Sean’s Nautical Nursery

In celebration of Sean moving into his own room earlier this week—excuse me while I simultaneously cheer and weep—I figured I would finally get around to taking photos of his nursery.

Rewind to when I was pregnant with baby #3 and “team green” AGAIN. I was not feeling another gender neutral nursery. I was totally uninspired by all neutral nursery ideas I saw this time around. Plus, with everything I had going on in my life, decorating the nursery was far down on the list of priorities. (That’s why we didn’t even remove the guest room furniture and paint it for baby until like three weeks before my due date—and two weeks before he was actually born. Oops.)

But I did peruse Pinterest every once in a while. At first, I figured I would just paint the room cream and do something very plain jane, something simple. Unfortunately, the room doesn’t get a ton of natural light—it’s the only bedroom in our house that doesn’t—so I knew I wanted a light color on the walls to keep it as airy as possible. If I was starting fresh, I would’ve loved to do white furniture, but I couldn’t justify new baby furniture for #3 when we had a perfectly good set sitting in Vivienne’s room. Plus? Tradition. There’s something about having all three of your babies “grow up” in the same crib. ANYWAY… a creamy neutral nursery. I was pretty set on that plan, though not in love with it.

Then, one night I randomly came across a nautical nursery design that incorporated a mint green color. That set the wheels in motion. A nautical theme would be cute for a boy, I figured, but with mint green walls, I could also easily go a different direction for a girl. I went shopping for bedding (really just crib sheets) at Buy Buy Baby and Babies ‘R’ Us. I found a great anchors sheet for boys (that even had an aqua/mint green color in it!) and some floral/geometric design options for girls. From there, I picked a shade of minty paint that would work with both, and we painted.

And then we waited.

Out came baby BOY and I began going nautical nursery crazy. It was fun because I was actually way more excited about the nautical boy’s nursery than I was about my girl option.

The room came together slowly over the course of many weeks during my maternity leave. And here’s how it turned out.

We’ve had the chair, dresser, and glider/ottoman in all three nurseries. I collected everything else from various spots—Target, Buy Buy Baby, Hobby Lobby, Amazon, Lowe’s. There was a lot of shopping involved. :)

I love the way the room turned out. It’s so nice to spend time in there now. It’ll be fun to watch Sean grow in this room.

The paddle with his name was a DIY project. I saw these on Pinterest and they are for sale from a variety of Etsy sellers… but like $80! I was fairly confident I could make one myself that I would like just as much, and this turned out just as I had pictured. Yay for successful Pinteresting.

I looked forever for some kind of wall shelves that would work for this room. I finally found them right under my nose at good ol’ Target.

In the course of decorating, Nora asked me why Sean gets to have an “ocean room,” when she loves the ocean, too. Haha. She fell in love with the decor, too.

I hope Sean likes his room as much as we do!

Sources:
Crib and dresser – JCPenney, 2010
Glider – Babies ‘R’ Us, 2010
Paint – Sherwin-Williams “Mint Condition”
Crib Sheet – Buy Buy Baby
Breathable Bumper – Buy Buy Baby
Bookrack – Amazon
Area Rug – Lowe’s
White Wall Shelves – Target
Striped Hamper/Toy Bin – Target
Name/Paddle Decor – DIY, supplies from Hobby Lobby
Table Lamp – Walmart, bought white shade with white base and spray-painted it navy
Changing Pad – Keekaroo Peanut Changer (we are friends with the family who runs this company!)
Various Wall and Shelf Decor – Hobby Lobby