A Gender Neutral Nursery
When we were expecting our first child, we chose not to find out the sex. […]
When we were expecting our first child, we chose not to find out the sex. I thought the surprise at the birth would be amazing. Plus, I knew that, if we knew, we’d be bombarded with either pink or blue and the nursery would be very ‘baby’ one way or the other.
So, we kept it an unknown and I began planning a ‘neutral’ nursery for our little one. Here’s what the room looked like before we began. I was clearly a little kid’s room for the previous owners:
(They also loved double chair rail… and not just in this room!)
The colour choice was based on something that would go with the curtain fabric. I bought the velvety green fabric on a deep discount at Fabricland in Barrie. It was about $2.50/m so the curtains cost me less than $15 and only a few hours of sewing!
I bought the wool rug at Homesense and then, with the rug and the drape fabric on the floor, together, I picked a paint colour that would go with both.
After the walls were painted this slightly yellowy brown (SD048 Beauti-tone paint colour), my husband and my best friend worked together to paint a mural of a tree with birds. They projected the image to the wall and traced it with chalk then painted it in.
The crib, from IKEA, was a gift from my in-laws.
The change table is an antique dresser which I purchased a few years before at an auction for $50. I bought a change pad on clearance from Zellers (about $15).
The closet had no rod in it, so I bought one and installed it.
The shelving system in the closet is TROFAST from IKEA, also a gift.
The owl art work is from a local artist and I bought it at the once-annual Christmas Artisan craft show at the Simcoe County Museum. (I believe the same artist now shows at the Area Productions Christmas Craft show at the Barrie Molson Centre)
The watercolour was painted many years ago by my very talented brother. It’s a scene from Alice in Wonderland. In that corner, we eventually put a book shelf because the little side table wasn’t big enough to hold all the books we quickly accumulated!
It’s not the most comfortable thing but, with a little stool, it worked just fine for feedings and snuggles.
She’s almost 3 now and, despite not pushing pink and frills on her, she loves pink and frills and everything stereo-typically ‘girly’.
