We finished our nursery a few weeks ago, but I wanted to save the big reveal until after our son had arrived!  He’ll be sleeping in our bedroom for at least the first few weeks, but I am so excited at how beautiful his room turned out. As I’ve written about before, when we bought our house, furniture was a bit of an afterthought — we were moving from a small apartment into a big house, and our first six months as homeowners were focused on saving up to put in the pool (not an easy task when you just put a down payment on your first house!).  So I had a very limited budget for furniture and decor — I tried to use what we already had, and added accents where we needed them. But for the baby’s room, it was a different story.  It started as a complete blank slate — at one point, the room was supposed to be an office for me (the “Sugarlaws” room), but I was working full time and never ended up using it.  So it became… a junk room. And if you think I’m exaggerating, I’m not. 

I’ll try to dig up some “Before” photos so you can see the transformation for yourselves, but I’ll tell you, flat out, this room was in bad shape. Garbage bag full of clothes we don’t wear? Throw it in the Sugarlaws room.  Random furniture that doesn’t work anywhere else? No need to clean it up, we can just close the door!  No one goes in there anyways, so who cares? Yup… not exactly a beautiful, serene baby’s room. So when I found out I was pregnant, the first thing I did was to throw away or donate every single item in that room that wasn’t necessary.  The rest, I organized carefully into the closet, so that the room itself was completely empty. And then I started to have fun. I had two Pinterest photos as inspiration for this room (here and here), but I knew from the first moment that I wanted the color scheme to be turquoise.  After searching through tons of bedding (and even flirting with the idea of custom-made), I settled on the Harper pattern from Pottery Barn, and then built the rest of the decor around its aqua tone.

And then I did a crucial thing: on Black Friday, I took advantage of every sale I could find, and ordered everything in one huge shopping day.  I ordered the rug, the crib, the bedding, and the glider all in the space of maybe 3 hours, taking advantage of the best deals I could find.  Then, I filled in the details with some personal touches: my sister gave me a beautiful lamp from Restoration Hardware, Chad’s old Care Bears and Popples, and too many more to name (including so many wonderful registry presents from our friends and family, which I am so grateful for!). All in all, I’m in love with this little room, and it’s given me a bit of the decorating bug for the rest of our house.  There’s something so exciting about having an idea and bringing it to life — especially when you know that you’re doing it for someone you care so much about!  As much as I adore this room now, I know I’ll love it even more it belongs to our baby boy. And yes, if you’re curious: you can’t see it in the pictures, but the room definitely still has the drama-laden ceiling fan.

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Serenity Crib: Serena & Lily Liberty Crib Bedding: Pottery Barn Kids Harper Nursery Bedding Collection Rug: Rugs USA Moroccan Diamond Shag Grey Rug (they have amazing sales — I got this for 70% off!) Dresser: IKEA Henmes (check out my DIY on how the dresser was customized)blue curtain falls ekşi Glider: Little Castle Cottage Glider from Wayfairjava velvet blackout extra wide curtain panel Monogrammed Pillow: Pottery Barn Kids Harper Nursery Collectionblue curtain falls ekşi Side Table: Ikea Henmes (we swapped out the knobs to match the dresser)ikea lill curtains review

Baby Monitor: Motorola MBP36 Remote Wireless Video Baby Monitor Rocking Horse: Restoration Hardware Baby & Child Curtains: Pottery Barn Kids Harper Blackout Panel in Aqua Wall Art: Oopsy Daisy Giraffe and Elephant prints (over dresser), Restoration Hardware watercolor animal prints (over crib), Pottery Barn Kids Ombre “You Are My Sunshine” Print (over changing table)estasi curtains Mobile: Pottery Barn Kids Elephant Crib Mobilevalance curtains pronunciation Changing Table: DaVinci Jenny Lind Changing Table Wicker Baskets: Pottery Barn Kids Sabrina Baskets Diaper Pail: Ubbi Diaper Pail in Robin’s Egg Blue I think I’ve included everything, but if there’s anything I’ve missed, let me know! My Home & Decor So I'm well-aware that it's been a hot minute since I did any sort of nursery updates for you all, but stuff has definitely been happening in there.

Or I should say, in here, as I'm writing this post from the super comfy glider with a big pup by my feet and a pb&j sandwich by my side. All I've wanted lately is all pb&j all. Before we get started with the update, I feel like I need to pass along some advice about nurseries that has really made this whole process feel more fun and less like a daunting project that we needed to get done by a certain time. I realize some of you may be in situations where you know you'll be moving before baby comes in which you have no choice but to wait. But seriously, getting this whole room started as early as we did really has been nice. Don't listen to people who are judging you for getting things going during your first trimester. Some call it jumping the gun, I call it being prepared. Plus, decorating is just good clean fun as far as I'm concerned, so why not? Going on 27 weeks of pregnancy now, I've realized just how fast that second trimester truly does fly by. I cannot believe I can actually say that I'm in my THIRD trimester now... so crazy!

My point is that during this last trimester, there is really already enough going on and things to prepare for (and I've heard all that second trimester energy and general "good feelings" tend to drop off again during this time), that I would be a nervous wreck thinking I had to put a nursery together start to finish on top of all that. I'm happy that we're left with mainly the fun stuff to get done that will really put the finishing touches on the whole space. I could go on and on, so let's get to the updates! First of all, a change that made the biggest impact (since the lighting update, and paint, of course), was the addition of the curtains. Here's a better look at that whole area... The world ottoman was a good find at RH Baby & Child (same with the little animals beneath the window), and the little polar bear is from Pottery Barn Kids. These need some "phloofing" and some hemming. Not my main priority now (I'm just happy they're up), but we'll get there.

We've had the little mirrored chest for about five years now. It lived in the upstairs hallway at our last house and even in the guest bedroom there for a while. I thought it fit perfectly with everything in the nursery.  Oh, and the little rocking unicorn? Melts my heart every single time I see it. You can basically set it up 3 different ways- The 4-post look like we chose to do, a canopy look (where you add little cross bars between the posts), or no posts at all.  It also turns into a toddler bed when she's ready for that down the road. I knew I really wanted an iron crib for the nursery. They're just so classic. I didn't realize how hard they were to find! This one is by Bratt decor... and also kind of super expensive. So months back when I first started looking at cribs online and found this beauty (it's called the Parisian crib), imagine how excited I got when I saw it on Gilt (it's a site similar to Hautelook), for almost 50% off! So I jumped on that pony. My family probably thought I was insane when I told them I had already bought the crib not even halfway through my first trimester.

So glad I did! You may also notice that I added a sweet little mobile in the photo above. It's from RH Baby & Child and the little animals match the larger little animals under the window in the play nook area. If you're wondering what the big wall o' built-ins is looking like... well, it's not especially pretty.  I haven't really started styling any of the shelves other than adding some books here and there.  I've still got a lot to organize in the cabinets beneath the changing area there and I can't wait to start filling up the toy chests there eventually too.  But it's not quite update-worthy just yet.  I'll also share the closet with you all eventually as it comes together! Lot's and lots of clothes to wash and organize. As always, thank you all for being so excited to share this journey with us and for being so wonderful and supportive! I know I skipped the 26 week pregnancy vlog this week, but that just means next week we'll have even more to talk about. I hope you guys are having a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon!!