[becky]

We have been so busy with talk of Hague and PGN and Unicef...I thought it might be nice to have a change of pace.

I recently moved into a new house and I have not decorated Bella's new room.

I am wondering what kind of nurseries you have all done...has anyone done anything particularly creative or unusual? Since Bella is already 15 months old, I don't want to do anything to babyish...I want it to last for a while.

Any great ideas? I can just tell that some of you are probably really creative...so let's hear about your nursery plans!

[Romans828]

I have three words for you Becky! Pottery Barn Kids!!! They have the cutest kids stuff and their little girls bedding and furniture is beautiful! You can request a catalog online and also look at the stuff they have(if you haven't already)! The website is potterybarnkids.com
I have not decorated Isabel's room yet for fear that this Hauge stuff will never end but that does not stop me from looking or dreaming!

[khnath]

I love Pottery Barn Kids! I found the tea cup print quilt and bumper; currently out of production on Ebay. I'm trying to get a soft tea set off of ebay too. I just hope she doesn't outgrow her crib too quickly! I bought the toddler quilt knowing she can use that until she's 3-4yrs. old, and then if it's still in good shape I'll hang it in her room for her. I really want their doll house bookcase!

Home Depot has tea cup/ teapot wallpaper border. I'm looking at either that or butterflies to accent with. Now we just have to decide on the color to paint her room.

I was hoping to start our little one's room by July, but I haven't even started our son's room yet. Maybe I can work on her room this fall. It's hard to find time with an active preschooler getting into everything.

[Alex's mom]

Oh Becky, what a great idea!!!! It's so nice to think about something a little less serious once in awhile!

I have two nurseries kinda sorta. For my 19 month old son Alex, we did Sesame Street. The bottom of the room is painted in a bright blue color, the top in a very light yellow. We have a border up and bright red curtains. I still have some stuff to do for decorating (we are remodeling) but I found 2 Sesame Street placemats that I framed and hung on the wall. I have a Sesame Street kite that I need to hang yet--I am going to try to hang it from the ceiling somehow. And I also have one of those stuffed animal nets that I am filling with all of his Sesame Street stuffed animals (he has lots!). Of course we have a Sesame Street lamp and bedding that match. And he also has a Guatemalan wall hanging over his crib and a Guat flag.

For Ayana's room (waiting, waiting, can't wait til she's home), we did butterflies and flowers. The whole room is painted in a bright (but not too bright) yellow with a pretty border. The border has lots of nice pastel colors in pink, purple, blue, yellow, green etc and there are tulips and butterflies on it. I found some butterfly (stuffed animal) wall hangings for the wall and also some "crafty" type butterly/flower wall hangings. And I kind of did a "border" type thing to frame the crib with butterflies and flowers. The furniture is white. It's so cute!!! When I go back to Guatemala I am going to buy her a Guat wall hanging and also some of those brightly painted butterflies---they are all over in the little shops.

OK, now it's someone else's turn!!!

Amy, mommy to 2 Guat angels

[Bitsy]

Amy,
I love the butterfly idea....you said they were all over the place in the shops in Guatemala, right? Can you describe them for me? How much do they run and how large are they? I think it would be so cute to have the room have Guatemalan accents! What a great idea. I need more details......

[Lauren57]

I did Michael's nursery in yellow and blue; I stenciled stars/sun/moon on the walls. All of the furniture is "hand-me-downs", a co-worker gave me the crib and changing table her daughter had recently just graduated from--I also like PB kids, as some of the other posters said, and ordered wicker baskets with liners to spruce up the changing table. The dressers were actually my sister's and mine when we were little--I repainted them blue. The stenciling took me months--with everything else that I was doing, but it was a lot of fun, and helped pass the time. I also made a stars/su/moon quilt--it was my first attempt at quilting!! After I did all of this I have seen a lot of star/moon themes, and have gotten a few matching things--nightlight, etc. It is great hearing what others did!!

Lauren, waiting for Michael, almost 6 months, waiting for PGN to decide what's up!!

[shnoogiepoo]

Look at wall murals. We found some that are undersea and ones that were windows to a castle where you were looking out onto an enchanted sunset of your realm.

What we decided to do was for the 1st nursery classic pooh (be careful not a lot out there and boy was it expensive, but well worth it) we found some border and painted the walls white, put up the border and then had a friend come in and paint murals and butter flies and honey bees. We also had a bunch of "throws" that we hung up all over the walls and made a big play area with lots and lots of toys.

for the 2nd nursery (yeah yeah I know, lol ) We did Cicley Mary Barker Flower Fairies. This was also an adventure. I had a huge wall mural of a garden done with flowers and hedge and all sorts of thigns you'd see in a garden out of a midsumer nights dream. we then found two sets of bunk beds (it's a huge room) that were "picket fence" design and they have pull out drawers under the bottom bunk and then had a huge "apothicary style" dresser made it has 4 rows of 4 for 16 total drawers(good sized drawers, so not a true apothicary dresser) It also was in the design of a picket fence, with picket fence slats along the sides and the drawers are also picket fence "cut outs" on the drawers. There are 2 "study" desks in the room against one wall and I covered stools to look like "colorful toad stools" there are murals on the wall of the flower fairies from her collection and also I found flower fairies (porcelain dolls) that set on "ivy vine" swings (hang from the celings) and some are on shelves (the little ones that just hold one doll) placed here and there around the room. It is very much a girls room but will take them through the teen age years. I then found (hunted and searched) for flower fairy material. I found enough to make really nifty curtains and in addition I made 4 matching patchwork quilts (I had 5 different patterns of fabric that all matched well) and also made some throw pillow covers. We put up four wall hanging night stands (the ones that suspend from the wall , we put them at the right level for all 4 beds. and we had 4 hope chests made and each one will later be carved with the flower for the birth month that our child was born/ and or adopted.

Even with all the stuff in the room it still feels very roomy and functional. The room will hold 4 girls and all thier stuff very well with room to spread out. It also makes a difference that you have sufficient living space.

[lexiesmom]

We just moved Lexie into a new in anticipation of Katelyn's homecoming (I hope). So we did her new room in Rainbow Fish, Lexie is just mezmorized by fish. So the walls are painted very light purple with very deep purple carpet and the rainbow fish border which is a sea scene with purples, blues, teal, yellow.

[KDhappygal]

I've painted one wall a beautiful dark blue, sort of the color of the sky between dusk and right before it is really dark out. The crib will go on that wall and I want to get white or silvery sheer fabric to swag either up near the ceiling or more as a frame for the crib. The other three walls will be a light yellow then I am using a green (all the colors are matching from the same palatte (Sp)) as a frame around the closet, door and window. I'm going to free hand the green 'frame' with curved edges.

Then I'm going to add some ladybugs, butterflys and maybe dragonflys randomly around the room. The ladybugs I will probably keep to the edges and green frame but have the butterflys more in the main parts of the wall. Not a lot of ladybugs or butterflys but enough.

I'm not a great artist but I am going to free hand paint the bugs.

Our crib is also a hand me down and we found a dresser that we liked that will probably also work as a changing table. We didn't want a separate changing table because that seems like a limited use piece of furniture. We also found a piece that attaches to the top of most furniture and folds out to act as a changing table. We were looking for something to use as a changing table where you could lay the baby perpendicular to you instead of sideways....

That is about it so far. I'm not planning on a complete theme bedroom so the sheets will probably be solid colors. I would like to find a book shelf as well but haven't really looked for anything like that yet.

[Inanna]

We are a Disney kind of family...Mickey Mouse in particular. (Could you guess from my avatar?) We painted Daniel's room in two shades of blue and on the darker wall, sort of a midnight blue, there is a sericel of Mickey as the Sorcerer's Apprentice and surrounded it with a scattering of glow-in-the-dark stars. There are Mickey Pictures all over but mostly the Sorcerer's Apprentice, and his comforter and curtains are dark blue with glow-in-the-dark stars.

We figure, at age 2 he is still young enough to appreciate the "magic" of Disney and he probably won't outgrow it for a few years. At that time we will may go with an outerspace theme and will just have to change the pictures.

BTW - he just said Mickey Mouse for the first time today! Yea!

[TRBenson]

We are doing Myra's room in the "Snuggle Bug" theme from Kidsline.

We painted the bottom half of the wall a bright lavender purple, and the top half a bright light green. The border will go around the center and it has bumble bees, dragonflies, and butterflies all in pinks, purples, greens, blues, yellows, etc. So it's very colorful and bright...I love it!! We have the matching bedding, light switch cover, lamp, and wall hangings too. I'm so excited for it to be done...as in "with a baby sleeping in it" done!

Does anyone have pictures to show of their nursery? That would be really neat to see!

[Cinday143]

is not really very babyish, but I call it that to refer to whoever is still in the crib (I have 3 boys, and 5 month old is in there now). I started with the "Cow Jumped over the moon" theme that Laura Ashley had in a beautiful border, quilt, sheets, etc..

Next, I painted the walls their base color: yellow and white stripes below the border (the room is dormered, so the border is about 3 feet hight), and light sky bluish above to coordinate.

Then, my sister-in-law, who is a really great artist, came over and free-handed the most beautiful, large, cow jumping over the moon. She "trusted" me enough to let me stamp on stars with a stencil and I made a cloud with a sponge (so that tell's you I am not artistic.....).

But here's where it got fun. I admit it, at this point it was beautiful and well coordinated. But I really liked that Beth (my sister-in-law) had added something to the room, so I began asking every family room to come over and add their own thing. There is one special wall where both sets of grandparents, and all of the Aunts and Uncles have painted something (a moue running up a clock, a dish running away with a spoon....). They have all signed their artwork. I should note one grandpa can only draw one thing - a car, so he added that. I let the nieces and nephews come over and do their best too. And have let each big brother paint a welcoming picture for the expected brother as well. So it's pretty cool and has evolved over time. I call that the "welcome wall", as the whole family contributed. You can probably see how great I think this will be for an adopted child particularly.

I am currently scheming how I can always keep that section. I think when it's time to redo that room, or perhaps move, I will ask my husband to remove the drywall and just re-drywall it up. I know that sounds crazy, but someday, the grandparents will not be around, and I always want to have that car so I can recall the amount of "complaining" that went into it!

[KDhappygal]

Cindi! I love the family wall!

I had a lot of similar ideas but wanted something more portable...so I though maybe I would send small canvases to close family and friend and ask them to trace their hands and then decorate it or do some sort of self portrait.....Right now I am going back and forth on that idea....


This is the one I am definately sticking with.....when we are close to bringing her home, we are going to ask each family member and close friend to write a welcome letter to our baby. Hopefully no more than one page and to send that with a decent photo of themselves. Then I will make an album with the photo on one page and the letter on the other.

I'm also going to include the photos we are receiving from our agency and the emails we get when we forward the photos to our friends and family.

[tjlombard]

We were very noncommital with our room. At first we really wanted a little girl and then we said that we would consider a boy too. We are adopting from two LA countires and so we now know that we have a little girl from Guate (as of yesterday).
So now the yellow walls and the red rag rug will probably turn out to be lady bugs or sun flowers. Although I did get a sweet crib set from e-bay "old mcdonald" The crib skirt has embroidered red and yellow chicks.
Obviously I'm still noncomittal with all of this. We were open to a fire truck room too if it was a boy (as my husband is a fire fighter). Unfortunately, we are just working, working, working for to keep our debt to a minimun so the room may not be too extravagant. I love the ideas that the posters put on the threads. So what will you do Becky?
Julie

[Eveybri]

Becky, Great Idea!!
Well, We bought everything for the room but have not put it together yet. I am waiting for the Hague ruling first. Anyway this is what we are gonna do: The bottom wall will be Light green, then a chair rail, then on top lattice wallpaper with little pink flowers, we bought an antique armor and bureau (our whole house is antiques) we are painting them whitish, white sleigh crib, bedding, I bought lots of fabric (pink ginghams, eyelit lace and stripes with florals) I am going to make the bedding and the curtains. We also are going to have a daybed in the room (for us to sleep on if she is sick or something) We also bought the cutest Bistro set (table and chairs) with a stuffed tea set to go on the table and some stuffed animals to sit on the chairs. We also bought a antique looking floral chandelier. And we are doing the ceiling in clouds. So I guess it would be a Garden Theme.
Wow, I think I just scared myself, I betther get started soon!