Mario's Room
The room we pulled together for Mario had always been intended to be gender neutral. But as friends came to see it I think it tipped a little more 'boy' than 'girl', I figure my daughter would be a tomboy anyways, so it worked for us. We chose the room at the top of our stairs on the second floor facing the back of the house. The room was already painted a very light and pale grey color so all we had to do was collect some furniture and items to decorate and furnish it.
The first piece I bought for the nursery was the brass elephant figurine, while at one of my frequented antique shops on a regular visit with my good friend Megan. I bought it maybe in October. We have a small collection of mini brass figurines and they were a featured element in our wedding decor so this felt like a good buy for the nursery. In October we still did not have any ideas for the nursery, no real plans yet. We knew we wanted it to be pretty minimal and just have the necessities: dresser/changing surface, book shelf, rocker and crib.
A few weeks later I was on a regular visit to one of the local vintage furniture shops. I had the idea of using a mid century dresser that we could use as a changing surface and then could eventually be the dresser the baby would use for their big kid room in a few years. I found a great dresser at a great price up the street from our house and that was the first piece of furniture we purchased. Next on the list was a crib. I wanted a minimal crib at a minimal cost. I loved a few that I had seen on Land of Nod that were very classic looking, this was my favorite. But could not pull the trigger on a crib that cost more than any other piece of furniture in our house. So we went with the Sniglar crib from Ikea- you cannot beat a $69 crib! I would ideally have stained the wood to match the dresser a little better and give it more of a classic and warm look but it works just as good as is. The rug, bookcase and ottoman were all items we already had elsewhere in our house. The bookcase and rug are from Ikea and the ottoman is a few seasons old from Target. The last piece of furniture we got for the room is the rocker. We wanted something minimal and something we could repurpose to another room in the house after we outgrow the constant rocking and hushing. We put the mid century rocker on the registry and lucky for us my team at work chose to gift it to us. Its a great price for a classic (replica) design- $125. I must note that the diaper pail in the image above is just a regular trash can from Ikea- $14. So far so good, it cost far less than a diaper genie and comes in very handy during the frequent changes.
We opted for bold black and white designs to ground the room with color brought to life by books, toys and frames on the wall. Let's talk about the walls! The animal prints are of course the ubiquitous Sharon Montrose prints. I was initially turned off to them due to their popularity but once my best friend Emi told me she had been holding this gift in mind for us for the past four years I could not say no. I have lots of thoughts about these prints. Like that once my kid is off to kindergarten parents will approve and pre determine play dates based on what animals were featured in their children's peers nurseries. Or maybe the animal prints pre determine tattoos, what college they attend or career aspirations. In the least they are indicators of personality traits of their parents. We opted for Buffalo and Fox. Assume what you will (haha). Side note: We need to really talk about foxes though. What is with the fox trend? I am pretty sure we are just at the end. More on this later. The animal prints bring a really sweet charm to the room.
On the wall where we have his crib is my DIY washi tape project which you can read about here & here. I then did some more washi tape on the door to the playroom/sunporch and to flank a photo of Mike and I announcing our pregnancy this past Fourth of July to family. Lastly we have a very large map of the United States that came from my dad's school, he is an elementary principal. My parents had it in their garage the past few years.
That is pretty much the room. Feel free to ask any questions or if you are curious about any resources in the comments.
xx Ly