des moines, iowa and beyond

workflow & systems strategist

Gender Neutral Nursery Inspiration

Lifestyle

As we prepare for our precious little one’s arrival, a few of you have asked about how and why we are preparing not knowing the gender of our baby. So, I am going to share a bit about how we are designing our gender neutral nursery and the inspiration for it. I will admit, finding inspiration has been difficult, but I love the challenge of putting something unique together with personal touches.

We are officially in our third trimester and I cannot believe that we will meet this munchkin in three short months (or less)!! Before we get to the inspiration, I wanted to speak to why we chose not to find out the baby’s gender. It is a very personal choice and one I never thought we would make. As a type-A personality and planner, I always thought I would just have to know so that we could design a room and experience for our baby with all the colors. Then, after our family’s journey to this point, we had a change of heart.

It was originally Adam’s idea to not find out. One that I struggled with at first. However, the more we talked about it and I prayed for peace, it no longer was important to me. All that matters to me, and us, is that this baby is happy and healthy. We also want them to have a bright and cheerful nursery to allow their imagination to grow. In addition, it is fun guessing and wondering who they will be, what they will look like, what their personality will be and all without knowing if it’s a boy or girl. We do have names picked out either way and plan to go to the hospital with an outfit for both, but it’s all part of what we consider the fun and surprise of this miracle.

To be honest, we have  both been tempted to ask at our appointments, but decided to hold firm to our original choice to wait. It became more of a discussion point once we started the registry and designing the nursery. While I love design and can visualize something in my head, Adam is a very visual person, in action. Even an inspiration board doesn’t allow him to fully visualize what I am describing. So, this has been a very fun and interesting process for us. We’ve done a lot of holding up phone images in the room and looking for pictures that have similar design and color combinations to what we are looking for.

Before we got to that point, we had to determine what colors we wanted and how we wanted the nursery to feel. We decided on teal, in various shades, as our anchor color, with white and grey secondaries. Then, a few greens and yellow sprinkled in. If we have a girl, we’ll add pink touches. If it’s a boy, some more blues. We agreed that the nursery should be bright, airy and whimsical, while still incorporating our faith and some of our childhood memories. At the same time, we did not want a theme, but an original combination of things that bring us joy and that we want to teach our child.

As such, we discussed our favorite childhood stories, that we want some Bible verses, bright colors, and a reading area. Adam loves Winnie the Pooh stories and I adore Peter Rabbit, so we settled on baby animals (but not in a woodland way) – more vintage and airy. I also really love preppy elements in our home (think J.Crew meets Pottery Barn meets Sperry’s). A bit of nautical with traditional elements and color! Where as Adam is a fan of traditional and cozy. Of course, we want the nursery to feel a bit like that, too.

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This inspiration board is the basis of what we envision. We have already selected most of the artwork and added what we can to the registry. Since we are renting, we can’t paint the walls, but will bring in lightness with the art and white frames. We did decide on white furniture and will bring in the color in bedding, quilts that our mama’s will make, a rug and curtains. Our family and friends have already been so wonderful gifting us items that will make the room more personal. We also found our old childhood “piggy” banks, which fit in perfectly. Ironically, mine was bears and Adam’s was a rabbit. So those will go on a shelf somewhere.

At this point, we aren’t doing too much to the room, as we await our showers and to get the remaining must haves. Though, I have to say we are getting more excited as this parenting thing is seeming more real every day. Not to mention, my constant hunger and growth! We can’t wait to get everything put together and share it with you! Do any of you have gender neutral decor tips?

xoxo, Jenn

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