the nursery

Yes, nursery! Hence my long blog silence (babies are time-consuming, guys…)

I never felt like I really had a complete “nursery” to post because we didn’t do the whole fancy-crib-with-floofy-bedding pinterest thing. The room was pretty much empty. We aren’t so much into that whole “baby” look and wanted something gender and age neutral that could grow with him and/or his future siblings. I assembled and stained an ikea dresser to use as a changing table and hung some curtains that I’d already bought but never got around to. The changing pad and rocking chair actually didn’t arrive until after he was born, so these were my “pre-baby” photos:

For the next few months it became a space to fold clean laundry and, well, accumulate piles. It’s a small room and I tried to keep furnishings and clutter minimal for when he began toddling and needed a dog-free area, but in the meantime it was just a place to rock him to sleep and change his diaper.

Oh yeah, diapers. We use cloth and I kept seeing people online ask for cute storage ideas. I tried to remind myself to take updated photos because I think this works really well for our small space.

Being that our house is pretty small (~1300 sqft give or take) and closet space is at a premium, we decided to have M’s clothes live in the nursery closet. After all, how many hanging clothes does a baby have? We have these nifty built in closets which optimize space but really are best for grown up sized clothing. But inside the doors of the closet? That’s where the party is.

Seriously look how colorful and cheery they are! The side closest to the changing table has covers on bottom and nighttime diapers on top.

The right side has all-in-ones as well as my custom serenity cover, a few I’m keeping NIP for now, and wetbags and flour sack towels on top. All the components are Elfa from the Container Store and hang on the door with a clip so there was no drilling required. they would work on any closet or entry door.

In the top dresser drawer are the wipes and inserts. Second drawer holds clothes (not pictured because it’s a mess).

The third drawer has prefolds, fitteds, and pajamas.

So yeah, I tried pretty much every kind of diaper just to see what would work best for us. The tray on the changing table has eczema cream, a pump bottle of water for the wipes, and coconut oil in a soap dish.

Oh, uh, and the rest of the room is super cool too. The chair is from Rocker Refined and was a very generous gift from M’s grandmother. The leather waterfall end tables were a local vintage find… I love how they’re relatively childproof but still look inviting and warm. The glass balloons on the ceiling were purchased in Venice on our babymoon and I thought added a nice “Up” touch to the subtle travel theme, as well as a pop of color to possibly the most monochromatic nursery ever.

Behind the rocker is his little starter library which I’m sure will be expanding rapidly.

The blue settee and hedgehog lamp (both also visible in the pre-baby photos) aren’t quite kid-friendly but we don’t leave him in here alone so they haven’t been an issue yet.

And just for the sake of blog transparency, this is the other side of the room. Sigh. I’m going to order some bookshelf-style shelving for those stuffed toys and get rid of the gray end tables. The lotus crib thing has never actually been slept in but maybe it will someday. A girl can hope, right?

So there you have it. Still lots of progress to be made but we’re really enjoying it so far!