their crib). The room looks good without even needing to hang pictures on the wall.

As for bedding, I just picked up some plain color sheets and bought a valance separately that went with another set from Kohls.

The attached picture doesn't show the border, but it's the bedding that goes with the border, so you can see the patterns. We love it and I don't feel like we'll need to redecorate the room the minute it's no longer used as a nursery (it'll become an office eventually).

[Lissa24]

We are not finding out either, so I wanted something very neutral, though I really think I am having a boy. lol I really have that gut feeling. Either way, we decided to go with the "Bee My Baby" from Brandee Danielle, however, we didn't buy it, I bought all the material from Hancock Fabric and made all the bedding and vallances and throw pillows and even a small throw blanket. I was going to have the bee embroidered on, but decided I liked it without, this way I am not restricted with the accent decorating. We have Boyd's Bears we are going to put as decorations and once the baby is here, we will accent with more gender based things. We are painting the nursery green on the bottom (almost a sage green) and the top half a light yellow (with a chair rail??? seperating the two colors). I went out and bought 4 little boyds bears (6" high ones) and am putting those on a cheap mobile. And later on can change the items on the mobile to fit if we have a boy/girl if I chose. If we have a boy it will end up being more outdoorsy (fishing ect...) and if we have a girl we will decorate it more girlie (but this was a good base to start with). Anyway, I have a total of $70 in the material and this was my first ever sewing project and it all turned out great. We don't have a nursery yet, so I can't show you a picture of how it turned out, but I will show you what we are basing it off from.

[helaina]

I know I'm having a boy but I think our nursery is fairly gender neutral. The top third of the walls are light blue to represent a sky and DH is going to paint white clouds on it. The bottom 2/3 of the walls will be green with curved tops to look like mountains. We chose natural stained wood furniture and our bedding is Lulu the Lamb from babystyle.com. The only thing boyish we're doing is a wall mural of a train from wallnutz: http://www.wallnutz.com/PhotoGallery/Customertrain.jpg

Attached are the photos of other gender neutral nurseries that inspired me.