With baby Charlie on the way, a lot of my time has been consumed with planning his nursery. We decided to move my home office downstairs and make that room his nursery. I already love having my office downstairs…it’s so sunny and not having to run up and down stairs several times a day is really nice. (I guess I should enjoy that while it lasts!)

Even before we knew the baby was a boy, I was in love with this nursery. I feel like it is very much my style, and while it is definitely a nursery, it doesn’t feel super themed or babyish. So I set out to create something similar in our own home.

But finding the exact fabric I want has proven very difficult. I can find the buffalo check, but it’s either too navy or too Carolina blue, or the background is not white enough, or the check is too small. And because we need at least 12 yards for just window panels (not even getting to a crib skirt), I’m not willing to spend $50/yard. I’m learning very quickly that babies (and planning for babies) is expensive, so spending up to $1,000 on drapes when you factor in the blackout lining just seems a little crazy.

So I had to rethink how I wanted the nursery to look. I decided to go with pre-made blackout curtains instead of trying to make my own, and after looking at about 876 different prints, I settled on a solid. I tend to get bored with patterns fairly quickly, so I figured a solid was a safe bet and something that could grow with Charlie. We can always add in pattern with a rug, crib skirt, wall decor, etc.

I ended up choosing these panels, which just happened to be on sale! I like that they aren’t too dark, but aren’t too babyish either.

Since Charles and I both have Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit pieces from when we were younger, I thought it would be cool to incorporate some of those, along with some animals. We’ve already ordered this crib and this glider. And of course I registered for this giraffe because every nursery needs a giant giraffe, right?!

Overall, I’m going for a clean, sophisticated nursery. Here are a couple inspiration photos I pulled from Pinterest…

The next big thing for this room is creating a closet. Currently, there is only a tiny closet that actually passes through to the next room, so we’ve decided to add a built-in closet system, like one of these.

We decided to use the wall on the front of the house for two reasons: first, the added insulation of clothes and a structure will be a nice bonus, and second, we will probably move the opposite wall in a bit when we eventually redo the hallway bathroom upstairs.

Here’s a look at that wall now. It’s kind of hard to tell, but the wall color is a pale yellow called Del Mar Shores.

Of course we could use armoires instead, but since this is our forever home and we have to consider older kids using this room one day, we thought it was the best option to go ahead and build a proper closet.

We met with a few different designers and ultimately ended up going with Closets by Design. Here’s the design they came up with:

I’m only a little bit jealous that our baby boy will have a nicer closet than us! It will be installed in early December and I can’t wait to see it!

I’ll be sure to keep you updated as we add in new elements. Less than 4 more months until we get to meet this little nugget!!

Click on photos for source.