Nursery Mood Board… At last!

22/06/2016•Baby, Moodboard, Nursery

I started making a nursery mood board the day I found out I was pregnant. By the end of that day I’d had something rough put together. Since then I’ve tinkered and refined and I thought I should wait until I was at least halfway through to share, so I’ve been sitting on it for a while. I am nearly 24 weeks along. I think it’s finally time.

I’ve waited so long, Dear Reader…

I LOVE making mood boards, if it’s not obvious enough. This blog is basically two things: 1. Photos of stuff, and 2. Mood boards. And getting to start fresh and decorate a whole room for my darling little child has been the most exciting task of pregnancy so far. I wish I could conceptualize nursery themes and design mood boards professionally. If anybody knows of such a job, get at me. We know the sex of the baby, but we’re not tellin’. The color scheme has been this whole time completely gender neutral. The ‘theme’ here is difficult to break down into a tight, bite-size concept, but I’ve described it as Modern-Minimal-Vintage-Whimsical-Woodsy. I feel like that covers all our bases. Let us break it down.

• Crib — Baby’s gotta have a crib, IMO. I’m going very minimal in style and budget with the SNIGLAR from Ikea. It’s very solidly built and not too flashy. We want warm, natural wood tones all over this room.
• Animal Alphabet Print — Still working on accruing good artwork to put up. Not too much hopefully, but this print from Rifle Paper Co. is super adorable and on-theme.
• Paint — Right now the room in question is kind of a tan color. It feels like a hospital room. We’re going to give it a bright fresh coat of this subdued white color from Behr.
• Night Light — How could you get more adorable – and outdoorsy – than this little campfire light from Land of Nod?
• Changing Pad — I like the neutral utilitarian look of the Keekaroo Peanut Diaper Changer. You just wipe it down, no need to have a cover you have to wash.
• Tree Flag — Our personal ‘wedding logo’ featured two pine trees, so I think it’s fitting to have this little banner now that we’ll be a family of three.
• Floor Lamp — We’ll want a nice light for night time readings and feedings. I like this cozy mid-century style one from Target.
• Dresser/Changing Table — One of the most difficult items to figure out, tbh. From the beginning I loved the look of this vintage camp-style dresser from Land of Nod, but the price feels steep. I thought I could go the DIY route like Sarah Sherman Samuel did here for her nursery, but Ikea doesn’t seem to have an TARVA dressers anymore, and I can’t find a single good plain wood dresser anywhere else. SO… In the meantime, I’m really taken with the beautiful Lolly dresser with removable changing table from Babyletto. It’s definitely on brand and I love the little wooden legs. Great personality in a dresser.
• Blanket — I couldn’t wait to get this blanket from Fine Little Day so I bought it the day I found out I was pregnant. I was incredibly eager about getting pregnant, you might be learning. I’ve been a big fan of the Gran tree print for a long time. We have the pillow in our living room!
• Hang-it-all — This is a last minute clutch addition from Alan, who found one on CL and I’m currently waiting to hear back from the guy/gal. It’s so perfect, right? We have the Hang-it-All (it’s a knock-off) in walnut in our kitchen. Now I can hang little baby’s tiny hoodies and when he/she is older, little backpacks.
• Big Soft Rug — Look up “Modern Neutral Nursery” on Pinterest and guaranteed you will find that rug. You can find versions of it everywhere – the most popular probably being West Elm. There’s actually so many versions of this rug I don’t know which one is in this mood board. It’s probably this one from Rugs USA. A big fuzzy statement rug will fill out the room nicely (and baby’s totally gonna care!)
• Molecule Building Set — This is mostly to show that I am capable of including colorful items in the baby’s room. Plus it’s science-y and cool! It’s originally made by Ferm, but they have discontinued it. I bought mine from Nest, where it’s also no longer available. But! You can buy it from the Dwell Store.
• Where The Wild Things Are — Probably don’t need to explain this one.
• Bookcase — Like the rug, you’ll find this little piece in many a modern nursery on Pinterest and blogs. It’s not just because it’s trendy. It’s also something I think our kid can use forever until he/she is at least 8-10 years old. Plus it’s cute and functional. Things that are functional should also be nice to look at! That is my ethos!
• Rocker/Glider — This chair from CB2 is a placeholder for the chair we actually bought, which, the way we customized it, doesn’t exist in photo form online. We liked the idea of a rocking chair, because it’s more old school, and in general I think gliders look tacky. What we did is we went to a baby store and tried out rockers and gliders and gliders were just more comfortable and fluid. We got the Dutailier Classico with natural wood legs and a gray tweedy-type fabric, so much like the ikea couches in the rest of the house. I super wanted the NurseryWorks Sleepytime Rocker but the back is so short and Alan and I are tall. The chair we went with is mega cozy and will be wonderful for late nights with babby.
• Storage Baskets — Such an anticlimax! But good, neutral bins/baskets can be tricky to find. As it happens, Land of Nod is having a sale on bins and baskets right now so I snagged a couple of these knitted bins.

Also, the knitted pennant is from Ferm, and it’s super adorable. (Happy Flags!)

As an epilogue, I’m using Babylist for my registry (again, I started it the day I found out I was pregnant) which is cool because you can aggregate items from all over, and they have handy guides and such too. If you’re expecting and haven’t put one together yet, I recommend Babylist for sure.