Question on nursery decorating - <sigh>

OklahomaSooners wrote: Does anyone have any advice on decorating a girl's nursery? I have NO CLUE on how to decorate for the little one coming. I have NO decorative talent. I've tried to visit websites.. and I don't want anything run of the mill. What did ya'll do when it came time to decide how to decorate? Any creative ideas or websites?

ediep replied: well, I have a boy and I don't think you would want a sports theme room, like he has, but check out pottery barn kids...they have some beautiful things

Kaitlin'smom replied: I will have to take a picture and post it. Okay here we go.

about 2 years ago I decided to re-paint the guest room (now Kaitlins room) it had wall paper on the bottem half and a wood border so not knowing what to do with it I left it. Its a very pale green and white, really pretty. So after getting the old border down (country bears) I repaintd the top a pale mint green. I wanted this to be my dolphin room. So I found these dolphin wallies and put them up for the border. Well when we found out in Sept that we were expecting earliy Jan. I did not want to mess with painting again, and with it being a pale green it would be okay for either boy or girl. Once we found out it was a girl we went and registered at Babies-r-us. We were not sure what we wanted but the only hting we both liked was the Baby Loony Tunes, so thats what we got. The crib set, lamp, pillows, mobile and wall decorations they just peel and stick and can be removed to re- arrange. Then after she was born I bought puffy letters that spell out her name, and put them over her crib. So its very basic and nothing fancy.

I suggest you start with a wall color and go fron there or go to places where they have crib set and look you might find something and build off that. Just my Good Luck.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Well The new baby is going in Zach's room, and Zach is going in my computer room.... so the new baby, boy or girl, will have blue walls with whilte clouds painted all over it.

But If I had the time and money, I would go with hunter green and light pink. I think those 2 colors go very well together.

MommyToAshley replied:
heheh, that is what our nursery is. But, it is only because her room was done for a second office before we got PG. It had hunter green carpet and hunter green marble wallpaper half way up, then a chair rail and white walls at the top. Since the carpet and wallpaper were new, we had to find something to go with the hunter green so we went with pink.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: I can't wait to start re-decorating! I started on my kitchen on Monday.. hehe heh... it used to be "multicolored". It was white, with polka dots of different shapes (red, blue, yellow and green) all along the wall near the ceiling, for about a foot, then red, yellow and green all around the cupboard door frames, and the window frame, with blue handles.

Now, the walls are completely white, no more polka dots, and the cupboard door frames and window frame is a very pale blue. It completely changed my kitchen.....I kept the dark blue handles, and I'm going to add tiny tiny blue handpainted flowers as accents in the middle of the doors, and randomly on the wall. It's going to look AWESOME, hopefully.

CantWait replied: I saw these really cute brightly coloured daisies for a girls room at Home Outfitters, I don't know if you have that store there, but they have some nice girls rooms ideas that are really different.

MomToMany replied: Can you put up border on paneling? We only have 3 bedrooms (UGGHH! So frustrating)! I have all 3 boys in one room, and Hannah finally got her room. I've been wanting to do something in there, but I don't want to paint. I'm a teddy bear-aholic, so she has a lot of teddy bear nick-nacks on shelves, and other cute pictures, too. I was considering putting Ethan with Hannah, but the boys jumped on his toddler bed and broke it beyond repair !

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
How does that work for you? We have 3 bedrooms as well, and one of them is currently used as a computer room/my office. We're moving that downstairs though, so that Zach can move into there, and the new baby will have Zach's room. Eventually, when we hopefully have another baby, 2 kids will have to share a room. I already have a bunk bed (queen on bottom, single on top) that will be in Zach's new room. Are they big rooms?

Do you find that the boys keep each other awake? Do you have problems with them fighting, or sleeping? sharing?

jdkjd replied:
I didn't want to put up a wallpaper broder because we had gone through great lengths to get rid of some pretty awful wallpaper.

So I got painter's tape and taped off a stripe above crib level, then painted little stripes above and below the big stripe so it would look like a wallpaper border.

Then I printed out some of the flowers from Bailey's crib bumper and cut them into a couple transparency sheets. Then I used the transparency sheets as the stencil. I liked that because I could really match the stencil to the bumper and curtains. You get some stencil adhesive (It sprays and is only a little sticky) so you don't have to hold the stencil template.

You could probably find some teddy bear stamps though, so you wouldn't have to make them...

(Here is a pic of the border...)

jdkjd replied: Here's a close up. (I got the idea from a Pottery Barn Catalog by the way)

Hillbilly Housewife replied: That's awesome! I wanted to do that with the little bugs on Zach's crib set, but I just didn't have the patience! lol!!

It would have been perfect. A room painted as a sk, with little bigs everywhere...

jdkjd replied: Once I got the idea in my head I was kind of out of control. NOw that I can look back, I see that I was major-ly nesting. I even woke up Ryan one morning (around 6) because I had started thinking about cleaning out the refrigerator (couldn't sleep) and in the process of the cleaning ran the disposal. He came downstairs and was like "What in the H*** are you doing?"

Pretty funny.

MomToMany replied: They're not the biggest rooms, and I'm not sure of the dimensions. In the boys' room, they have a bunk-bed with a full size bed on bottom, and a twin on top. Logan (the oldest) gets the top, and since they broke Ethan's toddler bed, Quentin and Ethan share the bottom. Yeah, they really goof around a lot, but when Mom says it's time for bed, it's time for bed! No goofing around anymore!! AND THEY ACTUALLY LISTEN !! They sometimes fight a lot over toys and stuff, and most of Ethan's toys are in the livingroom, along with Hannah's, so there's really no need for Ethan to be in their room when the older boys are playing together. That cuts down on the fighting a lot, and Logan and Quentin play together good MOST of the time. It's when they get outside that they really start fighting with each other ! They're good boys, though, and they share (surprisingly!) well with each other.

Hope this helps some! I guess my kids are good listeners , or I would really be in trouble!

maliksmommy replied: Jen, that room is so cute. I wish I was creative like that! I would definately look in Pottery Barn for ideas. I could never afford anything out of there but you could get some great ideas

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Man...I have so many home reno projects that I want to do right now. I f only I had the time, and the money.

I'd LOVE to replace the gross linoleum in my kitchen with nice white and blue tiles...and the linoleum in the fron t entrance way, I,d love to put ceramic tiles there, leading up to the living room. New floor in the bathroom too. I'd also like to remove the gross grey carpet in my living room and put laminate flooring in.

I,d also like to re-paint my bathroom to match my nice set (garbage cam, soap dish etc..) that I bought. I'ts Black, with grey marble streaks in it, and sliver lining. So I'd like to paint the bathroom a very light grey, and have black accents with marble streaks in it.

I want to re-do our bedroom, don't know with what yet, and I want to re-do Zach's room. I want to paint my storage/laundry/furnace room, to make it nicer than just plain cement. KWIM? I bought a big rug to put over the concrete...now I just need to fix up the rest of it! In my regular basement, I want to make it kinda like a relaxation spot. I want a fountain, and loads of plants, and I want to move the 2 black futons into another corner, and I want to add tons of candles and stuff... but it's probably going to be turned into an office, because I don't treally want our office stuff in our bedroom, even if we do have the space.

So many things to do, so little money to do them.

jdkjd replied:
I actually got the curtains and bumper off ebay...(brand new)

jcc64 replied: Like some of the others have said, catalogues, which seem to be ubiquitous these days, are by far the best way to get "inspired". I am a designer, and we all get our ideas by looking at what others are doing. I did a soft yellow colorwash with pale green wood trim in my baby girl's room. I will eventually (hopefully before she gets her driver's license) paint a mural of wisteria or some other climbing vine. I highly reccommend faux finishing. It's so easy, and it looks great, no training necessary. The only tricky part is choosing the right combination of colors, but every large home decor store has how to pamphlets, complete with color suggestions. Don't be afraid, how hard is it to paint over a wall? Good luck!

Peace,
Jeanne

jdkjd replied: That's why I painted a border instead of wallpaper. I figured it would be easy to paint over whenever Bailey decides what she likes...

kit_kats_mom replied: I have to say, I've seen Jenn's nursery and the pics don't do it justice. It is lovely!

great job Jenn!

jdkjd replied:
Thank you!! It was a pain in the butt but I think it was worth it.