Things are moving along in the unpacking-and-getting-settled world over here, and we’re finally at a point where we can start thinking about fun things. AKA, the nursery!
I have been DYING to put together a nursery pretty much from the minute I saw two lines on that test. We didn’t have a nursery in our previous home since Baby slept in our room. So my nursery designing desires have been suppressed for a long, long time.
(Does it also stress you out that Baby is now closer to the 6-month mark than his birth and we still don’t have his room set up?)
In my dream, unrestrained-by-a-budget world, I think the nursery would take on more of a Cali casual mix of baby and grown-up that feels a little masculine (but in a baby way). Lots of unfinished woods and leather and natural textures.
But alas! The budget. All of the furniture we have for Baby’s room is white. No grainy, unfinished wood for me.
Currently we have a crib, a dresser, and an IKEA KALLAX that we’re using as a changing table. I love the crib and the KALLAX, but we are going to need to upgrade the dresser. Our current one is quite old and the drawers don’t work. I mean, they work, but you have to shake vigorously to open them. Hence there's nothing on top of the dresser.
We really like the way this dresser looks, so are planning on moving it somewhere where it can be used to store things that don't need to be accessed frequently, but is still visible.
I also would like a wider, shorter dresser so we can put our changing pad on top of it. The KALLAX has served us well as a changing table, but our baby is big enough that it now seems precarious, and I would prefer to use this surface for all of the baby knick-knacks he’s accumulating. Dresser-wise, I have my eye on one at IKEA. Which means an IKEA trip is in our future! (This is our favorite, and definitely our most expensive, date.)
The furniture in this room feels sort of piece-mealed. What worked well when we were sharing a room just isn’t the right scale in a room of its own. The KALLAX and cart and diaper pail all feel cluttered to me. We're planning on moving the cart elsewhere in the apartment and storing everything it's currently holding in the new dresser. I think rearranging and getting a bigger dresser in here will help streamline all of this and help the room feel more cohesive and balanced.
The rug was once upon a time in the living room of our first apartment, and I love it in the nursery! Also nice that we didn’t have to purchase a new one, because I’m not sure I could handle picking out more than one rug at a time.
Pictured are our drop-cloth curtains, which I still love, but they don’t block out enough light for a frequent napper. Our apartment has high ceilings, which are nice for making the rooms feel big, but do pose a challenge when it comes to finding appropriate-length curtains.
The chair pictured was a sort of place-holder. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do for a chair in the nursery, but knew I wanted something very comfortable. We recently moved our EKTORP chair from the living room into the nursery and, oh boy. Having a comfy chair in a baby’s room is a great idea. I totally get why people do it. And now I’m not sure how we survived so many months without one.
So, the only big purchase we really have for the nursery is the dresser. Once we get that assembled and do some furniture re-arranging, we really will only have smaller decor decisions to make. We are sticking with mostly neutrals - grays and creams and whites - for wall decor. I'm going for things that fit in a baby's room, but aren't overly-babyish. Husband describes this look as, "he knows he's a baby, but he's not going to flaunt it."
The biggest challenge of the wall decor is that very long fuse box behind the current dresser. I would definitely like to cover it because it’s an eye sore. But need to find something that can be easily removed (I assume the landlord would prefer this be accessible). I have been looking for some piece of wall decor that is long enough to cover the whole thing, but not so wide to take up the whole wall. These very specific dimensions are hard to find. If you have suggestions for this design conundrum, I’m all ears. Send HELP.
All-in-all, there’s really not a ton left to do. Most of the big pieces are already set up and in the room. We just need to finalize some decor choices, find curtains, rearrange a bit, and get a dresser.
Making it our goal to have his room completely done by the time our baby is 6 months!
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