Feeling overwhelmed: nursery planning

[hillarywhitney]

speyedr & teeah22

The room has shutters and we won't be picking out a bedding set (just basic sheets). So not a lot of fabric in the room. Should we pick out the sheets first? The only other items we'll get for the room that would be a color are a glider and possibly a rug. But both would be neutral colors (beige/grey etc).

[speyedr]

Mar 27, 2014 22:03:51 GMT -5 hillarywhitney said:

speyedr & teeah22

The room has shutters and we won't be picking out a bedding set (just basic sheets). So not a lot of fabric in the room. Should we pick out the sheets first? The only other items we'll get for the room that would be a color are a glider and possibly a rug. But both would be neutral colors (beige/grey etc).

I would go ahead and paint then! It felt so good to have her room painted early.

[anna7602]

Mar 26, 2014 14:31:38 GMT -5 dana2006 said:

We are converting a current guest room into the nursery and the guest bed has to stay (nowhere else in the house to put it). So that limits the space and design somewhat.

We're in this boat. The room will pretty much only fit the futon and a crib. I might be able to squeeze a dresser with a changing pad on top in there, but if not, then that will go elsewhere in our place. The bookcase with all the baby books (board books, etc.) will be in the hallway just outside the baby's room. All eventual toys, etc. will be stored in DD's room in the same bins I use for DD's toys.

DD's room was also the guest room when she was born (although we've since moved and she has a room now that doesn't double as a guest room). I just put up BLIK decals on her side of the room to spruce it up. And her crib was already painted light blue, light green and yellow, so that gave everything a nice pop of color. We're using the same crib again and I've had my eye on some Aden & Anais sheets with a cute print. I have some French kids' book posters I picked up in Paris last year to put on the walls and that will have to do. No pinteresting or apartment-therapy-ing for me!

[ringstrue]

It's easier for me to make decisions if I go looking at stuff in person. A good photographer can make anything look pretty in pics, but IRL you can get a better sense if the colors or patterns are truly subtle or overwhelming, or if things look nice or cheaply made.

My plan was to have a gender neutral theme for baby decor so I could reuse it for each baby, then when the kids get older they get their big kid bed and a new bedding set with curtains, side lamp, hamper, and all that. So that let me think about what I would wanna live with the longest for nursery themes, not necessarily what I was hoping would fit that baby as an individual.

If you pick out a wall color and basic bedding or nursery set, you are pretty much good to go. Then figure out a furniture color (I went with white). Again we have a nursery dresser and DD is getting her "big kid" dresser as will this next baby when it's older. Some people try to buy furniture the kid can use from birth through highschool but that is too overwhelming to me to decide on!

[teeah22]

Mar 27, 2014 22:03:51 GMT -5 hillarywhitney said:

speyedr & teeah22

The room has shutters and we won't be picking out a bedding set (just basic sheets). So not a lot of fabric in the room. Should we pick out the sheets first? The only other items we'll get for the room that would be a color are a glider and possibly a rug. But both would be neutral colors (beige/grey etc).

I think it's really your call in this case.  I don't think that blue color you posted would be particularly hard to match other elements to. I find that matching neutrals to other neutrals is where things get difficult. In my experience greys can be really tricky to work with, in the sense that if you pick say a grey chair then finding a grey sheet that doesn't clash may be tough. 

[hillarywhitney]

Mar 28, 2014 9:26:44 GMT -5 teeah22 said:

Mar 27, 2014 22:03:51 GMT -5 hillarywhitney said:

speyedr & teeah22

The room has shutters and we won't be picking out a bedding set (just basic sheets). So not a lot of fabric in the room. Should we pick out the sheets first? The only other items we'll get for the room that would be a color are a glider and possibly a rug. But both would be neutral colors (beige/grey etc).

I think it's really your call in this case.  I don't think that blue color you posted would be particularly hard to match other elements to. I find that matching neutrals to other neutrals is where things get difficult. In my experience greys can be really tricky to work with, in the sense that if you pick say a grey chair then finding a grey sheet that doesn't clash may be tough. 

Thank you for the feedback. Having never painted a room, this is all new to me We picked up some paint samples yesterday (more blue than grey). So I figure we'll put those up on the wall and go from there.

I'm thinking I'd like to get a grey glider. I'm hoping we can go look at some in stores soon and maybe get fabric swatches. 

[hillarywhitney]

Mar 28, 2014 9:16:28 GMT -5 ringstrue said:

It's easier for me to make decisions if I go looking at stuff in person. A good photographer can make anything look pretty in pics, but IRL you can get a better sense if the colors or patterns are truly subtle or overwhelming, or if things look nice or cheaply made.

My plan was to have a gender neutral theme for baby decor so I could reuse it for each baby, then when the kids get older they get their big kid bed and a new bedding set with curtains, side lamp, hamper, and all that. So that let me think about what I would wanna live with the longest for nursery themes, not necessarily what I was hoping would fit that baby as an individual.

If you pick out a wall color and basic bedding or nursery set, you are pretty much good to go. Then figure out a furniture color (I went with white). Again we have a nursery dresser and DD is getting her "big kid" dresser as will this next baby when it's older. Some people try to buy furniture the kid can use from birth through highschool but that is too overwhelming to me to decide on!

We're going with white furniture too. 

Good point about looking at stuff in stores. We need to go check things out.