Once I got to around 20 weeks pregnant and excitedly felt more comfortable acknowledging that it was real this time, I started thinking about my dream girly nursery. I was kind of all over the map considering several different options. Several years ago I fell in love with the floral wallpaper trend, but that was starting to seem a bit overdone now. I wanted something a little more unique. Then I saw this wallpaper from @arrowsandbow and fell in love. It looked like sort of an abstract sunset to me and I love the muted blush, peach and yellow tones. My mom loved sunsets and they’ve always reminded me of her and made me feel close to her, so that felt right too. I also wanted to sprinkle in some rainbows since Bailey is our triple rainbow baby, and I thought that would go well with this vibe.
I then got a crazy idea to put the wallpaper on the ceiling instead of on a wall. But if I did that, I needed to do something on the wall the crib was on, because the crib and the wall were both white. So I would have to paint that wall. I wasn’t sure if the wallpaper on the ceiling, a painted wall and a blush pink dresser (which I already had) would be too much going on, but I decided to roll with it…and I’m so happy I did!
Here’s a before picture of the room from before we moved in:
We had the entire interior of the house painted before we moved in (because everything was tan…even the ceilings!). So when I started on the project to make it a nursery, the walls were now white (Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace).
Putting the peel-n-stick wallpaper up on the ceiling wasn’t the easiest application I’ve ever done. I’ve installed this stuff on several walls and have gotten pretty good at it – it only took me an hour to do a wall in Hudson’s room by myself at 32 weeks pregnant. But the ceiling is much trickier because you’re working against gravity instead of letting it help you. Because of shipping delays and having to order a custom size of the wallpaper to fit the ceiling, I didn’t get the wallpaper in until 2 weeks before Bailey was born. At that point in the pregnancy I felt so terrible that there was no way I was taking on this project. I figured I could just do it after – no rush. But I forgot that we’d be having newborn pictures a few weeks after she was born and I would, of course, want the nursery done for those. So I ended up installing the wallpaper at 2 weeks postpartum with a disgruntled husband as a helper…but we got it done! And I’m so obsessed with it! Add in this gorgeous tassel chandelier, and I pretty much never want to leave this room.
I already had all of the main furniture pieces, so luckily didn’t have to make any big purchases there.
Blush Pink Dresser – purchased from Facebook and I refinished
I decided to paint the wall the crib would be on the same color I painted the dresser (Sherwin Williams White Dogwood), because I didn’t want to have too many competing colors going on with a lot going on with the ceiling already.
On that same note, I didn’t want to do anything too busy on the wall above the crib to detract from the cool ceiling, and I found these beautiful dried floral wreaths on Etsy that were actually made by a locally in Charlotte.
I loved this rug and these curtains to pull in more boho vibes to the room. I layered black-out curtains behind the pretty decorative ones to make sure the room could get dark enough for a sleeping baby.
When I found out we were having a girl, I knew this blush pink dresser that I refinished a few years ago had to go in the nursery. Not only do I love how it looks, but it has so much meaning to me. I painted this dresser pink when we were in the middle of a string of miscarriages and a lot of fear and unknown about if we’d ever have another baby, let alone if I’d ever have a girl. I decided that I didn’t need to wait to have a girl (which might never happen) to have a pink dresser if I wanted one. So I painted it pink for me, and to symbolize letting go and trusting that what was meant to be, would be.
The final touch for the nursery was adding these sweet bookshelves to hold my girl’s books and a few special treasures. The embroidered rainbow was made by my best friend for my rainbow baby, and the beautiful clay wall hanging was made by another talented friend (@centuryclay) and was the first thing I purchased for the nursery.
Thanks so much to Melissa Joy Photography for the beautiful photos of my new favorite place!
Xo,
Shannon
