A Whaley Cute Nursery Celebrating the New & Honoring the Old

Decorating and my daughter.  Two of my favorite things.

When Baby A was just a few months away from making her debut, JC and I got to work getting the nursery ready.  Since we did not know Anderson's gender before she was born, it was a challenge finding cute, gender neutral decorations.

I've always loved the ocean, and went through a phase of being obsessed with dolphins and whales in late elementary school, so when I saw a gender neutral bedding theme for whales our nursery theme was decided.

Then came the wall color.  As I've mentioned before I love color, and sometimes get a little color happy.  Keeping the gender neutral requirement in mind, we chose a cool "spring green."  Thankfully, unlike some other spontaneous paint shopping trips, this color looked great on the walls.  Not too bright, not too girly and not too boyish either. 

After the paint was dry, we added in some new and old pieces of furniture.  A new crib, which proved to be a challenge getting home, and dresser.  The glider is probably the most used item in the nursery.  We’ve spent many hours rocking our sweet baby to sleep at night.  It was a wonderful gift from my parents.  My grandma made a cross stich blanket for Anderson before she was born.  It sits on the back of the glider.  Since we don’t get to see my grandmother that often, looking at the blanket is a reminder of her each day. 

The new pieces of furniture that were bought for the nursery are beautiful, but my favorite furniture in the room is the old.  The old pieces of furniture were items that I was given for birthday and Christmas gifts growing up.  They were handmade by my Grandfather.  His hobby was making beautiful things out of wood.  Because of our limited budget, and wanting to keep my Grandfather’s memory alive through his handmade furniture, Anderson’s toy chest, bookshelf and shelf in her room are all hand-me-downs.  We’ve personalized the old furniture by painting the shelf and parts of the toy chest; however we didn’t want to change the furniture too much to keep the original piece alive. 

Most of Anderson’s wall decorations are unique and personal as well. 

While planning for Miss A, I spent hours browsing through the “Kids” category on Pinterest searching nursery décor.  Once the whale theme was nailed down I found an adorable whale painting.  Thankfully, my future sister-in-law is a great artist and she painted the picture for me as a baby shower gift. 

In one corner of her room we have a shrine for Miss A.  It has all of her wall stats pictures that have been personally created for her, and an extra special baby stats gift from her Papa Pearison. 

The first wall stats picture is another Pinterest project that I decided to try, and which actually turned out to be pretty easy.  I created the wall stats using Microsoft word.  It only took a few hours.  I was pleasantly surprised with the results. 

My Mom created a baby stats creation for Anderson using a Cross stich pattern and had the piece framed for us for Christmas. 

The final baby stats picture was given to Anderson from my Dad.  We are all big Cubs fans in our family, so as soon as Anderson was born he headed to the Cubs website to register his granddaughter as the “newest” Cubs fan.  

On the final wall in her room is the chalkboard that I used to track my belly growth each week when I was pregnant.  Now, it is used to track Anderson’s monthly weight and length gains, and developmental milestones during her photo-shoots.  Of course, JC and I had to include pictures of us to remind Anderson that her Mommy and Daddy are always with her.

Anderson’s nursery has turned into a sanctuary for our special little girl.  It is my favorite room in the house, and also the room I am most proud of.  This room is filled with lots of items made with love from our family and friends – mixing the old with the new.