But we first time moms are perfectionists and professional worriers. That's why I didn't even bother to pick up a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting after male reviewers on amazon.com decried how much it made their SOs worry. I'm doing enough of that as it is. I don't need a book to help me do it more.
Let me just spell out my philosophy to nurserizing (yes, I just made up that word):
- I am on a budget. That makes it more of a challenge and yet more fun to try to do more with less.
- I don't want to waltz into Baby R Us and pick up a "crib in a bag" set. I want to personalize my nursery with lots of homemade touches.
- I don't want the nursery to be too cutesy, because I'm going to be spending a bunch of time in there too!
I have broken up my humble approach to nurserizing into 280 days out of the belief that everything is easier if you do it step by step (the coming up with the order is the tricky part!).
1) First things first: pick a color scheme. If you aren't at twenty weeks, this step could pose some problems because you probably don't know the gender of the baby. In this case you could:
- a) pick two different color schemes
- b) you could go with a gender neutral color (gray is all the rage this year) and add a gender specific one later
- c) create a gender neutral nursery with the basics and add details later that are more masculine and feminine.
2) How to pick a color scheme? Browse some of the following sites to find an idea of what you like, especially http://www.houzz.com/photos/kids/nursery- and http://projectnursery.com/ and http://www.decorpad.com/search.htm?currentPage=0&spaceId=&cx=partner-pub-1782629609376017%3A81q09atgxa0&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=ISO-8859-1&searchType=photos&q=nursery
Other sites:
- http://www.bhg.com/rooms/nursery/dreamy-nurseries-for-babies/
- This site has real nurseries put together by real moms, not decorators: http://www.thebump.com/contests/our-real-nursery/all-entries
- http://www.hgtv.com/topics/nursery/index.html#nursery/baby/1
3) Repin a bunch of cute nursery pictures to a nursery pinterest board until, voila, you know that color combination is "the one."
4) Since I don't like pink (not to say there aren't other cute girl options like lavender), I am going with option c of a gender neutral nursery and creating an aqua and yellow nursery with some green thrown in as an accent color.
My inspiration pictures:
4) Go to your local home improvement store and grab some of the paint chips in your selected colors. Depending on the extent to which you are a Type A or B personality, you can then either fly by the cuff of your pants and get a few samples to put on the wall or you can ruminate on them for days and days, asking all your friends and your neighbors which shade of the fifty million shades (not fifty mind you--that might be what got you on this site in the first place ;) ) of gray offered is the perfect gray.
In fact, there is no need to commit to the exact shade just yet. Wait until you select some of your first components such as a crib, a rug, etc. You can fine tune the perfect shade as you go.
Carry them around in your purse with you so you can match them with any impossible to resist nursery decor you might find while out and about.
