Home Tour: The Nursery

A couple of days ago I was participating in a Twitter chat for SNAP and everyone was sharing posts of their homes. I realized I really had nothing to share, not because our house isn’t decorated, but because I’ve never really done a room reveal or home tour. Since this week is all about K, I thought it would be fun to share his room first.

I’m lucky enough to have a husband who is actually very into interior design. He loves watching HGTV with me, and we have very similar design preferences. Because of that, coming up with K’s nursery design was actually fairly easy. Inspired by the Taylor Nursery Pottery Barn Kids collection, we decided to go with a minimalist elephant theme, with some elephants sprinkled throughout the room but not over the top. It all started with a new paint job, incorporating one Ebbtide Blue stripe between two Comfort Gray ones. Since I’m so short, I did a ton of research on cribs and found this one from Pottery Barn Kids that I absolutely love. Not only is it great quality but it comes in a low-profile version that isn’t any smaller, just shorter. It’s seriously the perfect crib for short moms like me. I also love that it’s so neutral so it’ll work well if we have a girl eventually.

One of the things that I knew I had to have in the nursery was a glider. I tried out a ton of cribs at Ikea, Babies R Us, and a number of other stores and none of them seemed comfortable enough to me. And then I tried out the Tiburon Glider at Pottery Barn Kids (while checking out my crib) and I was in love. The glider is one of the best investments I’ve ever made. I’ve spent so many hours in that glider and it is one of the most comfortable chairs ever. I also love how clean and modern looking it is, especially when paired with this light blue hand-knitted pouf from Plow and Hearth. Next to the glider is a HEMNES nightstand (essential for putting things on) and a fun dimming lamp that I thought looked kind of like an elephant, both from Ikea. And the gray chevron rug (better pictures below) adds another piece to our Pottery Barn Kids collection.

The one thing that’s been missing in this cozy corner is some art or a picture on the wall. Over Christmas break, my sweet mother-in-law took some family pictures for us and we all happened to be wearing blue and gray. I absolutely love this photo she took of K peeking out around us kissing and thought it would be the perfect addition to the corner. Rather than just putting the image in a frame, I decided to get it turned into a canvas using Easy Canvas Prints. Easy Canvas Prints provided me with a free canvas for the room and I love how it personalizes the corner a little bit more although honestly I’m normally sitting in that corner anyway.

If you’ve never had a canvas made out of a photo, it’s one of the easiest things ever, especially with Easy Canvas Prints. All you do is go to their website, select the size canvas you want, upload your photo, and select your printing options (wrapping/hanging/etc.). It literally only took me about five minutes to finish my order and the quality is great. We actually have a number of other canvas prints as well and have been pleased with the quality each time we’ve ordered through Easy Canvas Prints. Here’s one more close-up, just because I think K’s face in this picture is the best.

Anyway, back to the room tour. Next we’ll go to the most functional part of the room. This MALM dresser from Ikea goes perfectly with all of the other white furniture and inside everything is all organized using Ikea drawer organizers. I picked up the little gray elephant bank from Pottery Barn Kids during Black Friday sales.

Funny enough, the wall above the dresser was completely bare until a week before K was born. I’d always planned to add some sort of artwork or decoration and just never got around to it. K was a week late and my mom was in town so we turned this side of the room into a nesting project. I made the circle mobile using my Silhouette and was inspired by this idea for the artwork.

I love how the mobile and artwork add a little bit of fun to the room. And it was one of the easiest things ever to create. I can’t find the tutorial now that I used but basically it’s just a embroidery hoop we painted white, circles we cut out of scrapbook paper, all strung with a clear twine.

And last but not least is my absolute favorite part of the room. Before I even knew I was pregnant, I created a baby Pinterest board and this was the first pin that made it onto that board. I knew that when we were designing a nursery, it would have a reading area like this one. It was the last thing to get done in the room (other than the artwork) but when it was finally done, I just sat in my glider and stared at it for a few hours while feeling K kick.

I love to read and love children’s books so you can probably understand why this part of the room is my favorite. All we did was put these Ribba ledges from Ikea up on the wall and added a great Dr. Seuss quote that my sweet friend Cate from Lil Diddy created for me above the shelves. And that elephant? A gift from someone (sorry whoever you are) and other than when we vacuum, pretty sure he hasn’t moved from that location. It’s like he’s just made for that corner.

Since K was born I can count on one hand the number of times it’s actually looked like this; all the other times there are books all over the ground. The only way I was even able to take pictures was to put K in his crib. He’s not quite sure why he’s in his crib when it’s not naptime.

Out of all of the rooms in the house, this is the only one that I really don’t want to make any changes to. I love everything about it including the sweet boy we designed it for. Below you can find links to all of the products we used in our room other than the Ikea lamp, which doesn’t seem to be available any longer. And if you want to create your own Easy Canvas Print Canvas for one of your rooms, I’m giving away a free 8×10 to one lucky winner just by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.

What is your favorite thing about our blue and gray elephant nursery? Any suggestions for what to put on the wall above the crib?

Where’d I Get That?
Crib, Chevron Rug, Glider, Elephant Bank – Pottery Barn Kids
Pouf – Plow and Hearth
Dresser, book ledges, nightstand, lamp, picture frames – Ikea
Vinyl Quote – Little Diddy Custom Vinyl Designs
Photo Canvas – Easy Canvas Prints
Mobile – DIY
Elephant artwork – DIY