Guest Post: Pretty in Pink Nursery

I'm back with another guest posting today! It is so wonderful to have friends who are so creative and who are willing to help me out by doing guest posts while I'm out of town! 

Today, I'm excited to feature the nursery of Reese... She is possibly Hunter's future girlfriend... I see the way he looks at her at Little Gym. My little man is such a flirt! 

Reese's nursery is beautiful and classic. I'm sure that you will all enjoy! Molley is a natural decorator! 

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A little background on how Julie and I know each other. Julie and I first met years ago as fellow Sales Associates at Gap while I was in college and she was home for summer breaks. We lost touch, but were reacquainted serving as bridesmaids at a mutual friend’s wedding. Julie and I both live in Alexandria, VA and our babies attend the same Little Gym class. My daughter, Reese Alexandra, is 9 months old and is our first child.  When Julie asked me to do a guest blog on my daughter’s nursery transformation my first full disclaimer was “I’m not a blogger, but I’ll give it a shot”. 

It’s a girl! When the technician performing our ultrasound said those three words, my eyes filled with tears!  “Are you sure” my husband asked, after- all you hear those stories where they are wrong. Her response was “I’m ‘paint the room pink’ sure”.  So we did just that, plus some! Finding out we were having a little girl meant we were transforming guest/storage room into a beautiful and warm, inviting nursery fit for a princess.

 The first purchase for the nursery was a stunning six arm chandelier from Restoration Hardware Baby & Child. Who knew nurseries could actually look and feel like a room an adult would want to spend time? This look, I loved and the chandelier set the tone for our little princess’s nursery.

Next on the list, bedding. At this stage I knew I wanted the nursery to be softly lit (LOVE the dimmer switch my husband installed for the chandelier), soft pale pink and white with a touch of grey accents.  I browsed every website and store and came across this stunningly simple stripe collection at Restoration Hardware Baby & Child.  A soft, pale pink and tan stripe with a gorgeous and girlie ruffle bumper and quilt was exactly what I was looking for.

The next step was to paint the room pink! A great piece of advice I received from an Interior Designer was to visit a high end paint store such as Benjamin Moore and color match at your local Home Depot or Lowe’s. 

We took our fitted sheet to our local Benjamin Moore store, picked four color samples of pink (for the walls) and grey (for the ceiling). We painted test strips on two different walls (to capture different lighting from window) and numbered them. We compared the colors during the day and night to see what the colors looked like during different times of the day and made our selection. We then took the color strips from Benjamin Moore to Home Depot and color matched our selections. It worked perfect!  We also picked up some white paint and lots of painters tape to create vertical stripes on the back wall behind the crib.

Now, where to put the baby? We need furniture!   

We ordered our baby furniture, Munire Bristol collection: crib, dresser, night stand and glider from Great Beginnings in Gaithersburg, MD. We heard horror stories from friends who ordered their baby furniture and later found out (often months before the baby was due) that their order had been cancelled and/or delayed. Being a self-admitted control freak, I had to wrap my head around how to control this situation.We turned to the “Baby Bargains” book for advice on proper planning and reviews on every major purchase we made. For this piece of advice, we owe to the “Baby Bargains” book, and planned accordingly. Highly recommend! After we found a set we loved in the store, the store manager checked availability in the United States. Once we had confirmation that it was in stock in Ohio, we placed our order. The store manager followed up with me personally to confirm delivery. After doing some research on baby furniture (before placing our order), a lot of it is manufactured in China. Often times delays are caused by manufacturing factors (i.e. they did not sell enough of one collection/”palette” and therefore your order never went into production, even though you placed it). So, always make sure it’s in stock in the United States! Great Beginnings does offer a great solution, should your order be delayed they will loan furniture to you until your order arrives. Luckily, we did not need loaner furniture. It arrived; they delivered and set everything up!

It’s all in the details. Once the furniture was all in place, it was time for the finishing touches. Particularly, what to do over the crib? After spending five minutes (ok, more like an hour) on Etsy looking at wall art, I knew I wanted a monogram! Openheartcreations on Etsy created a beautiful ornate custom monogram in gray with our daughter’s name, Reese.

Who doesn’t love ruffles? I love the textured touch the curtains add to the nursery. They were purchased at Pottery Barn Kids. They offer them in “Black-out” and “Sheer”. These are the Sheer. In combination with her blinds, it blocks plenty of the morning sun.

The round silver mirror was something already in our guest room and fit perfectly over her changing station. I purchased the silver shelf, one-year frame and changing pad cover from Pottery Barn Kids. Love PBK! The “Reese” letters were used at my baby shower hosted by my two best friends. Incorporating items from such a memorable day is a great touch!

Corner book case purchased on sale at Target adorning books, frames keepsakes. And my favorite bunny chair purchased at Pottery Barn Kids:

And now we wait for baby (or we did)! I am so happy with how our nursery turned out. Reese absolutely loves her room and so do we! Every time we walk in there, she smiles and looks up at her chandelier. And now, as we look for a new house I keep joking to my husband that I want to take the room with us (but seriously, I’m not kidding). It’s my favorite room in our condo!

Thanks Molley! I love all of the finishing touches! Reese is a very lucky little girl to have such a beautiful and well thought out nursery!