Pierce’s Pastel Gender Neutral Nursery!

This pastel gender neutral nursery has a ton of fun little elements perfect for a baby boy or girl!

I am so thrilled to be sharing baby Pierce’s nursery! I am less than 2 weeks out from his due date and he really could arrive at any moment so I am beyond happy that his nursery is all ready. By the way, being over 38 weeks I now realize why pregnant women always are saying they’re ready to be done! I have had an easy pregnancy so far and I cannot really complain. I don’t know if my body is lacking hormones or what but I have had no nausea and almost no complications. I still have had migraines and definitely had a lot of days where I was exhausted but compared to the horror stories I’ve heard from a lot of other mommas I feel so blessed. However, now that I am feeling huge, uncomfortable, have daily aches, and have been in my third trimester the entire summer in humid D.C. I am glad I only have a maximum of a few weeks left. Plus I cannot wait to finally meet him! (But don’t worry mom I don’t want him to arrive early).

Now I am not someone who can wait for the entire pregnancy to find out the gender – kudos to those of you who can! I am the person who opts for the blood test at 10 weeks so I can find out as early as possible and start shopping and planning. When I got the results back at 12 weeks I initially thought it was too early to know. But then one minute later I changed my mind. I did wait 2 days for my amazing friend Dorothy to make a gender reveal cake and do a small family reveal over video chat though. That is the extent of my patience.

Since I knew the gender so early I had planned for a nursery that went with a boy. However, now that it is complete I think it really could work for a girl as well and thus would be perfect for those who want a more gender neutral space or who are waiting to find out their baby’s gender. Like I wrote in my inspiration board post I went back and forth on styles for a few weeks before Machelle gave me the idea of using pastels. I focused on blues and yellows and think that the color combination is perfect for a boy and I love how it all turned out. Greg was just so helpful as well – painting the nursery with me, putting up the crib, etc. I initially thought I would have the nursery all done by the end of my second trimester. Looking back on it this was quite an audacious goal and I still had a lot of buying, organizing, and planning to do in my third trimester. At least everything is all set up before he arrives. I know I won’t be using the nursery for months since he’ll be sleeping in a bassinet in our room but it makes be feel better knowing the space is ready.

I am so excited about so many of the details too! It took me weeks to figure out what to put above his crib and then I remembered the lemon printable Machelle made awhile back! Originally she made it for Otto’s nursery but then went in a completely different direction design-wise and didn’t end up using it. The quote is one of my favorites and it perfectly matches the nursery. The other print to the right of the crib says “with freedom, books, flowers, and the moon who could not be happy?” which I just love. It is an Oscar Wilde quote from De Profundis and he is one of my favorite authors. If you have never read The Picture of Dorian Gray you should head to the library right now and pick up a copy!

The little lion is the first thing we bought Pierce once we found out we were expecting a boy. Greg had a lion stuffed animal growing up named Izzy and it was his idea to buy this as the first baby item. We bought it from Anthropologie but it looks like it is sold out now. The swan and rainbow pillow are from H&M. I know this Babyletto crib is showing up everywhere but I loved it too much to not buy it. And I feel like it must be acknowledged that the blanket and pillows will not be in the crib with him while he is sleeping since they’re not baby safe.

We have limited storage space in our townhome so I wanted to find as large of a dresser as we could for the nursery so we had a place to put Pierce’s clothes and other items. In the end I went with this IKEA dresser and replaced the drawer knobs with brass ones. I honestly couldn’t be happier with how it turned out and the drawers have been perfect for organizing onesies, swaddles, bibs, and all the other large amounts of baby paraphernalia.

Styling above the dresser was the easiest part for me – everything came together really simply. The long shelf is another IKEA item that I accessorized with a palm print, letterboard, mini globe from my baby shower (that Machelle made!), pastel wood blocks, and a rainbow neon light. Then to the left of the shelf I added the cutest mint tiger head and a yellow house shelf. The globe inside the shelf is also from my shower and full of sweet messages from Pierce’s loved ones. It is probably my favorite part of the entire room.

I have always loved the look of Moses baskets so while he is little I’ll be using that for his changing station. I also have a larger changing pad with straps for when he is bigger.

Target is really killing it with their affordable neon signs right now (not a sponsored post, I just love Target) so I couldn’t resist their Good Vibes sign. And if you have ever been to my house you will know I have a minor billy button obsession. I used them in our wedding over 9 years ago and now they are in almost every single vase in our place.

One of the pieces of advice I kept hearing over and over was to get a good rocking chair since you’ll be spending so much time nursing. Now I haven’t broken in my chair yet but I like how it looks and it seems comfortable so far. I’ll definitely let you all know if it holds up! The little tiger is from Machelle and it is so cute. So far Pierce only has 3 stuffed animals which I feel really good about since I know the collection will continue to grow! I kept the corner with the rocking chair rather simple and added a plain side table with a lamp and books and a leather pouf for comfort.

The little globe is another one Machelle made for my Adventure Awaits baby shower. And the books on the side table are just a few from my incredible baby book collection. I already have the best books that I cannot wait to read to Pierce! Machelle bought me all of her favorites and a lot of my friends gave me adorable books that I had never heard of before like Escargot and different versions of Goodnight Moon. Some of my favorites so far are the Babylit ones since they take the classics (which is all I read in High School) and make them baby friendly. When my friend Julie gave me Wuthering Heights at my work baby shower the collective response was “that is not very baby friendly!” but this version doesn’t feature an abusive Heathcliff and is age-appropriate.

Some more books in our collection. I couldn’t fit all of them on these small 4 ledges so the extras are hanging out in our bedroom.

Another one of my complaints about our place (besides the carpet and storage issues) is that we don’t have a lot of lighting. In fact, in our upstairs bedrooms we don’t have any installed lighting so we have been relying on lamps for all our light which really wasn’t adding too much. So I finally added a sconce and it helps so much.

I haven’t sewn or made as much stuff for the little guy as I originally thought I would. But over two weekends I was quite productive and did sew him 5 blankets, some bibs, burp cloths, and pacifier clips. The blankets are so easy to do and only take one yard of cotton fabric and one yard of soft chenille fabric. If I can make these easy baby blankets anyone can!

The moon fabric is one of Machelle’s designs! The others are from some of my other favorite Spoonflower shops and the blankets at the bottom were gifts.

I will also be using a lot of swaddles so I rolled them up and organized them in a basket as well.

All in all this was truly a labor of love. In fact I think it might be the nicest room in our place. It is important for me that Pierce has a sunny and comfortable room and even though we sacrificed our office/craft room it was definitely worth it.