Perhaps I was projecting a bit, but I most certainly did not want Mariella's nursery to be outlandishly pink and girly. I wanted it to feel as though we'd brought the outdoors in so each detail was carefully considered.
PART 1: THE WALLS
When we moved into the house, this room was an insanely bright teal color with broken pieces of brown molding transitioning the walls to the floor. I SO wish I had taken more pictures to tell the "before" story. (This seems to be an overarching theme for me. I consistently forget to document the space before rolling up my sleeves and diving into the project. I guess I just get too excited to start working.) I knew I wanted to put birch trees on the wall behind her crib. I chose WallPops! Mountain Birch Gray peel and stick wallpaper via Wayfair. Then I had to choose a wall color and this is where the wheels start to come off the wagon. Selecting the perfect gray IS NO EASY TASK. To all those who've spent upwards of several hours staring at paint samples in an attempt to decipher whether or not the subtle blue hues in this color are perhaps slightly more blue than the blue hues in this other color, I SALUTE YOU. I'm with you. And I majored in this, studied color theory, can note the tiniest flecks of colors that comprise the paint... but still. I was frustrated by how difficult this decision became. Days went by and indecision prevailed. My husband would come home from work to find me sitting in the room staring at the samples on the wall. We finally picked a color and I got to painting.
I taped, primed, and painted those walls with oh so much the care and diligence. Stepping back occasionally, the color seemed a bit too blue and not quite rich enough.... but maybe it would look better with the second coat. The second coat went up and it only confirmed that I didn't like it. SO SAD WAS I.
That's Cooper and he gets in the way sometimes, but we love him.
I didn't like it. Not only did I not like it, but I'd spent so much time in both the decision process and the application process that I felt overwhelmingly defeated. Pregnant and defeated. Back to the samples. I wanted a warmer gray, but didn't want it to get too red-toned. Flipping all the way to the back of the Benjamin Moore color deck, I entered the Historic Color section and found... Stonington Gray. YAAAAASSSSS Stonington Gray, YES!
By the way, I can't speak highly enough of WallPops! peel and stick wallpaper. So easy to put up, and it looked great. Totally recommended.
PART 2: OH BOY, SHOPPING!
We put up new white molding, painted the newly installed windows, and replaced all the electrical covers. I purchased the Abigail crib, a corner bookshelf, and these spectacular curtains. These were great because they were blackout, but didn't have that heavy feel to them. You could also pull back the blackout portion of the curtain and just let the tulle cover the window. They were a dusty rose peach color and I thought they "girled" up the room without going overboard. I purchased a white shag rug by Walk On Me (they don't sell it anymore, but this one is similar), owl tie backs from Anthropolgie and curtain rods with little leaves.
The furniture was my husband's Grandfather's. (See! Well made furniture will last lifetimes!) I loved the grain of the wood and didn't want to do anything to hide its beauty. So, I simply removed the knobs and replaced them with these awesome ones from Anthropologie. They too had that peachy color to them, and worked perfectly.
PART THREE: HOMEMADE AND CUSTOM
I wanted to add personal touches to her room, so decided to make her mobile and paint watercolor paintings to go above her changing table. I wanted the mobile to look like falling leaves, all with blush, gold, and rosey tones. I used metallic paint to cover fake leaves and hung them with string. I glued a pearl to each leaf where the string attached. Finally, I wove battery powered string lights around the top. Here's the result:
I wanted to use watercolors to give the paintings that light feel. I also wanted them to feel whimsical, almost child-like, so tried to keep myself from overworking them. To avoid it feeling too uniformed, I uses a variety of white frames, which also added visual interest.
Finally, I hung a screen door on the outside of her room. My reasoning was twofold. On one hand, it definitely perpetuated the outdoorsy theme I was creating and looked really darn cute. On the other hand, (and this is the main reason), I could shut her door to keep the dogs out of her room, yet still be able to hear her waking up from a nap. Win win!
And just like that, the nursery was ready :)