Nursery Take Two

The beauty of a new house is a blank slate for decorating. When it came to the boys' room, I wanted to use the same nursery decor that I'd used for my first son, but I knew that I'd need something more grown up in a year or two. And I really didn't want to repaint down the road!

So I tried to plan long-term as well as short-term. The original nursery was painted a much lighter teal. I wanted something bolder, more little boy-like, so I chose the darker teal. (See my paint sample journey here.) It still matched with my baby quilt, bumpers, and wall art, but I had a color palette in mind for the room's next look. We'll get to that. But first, the fabric parts of the boys' room:

I designed this quilt before my first baby was born. I loved the teal and mocha combination as a gender-neutral nursery. I wanted an animal theme, but I didn't want cutesy fabric. I created these animal appliques and chose Back Porch Bouquet from Bate & Taylor for Maywood Studio. I'll be sharing the pattern for this quilt here on the blog shortly...check back!

Besides the fact that I really liked all of my nursery stuff, check out these pieced stuffed animals--way too much time invested in this nursery to choose a different route the second time around! I love these animals--from Rumpled Quilt Skins patterns.

Wall art I'd made, to coordinate with the quilt and stuffed animals. So technically it's not yet up on the wall here, but I didn't want to wait for it to be hung to write this post! I bought blank canvases and acrylic paints at Michaels, cut the animal shapes out of fabric, and created wall art.

Hard to see the fabric here, but we replaced the accordion closet doors with fabric panels. The boys love to play in these curtains, and the light pin dot print (from the same collection) nicely breaks up the deep teal walls.

I love being able to use all of these elements again, but with a fresh feel because of the new paint color. And, I'm even more excited about my plans for a "big boy" bedroom after we're done with the crib and nursery look. I found this, from one of the Sherman Williams inspiration booklets.

What a great color scheme! I'm in love with it.
The boys' closet, though you can't see from the pictures (and believe me, with the mess in the closet right now, there's no way I'm taking a photo to share!), is actually a huge walk-in closet. We've transformed it into a bit of a toy room like what you see in the photo--little boys don't have a lot of hanging clothes. I'm going to paint it that butter yellow color, and then make matching quilts using the four colors shown here. I can't wait! I've already got some designs in mind... Think we should try the barn door too?