I just couldn’t resist writing another post this week, dealing with the topic of “nursery” decor! On another blog I’ve been reading lately, the mommy-to-be is trying to decide how to decorate the baby’s room. This was something we didn’t actually put a whole lot of thought into before having Sam, mainly because his crib was going to be in the living room to start with. :) Eventually, we did move him into his own room--sort of--it was also where Jim’s desk, a bookcase, and huge file cabinet resided, though, so it still wasn’t really just Sam’s room. Plus, since we knew we would be leaving the trailer soon and moving into our house, there wasn’t a lot of point in putting work into decorating there. We did buy a crib set, however--that was one of the first things we bought for the baby, early in my pregnancy. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend, and ended up with a very cute Raggedy Ann and Andy set in primary colors, which was on clearance at Walmart for about $40. Later on, other family members contributed matching accessories, and a good friend made a beautiful matching quilt. We figured this would be pretty much a “gender-neutral” theme that we could use through all our children, and we still plan to. After all, the baby only stays a baby for so long, and then will be moving into a bigger bed, and probably then you will be picking out all different things anyway!
This brings me to the even more fun topic of children’s rooms--moving beyond the nursery stuff. I want to decorate my children’s rooms (or room, at this point) in a way that will grow with them and be appropriate for a good while. For Sam, I have decided to do a cowboy theme. I think that is so cute for a little boy, and I have already collected a lot of things to go in his room--many have been gifts. He now has a twin-size comforter (to go on a bed that Jim hasn’t built yet :D), a growth chart from Olive Kids in the "Ride 'Em" theme, a bunch of cowboy themed picture frames, shelf brackets, and some other little wall hangings with his name, etc. We are still going back and forth on how to do the walls in the room . . . we may do them in all wood, or we may do wood wainscoting (natural color) and paint on on the top half of the walls. If we go that route, I’m thinking a medium blue paint would be nice. I want to keep the walls in a color scheme (if we use color) that will go with both a cowboy theme as well as the Raggedy Ann and Andy things, since both kids will be in the same room, at least for a while. If we have another boy, that will make things easy anyway, since I can just do cowboy stuff for him, too, when he gets bigger. Having a girl would present more challenges, but I’m sure we could come up with something fun!
Eventually, of course, a girl would need to be in her own room . . . and I have all kinds of ideas for what I would LOVE to do to decorate. I so hope that we are blessed with a girl eventually!! Anyway, here’s what I would like to do in a girl’s room: Make it a storybook theme. Copy pictures (or find calendar pictures, etc.--I already have some) from my favorite girls’ books, and frame them. I’m thinking of “Anne of Green Gables,” “Betsy-Tacy,” “Little Women,” etc. Maybe even some Little House. I would want to decorate the walls with either old fashioned looking wallpaper, or old-fashioned, delicate colored paint. Maybe a pale sage green and cream stripe, or something like that. I don’t want all pink, though! Probably paint would be the way to go, because then if she wants to redecorate as she gets older, it would be easier to paint over that than change wallpaper. I’m not sure what would be nicest for bed coverings--maybe a simple cream colored spread, or maybe a toile pattern of some kind--but I would definitely want to get this afghan as a part of the decor! Maybe to drape over a rocking chair. It would also be nice to have an old-fashioned looking mirror and dried flower arrangements here and there. Oh, wouldn’t that be the most fun room ever! Now, hopefully my daughter would enjoy it as much as I would!! :)
So here’s another QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK: How are your children’s rooms decorated? Specific themes, or just well-loved accessories? How would you like to decorate as they get older? Anyone can chime in here, not just moms--because some of you will be moms in the future and may already have ideas! I would love to hear them.
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With our boys, it wouldn't take long for anyone who knows them to guess...Thomas the Tank engine! With the baby quilt we got in Ohio, now all three of them have Thomas bedding. I do need to change the bumper pad cover with some material that will complement the quilt - maybe a dark blue or even do it half plain, half Thomas print (the bumper pad we have in the crib now goes from about half way along the side, across the end and then half way down the other side. It is also rather high, almost reaching to the top of the side rail)
The boys also have a Thomas poster on their closet door, some Thomas clings on the walls and a Thomas switch plate. They were given a Thomas calendar for Christmas, but it is in use in the kitchen! We thought we'd use it this year, rather than get another for the kitchen. The boys like it!
One day, I would like to put some pictures up on the walls. For a while we had a picture of some of the engines in a nice frame and I'd like to do that again.
If we were to have a girl, I would definitely go mostly pink. With some yellow and cream maybe. I really like blue and yellow, but after three boys, I'm ready for some pink! If we have a girl, I want her room to be pretty and very feminine, with lots of dolls, ruffles, nice pillows and curtains and so on. I would even, if there were some high shelves, possibly display some of my doll collection in her room too or start a collection for her. That would be fun.
Until then though, Thomas is the way to go in this house!!
Carrie, your rooms sound great. It's so much fun to think about how to decorate. I hope you post pictures when you have it completed. I just watched a show on HGTV that did a cowboy theme. And the neatest thing I saw was that they did the boys name, Nicholas, on an old board and spelled it out in cursive with some roping. Here's a link to the show. It's hard to see the name but you can see part of it in the bottom picture (click to enlarge.)
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_design_childrens/article/0,1793,HGTV_3367_4372977,00.html
It's funny that you post about decor because I am working on my son's big boy room right now. If you go to my blog you can see what the walls will look like except we are also adding a scoreboard/chalkboard with green chalkboard paint. His room will be baseball theme so we are using a lot of his dad's old stuff and bedding is just denim (two sheets that look like denim sewn to make a duvet.) If the next child is a girl and they need to share rooms for awhile, we will take down some of the baseball stuff and add some lady bugs or something a little more gender neutral along with making the scoreboard/chalkboard just a chalkboard.
For the nursery, all my kids will have the same nursery because we don't find out the sex either. So I picked out different materials that had yellow, blue, green, and white. My mother graciously made all the bedding with the gingham, toile, stripes, plaid material which is combined in a patchwork blanket. And 3 stars made out of 3 of the different materials filled with batting hangs above the crib. Almost everything in the room has been passed down, so it's all sentimental. The dresser was my husband's from his nursery until he left home. I added a coat of white paint and it was made over. Several cross stich animals that my mother in law had made many, many years ago are on the wall. Trinkets from several family members. And the take home outfits that I, my husband, and my baby wore are hanging on the wall.
Hailey's room is painted in a pale green with a fairy & flower's border around the top. Her bedding is pale green & lavendar, floral & butterfly pattern. We had a friend from church paint a mural on one wall with fairies and butterflies with a sky/cloud background.
Ethan's room is done in an "antique toy" theme. The bottom half of the walls are dark blue the top half and trim are cream and the border has those colors with antique toys on it (wooden toys/rocking horses old fashioned teddy bears, etc.)
I noticed on one of your other posts you were talking about what to do with the placenta...have you considered donating the cord blood for the stem cells. We did this with Hailey's cord blood (we don't have any reason to bank it and it's so expenisive) they are able to use these stem cells to treat children with leukemia and other diseases. The cord blood cells are actually better than bone marrow because the match doesn't have to be as close. Anyway, if you're interested let me know and I can get you all the info from the lab we used. It was a very easy process and they sent us a nice thank you letter.
All of your children's rooms sound so adorable!!! I love how everyone has different themes and ideas. I hope more people will continue to share theirs, as well.
Elisha (and Sarah--I noticed your comment on a previous post), thanks for the info. about cord blood donation. I will have to see what Jim thinks and possibly check into it. It sounds like a nice thing to do! I had heard of cord blood banking but dismissed it because I know it's quite expensive. But this would be helpful to others and free, so we may just do it! I appreciate the input on that.
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