A Coral & Navy Baby Girl Nursery: The Reveal
I'm so super excited about today's post because this is a project that we've been working on for months. Alongside converting the screened-in back porch into a four season room, we've have also been busy converting our old playroom/guest room/office into a nursery that is fit for our princess who is due to arrive any day now!
If you missed the reveal of the screened in back porch conversion, be sure to check it out! It was a project that took a lot of time but SO worth the effort and gave our little growing family an additional 200+ square feet of living space!
If you've been following along on Instagram (@housebythepreserve), then you've already gotten a few sneak peaks here and there! As soon as I learned that I was expecting a baby girl, my mind went wild with ideas on how to transform this room in to a perfect space for our baby girl to grow and play in. It's important to note that most of my design of this room was made with trying to incorporate furniture that I already owned.
Let's take a look at what the room looked like before:
Before this was a nursery, we used this bedroom as my office/playroom/guestroom. I even converted the closet in this room into my very own closet office for the $100 Room Challenge in January of last year!
We used a daybed as a couch whenever we were using the space as a playroom and simply turned it into a bedroom whenever we had guests.
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This is how the room looks like now as a nursery:
As you can see, I decided to keep the paint colors the same. Natural Gray on the bedroom walls and Infinite Deep Sea on the closet walls. This is where I got my inspiration to incorporate the navy into my decorating plan rather than paint over it. I loved the color for my office space and knew that I could also make it work for a girl’s space. I just needed to add feminine touches to the space to make it less masculine.
The best way to do that without painting the bedroom walls was with an area rug. It will just the right amount of color while also providing a soft place for a baby to crawl and play. After several days of searching for the perfect rug, I found this one from Overstock and knew this was the one. It incorporated the navy but also feminine colors like coral, pink, and purple to play off from. Once I had the rug, the design of the rest of the room was a piece of cake! Check out my mood board and planning details here.
We wanted to reuse our son's old crib rather than buying a new one as I would much rather spend the money on a real bed down the road for her. I dressed up the crib with feminine floral bedding that I found at Target and gave it a quick DIY touch with gold Rub N' Buff to disguise the black metal accents. It's amazing what a change did to the crib. So pretty!
Above the crib I used a set of three paintings that my grandmother painted several years ago. In fact, you'll see several other paintings from my grandmother in this room. Not only do I love how they look, but also love that my daughter gets to have a piece of my grandmother in her room.
I didn't want to spend money on a rocking chair that I would only use for a couple of years, so my mom offered to let us borrow a recliner. Although the color of the leather is super similar to the crib, I thought that I could pretty it up with accessories, like draping a beautiful purple throw that I found on Amazon (tying it back to the colors on the rug) along a gold polka dotted cushion from IKEA. I decided to give the gold floor lamp a new home in here rather than in my husband's office because it rarely get any use there.
I reused white shelving that we had sitting in our attic to create a cozy nook in this corner. I think it will be the perfect spot for the many sleepless nights that I have ahead of me. At least I'll be comfortable and have something pretty to look at!
A house goal that my husband and I set for ourselves this year was to slowly replace all the window treatments in the house. We currently have faux wood blinds that were installed by the builder and just not our style. So when deciding what to do in this room, I wanted something fun to reflect that a baby girl lives here. So I came up with a plan for a window awning and my dad and husband made it come to life. I gave it a simple white stain wash and it's the perfect addition to this room. (Tutorial coming soon!) It lets a lot of light in, while still dressing up the window. I also installed a blackout roller that's hidden inside the awning to make sure our baby girl can take good naps (keeping my fingers crossed!)
I dressed up the other side of the window with two additional paintings from my grandmother that she actually made for my room many years ago. I've been storing them for years, waiting and hoping for a baby girl in order to pass them down.
On the opposite wall from the crib, the IKEA Hemnes dresser that used to store toys now is filled with baby girl clothes and all of the additional baby necessities. I love this dresser because it provides a ton of storage, something that we don't have a lot of in this home. But as usual, I had to do something to dress it up a little. I updated the hardware for these beautiful knobs from Target. They added the perfect touch of gold and femininity to the big dresser.
Above the dresser I recreated a playhouse shelf that I used to have when I was a kid. I again drew what I wanted and showed it to my dad who made it happen for me in less than a day. I used my new spray gun that I got for my birthday this year and gave the shelf a beautiful finish of glossy white paint. I dressed up the shelves with a few paintings and jewelry boxes that my grandmother painted for me for my room as a little girl along with new treasures that I've been collecting these past few months.
I'm so excited to have this space finished as we wait these last couple of weeks for our baby girl to arrive. I truly hope she loves this room as much as I loved creating it for her.
Stay tuned for some additional DIY posts where I show you how we created the window awning (for less than $100!) and the playhouse sheves. If you want to make sure you don't miss out on a post, be sure to subscribe below!
Thanks for following along! Looking forward to introducing our baby girl to you and this space soon!!
