We are getting close to making an offer on a new piece of land. But I don’t want to talk about that.. what I want to talk about is a decorating theme for Keeley’s nursery/room once we have a new place.
Right now there is no overall theme. Her furniture is white or dark brown, she has white, light green, primary colored construction equipment and neutral colored animal sheets for the crib, and basically the only other color is the 3 little plastic pails under her changing table (that for now hold lotion, nail clippers, etc, but will have to be moved once she is really moving around) and a couple of items on her wall, 2 ‘masks’ of lion and giraffe flavor that are bright yellow and brown (pink noses) and a teddy bear light switch that is yellow with a touch of pink and a yellow matchbox car type bronco that we stuck on the wall. That’s it.
Any ideas of how to use any of that to make a theme with? Jungle beach-ha ha? Any ideas on what to do with the buckets or how to use the bottom shelf once she starts tipping that stuff over in her room? The middle shelf of the changing table has 2 off white canvas baskets that hold diapers, towels, drool wipers and changing pads. They will NOT fit on the bottom shelf, so I can’t just change them around, and Keeley is about ready to pull up as well, so pretty much no where is safe for the near future.
Should I hang the buckets on the walls? We will need to get a new dresser or other item to change her on in the near future because she is outgrowing what she has quickly, we will perhaps put the 2 items side by side and still use that as the changing area? Or am I missing a crucial element in this stage that I’m not aware of yet? Any thoughts?
Ideas on wall color, a way to tie things together, or just perhaps hide the buckets if they look weird, put them in a closet to hold things (they were less than $1 apiece so it’s no harm done to hide them away)… also am trying to figure out creative ways to store things, like baskets/totes under the crib, etc. Would like most of this stuff to be ‘moveable’ both physically and into her pre-teen years, so nothing too babyish.
If our plans go as planned, she would occupy a nursery near us until she either no long needs us at night, or she is usurped by another child. If there is no other child, that room becomes the ‘office’. Cape cod style house, therefore the upstairs would be unfinished until afforded or necessary and then Keeley would move up and have a playroom as well until such a time as we see fit to take it over or baby #2 would move in, either with her, or to the 2nd room upstairs.
Takers on ideas? All comers, feel free to post this anywhere you can think of to get some ideas for me. Basically we have very few items already, we like bright, primary colors, not into anything ‘too girly’ (in case any subsequent baby would have opposite needs), and would like to incorporate what she already has into a theme of some sort. It can be a loose, theme if you have a general idea as to how to pull it together. The only ‘characters’ she has is one pooh and one tigger doll. While we cannot stop others from coming in, we are not wanting too much commercialization or theme building around them, either. Example, no dora the explorer room…etc. I did buy a Wallies white board to put in her room, and we may get some chalk boards or more white boards in the future. They are pretty cool you can take them down, move them around, take them with you, I would imagine as well. Basically you just stick them up and they don’t have to have a hanger. We will see how it works out and decide from there if a playroom could be created with ‘art’ stations on the walls, etc.
The first room she would stay in would be 10×12 or 12×12 at biggest.
Ever seen LOST? That would be jungle and beach! Just dont’ forget the polar bear!
I’m not big on characters either, although Lauren did pick out a Strawberry Shortcake bedding set for her toddler bed. Target has some cute, not character stuff, but I didn’t know that until months after I got the other stuff. I had only ever seen character stuff before.
Jacob’s bedding has cars on it. I got it from Kmart, and it’s really cute. It’s embroidered instead of the cheap looking other stuff. Which is what Lauren’s bedding is, but she’s happy, so oh well.
Fairly soon, I would just let Keeley play with the buckets. She’ll have tons of fun filling and dumping them. And don’t forget putting them on her head. Or Mommy and Daddy’s heads, too. Get a small basket to hold those items up on her changing table or hang one on the wall at the appropriate height for you guys, but not her. Michaels has cheap baskets. Seems like they’re always 40-50% off.
If you’re looking for inexpensive wall decor, try Hobby Lobby. I don’t know how close you are to one, but they are around in the bigger towns, and it isn’t that far to a bigger town. Every other week, they have a coupon that you can print from their website that is for 40% off one item. I use it at least once a month. We’ve been creating an artbox for a long time, and I refuse to buy stuff that isn’t on sale or doesn’t have a coupon. It’s close, so we go about once a month, timed around the coupons.
Our baby bedding was jungle animals in pastel colors. The only thing we did (and if we have any other babies, I may do more, but money was an issue), was have a quilt hanger made and put the quilt on the wall, and someone got us the matching nightlight, and a picture frame with the same animals. We got a shelf from an Amish store to put on his wall. It’s about 5 feet long, and had the coat hanger knob things all across it. We used it to hang all the stuffed monkeys Mark had. Now it holds his hats. We figured monkeys worked with jungle animals.
In case you didn’t know, they have chalkboard paint, if you want the ultimate art space! We’re considering that in the new house, althoguh I think we’ll do it on a wall in the basement, not in their rooms where chalk and bedding don’t usually mix.
She’s going to be big enough when you move that I would consider making her room her own theme, unrelated to her bedding, that you could get bedding for later when she’s not in the crib. She won’t be in that more than another 2 years anyway. I personally think girly themes are great – for girls! You can still do primary colors. Yellow is a good primary color for a girl. Not that she can’t have blue and green and red.
I am hoping to go with lavendar walls for Lauren’s room, and I really want to find bedding that’s purple and yellow, preferably with butterflies. Girly, but not puking pink, you know? She really wants pink, but seems to be happy with purple when that’s what I give her. In her opinion, nothing like blue or green will do, though! You can easily pull a room together with a few items, without spending a fortune. The bedding is a big part, which you wouldn’t get right now. Get (or make) a valance and curtains in a coordinating color, in a print if you want, but that can be too much. A shelf or mirror or wall hanging is nice, and a small, cute rug is good. Check out Kohls, too. We think we’re going to do a Cubs room for Jacob, so do blue walls, with white trim, and probably red curtains. Going to look for a baseball rug, and see about a baseball pillow. Get a lamp shade, a trash can, an put a couple of pics on the wall in frams of him and Daddy at Wrigley, and we’ve got a room.
Oh, I’d use the bottom shelf to store diapers or blankets. Or heck, toys! A stack of board books would be nice within her reach. Or stuffed animals.
Oh, also, don’t spend money on a new place to change her. Lauren’s 2 and good sized, and if she wiggles too much, her head hangs of the end, but if she holds still, I’ve got her legs up in the air anyway, so she fits. And by the time the kids were Keeley’s age, I started sitting them up/standing them up on the table to change their clothes. Easier than laying down. So if you really don’t think she fits, just put a pad on the bed/couch/floor and do it. It’s easy to keep a basket with wipes, pad, and diapers on the floor or table. Don’t spend more money on another changing table.
Another handy trick I learned – changing the kids standing up. Doesn’t work well for poo (although sometimes when it’s everywhere, it’s the way to go -as long as it’s not dripping- because she won’t be laying in it, mooshing it around more), but once she’s about a year old, she’ll be able to do it better. It’s nice because you can do that anywhere – even nasty public bathrooms – and because with her feet on the ground holding her up, there’s no kicking! Both my kids were/are horrible kickers. and Lauren likes to wiggle her bum all around while I have it up in the air. It takes repositioning of the tabs a time or two (the first time is just to get it on, and after that usually to hike it up and get it in the right place. But a good thing I learned at the daycare.
I totally agree on the changing thing. We never bought a changing table and instead bought a changing pad that fits onto the dresser. His room is just too small for any other furniture. We’re going to be moving to the floor for changing very soon. We just need to buy a rug. He just moves around too much when we’re changing him and it makes me nervous on the changing pad right now. As far as a theme goes, we went with farm animals (convenient enough for where we live) but just left the walls white, only hung a couple of things on the walls, and bought adult sized furniture in a neutural oak so that he could use it for years to come. Maybe you could put stuffed animals or big toys in the bins. I’ve got one of those cube type bookshelves with buckets of toys in the bottom cubes and books on top. We also moved all of the tweezers and meds into the top drawer of the chest of drawers and out of the places where he could get to them.
Maybe you could paint the new room light green or yellow and do an animal theme. That could be very neutral but cohesive enough with most of your things.
If money weren’t an object, I’d love to do a birds theme baby room, but the farm animal stuff was a free hand-me-down, so that’s what worked for us. I think when he’s a toddler we aren’t going to have a theme really, and just stick with solids or stripes for bedding.