Taylor's Nursery

As you probably know by now, I'm not a huge fan of pink. I'll take it in small amounts here and there, but the color in itself is not my favorite. So, when we found out we were having a girl, I immediately started thinking of every color but pink to do the nursery in.

One day, while Pinteresting my little heart out, I stumbled across this beautiful nursery. The robin's egg blue and various shades of purple combined with clean whites was enough to make my heart explode. It was perfect! I had found my inspiration for Baby E's room.

As with most things in my life, I wanted to make this room unique. I like to find inspirational pieces or themes when decorating and then add my own twist. And since I wasn't about to fork over thousands of dollars for a Pottery Barn Kids crib and bedding set, I enlisted my mother, the master seamstress (despite what she may think), for help. She made the white ruffle curtain and matching crib skirt and, after I picked out the pattern and fabric, she crafted Tay's beautiful quilt (which is, by far, my favorite piece in the room).

Until this weekend, the wall above Tay's crib remained bare. For the longest time, I just couldn't decide what to put there, until I stumbled across this garland tutorial. While I got to work on the garland, hubby created this 20x30 standout board at work. We adhered the photo using Command picture strips (quite possibly the best invention ever) and hung the garland with white thumbtacks. I am in love with this giant print above her bed, and I'm so happy with how the tissue paper garland turned out. For some reason (probably due to the poor lighting since I chose the worst time of day to take these photos), the tissue paper looks much darker than it actually is. It's quite vibrant in person and the colors match the quilt perfectly!

The dresser (which also doubled as a changing table until Taylor took a nose dive off of it last week) and side table were Craigslist finds. Jake sanded, painted, and changed out the knobs on both pieces. This task proved to be much more time intensive than we had initially thought, but both pieces are so well made that I'm glad we spent the extra time and effort to preserve them. Ha! I say "we" when we all know that Jake did 95% of the work. I literally found the furniture and picked out the paint color and knobs (so basically, I did my part).

The luxe frames hanging above the dresser are the most-asked about pieces in the room. My husband works for a photography lab and, luckily, we were able to snag a few of these for cheap! I love how they add just the right amount of flare to the room. But I should probably think about switching out those maternity pics for something a little more up-to-date.

The glider was the hardest piece to find and definitely our biggest splurge. My advice? Spend your money where it matters most. For us, it was this chair. I can't tell you how many hours we've spent in this thing feeding Taylor or rocking her when she doesn't feel good. I love the fact that it glides and swivels, and the ottoman has been a lifesaver for our backs. And the best part is that the crushed silver and white piping are neutral enough that we'll likely be able to use it in our next nursery (although no one's thinking about that yet). I should note that the purple crochet blanket on the back of the glider was also made by my mother. She's a woman of many talents. Guess this apple fell way far from that tree.

The first actual purchase I made was the rug. With white walls, white furniture, and light carpet, I wanted the rug to be the focal point of the room. I needed a nice pop of color to tie everything together. My source of inspiration used a PBK rug (which was completely out of my budget). So, I did a little research and found this rug on Amazon for less than half of the price of the PBK one. It really does pay to shop around! At first, I was nervous about putting a wool rug in a baby's bedroom, but *knock on wood* it has held up great and remained stain free thus far. We'll see how well it holds up once the toddler stage is in full effect.

Since organization is key in my world, I threw in a few baskets, hanging book shelves (they're the infamous Ikea picture ledges), and a cube organizer to contain the endless amounts of toys and books our tot has accumulated. Since she is now mobile, Taylor's new favorite game is taking every book off the shelves and hiding them around the house. As you can imagine, my OCD just loves finding random books behind my bathroom door.

And what would a nursery post be without a few photos of its owner? Our poor babe was sick all day yesterday, so this impromptu photo shoot was the last thing she wanted to do.

 Even Sophie can't make it better.

This room has been the stage for so many wonderful memories. From rocking her to sleep for the first time when she was a few days old to the first night she slept in her own room (where her dad was a nervous wreck and I had the best sleep I'd had in months) and then to just last week when she pulled herself up in the crib for the first time. Life with her is just better - in every single way - and I can't wait to create many more memories with her in this space.

Links to (most of) the items in Taylor's nursery can be found on my Pinterest board here.