How I’m Turning Our Nursery Into A Boy/Girl Room
If you follow my Instagram stories, then you may have seen back in May we started moving our little guy, Gus, into his sister’s room. They were pretty much sleeping on the same schedule and Grandma from Indiana was coming to visit. Plus with a few trips coming up this year where we’d all be sharing a room, I thought it was a good impetus to have them share a room full-time. And we’d have an official guest room again!
Unfortunately for Gus the room was very pink. Here’s what is looked like when I finished it up back in 2015 before Mary Helen was born.
I intentionally kept the walls and ceiling neutral so it would be easy to change up the feel of the room with accessories like curtains and blankets. And that’s where we are today.
I took down the pink curtains and made Gus a blue-ish dot garland to match MH’s. But now the room is blah without much color.
So here’s my plan to add some more color and more boy into the room. Bear with me, this is my first ever mood board!
The whole inspiration that ties everything together is this canvas print I picked up at HomeGoods a few months after Mary Helen was born. I simply love the colors in it and the phrase itself!
I’m going to make mint-colored Roman shades to replace the existing white and gold dot ones. Those will move into the former-now-back-again guest room. Since this is a fairly small room, both of the kids’ beds are near the windows. And before I took down the curtains, they would be playing with them and pulling them into their cribs when they were supposed to be going to sleep. So for the time being, long, drapey curtains are a little dangerous to have in here.
To introduce another color to the palette, I’m going to add navy pom pom to the Roman shades. Navy will also be in Gus’s crib sheet (my dream is the navy with the white crosses in the mood board, but I’m having trouble finding one!) and it’s already in the garland above his bed.
We’ll keep our current dresser, rug, and the beds in some form. I’m debating whether I want the beds to match with MH in my old dark-stained twin bed (from our guest room of yesteryear and my childhood) and Gus in his crib. Or turn MH’s white toddler bed back into a crib and put Gus in it while MH is in the twin bed. The dilemma! I think part of me just wants to use the white crib for as long as possible since it cost more than Gus’s VarageSale-find wood crib. Opinions welcome in the comments below!
Anywho, the last element I’m adding/changing is the lighting. A lamp sitting on a small table is just too tempting for two toddlers. So we’re going to get 2 white wall sconces* that we’ll mount above each bed, out of reach. But instead of plugging them in or having an electrician hard-wire them, I’m going to try out a trick I’ve seen over at NestingWithGrace.com. Brooke uses hockey puck-style lights* inside regular light fixtures instead of bulbs. They can be controlled with a remote and run off of batteries. I think this is a great solution for our particular scenario where one cord within reach of our toddlers is too many!
I’ll share the results once we have the lights in place! You know…in a few weeks when I get around to it!
Lastly, I’ll update the gallery wall with a few more light wood frames, less pink and more pictures of Gus. I’ll probably bring some over from his old room. And we’ll also add a picture or two below their new light fixtures above their beds.
So far, I’ve dyed some existing curtains to the minty green I’m after. So I’m ready to whip up them into shades with extra-blackout fabric! And fingers-crossed the kiddos will take that as a sign to sleep in on the weekends! Ha! 🙂 I’ll keep you posted on our progress as we move along in this update. And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my newsletter for updates in real-time!
Thanks for Checking In! ~Chelsea
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