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/...528&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