We live in a 100 year old home that we have renovated ourselves over the past 3 years. My favorite part of the renovation process is getting to decorate the rooms when the dirty work is done. We decided that our smaller second floor bedroom would turn into our nursery and stay a nursery for baby #2, so the design would be gender-neutral.

I knew that I wanted an animal theme and yellow walls. Every other item was selected piece by piece. I will share how we picked each item for the design and where we found them!

Artwork

One of my favorite items in the nursery is the wall art from the Daisy & Bump shop on Etsy. Check out their shop. I just love it all so much. I even got my best friend this bunny art from their shop for her baby’s bunny themed nursery!

Artwork makes a huge difference in the room and adds character to our space with these adorable animals.

Solid Wood Crib
My baby started sleeping in her crib around 6 weeks and just loved her bed. I wanted a solid wood crib but many were $1000! I luckily found the solid wood DaVinci Jenny Lind 3-in-1 Convertible Crib, White for about $200. It is simple but we love it.

Organic Mattress
The mattress is the one thing that I tell every new parent to splurge on. Your baby spends so much time in their bed. You do not want them breathing in chemicals from their mattress. I did a lot of mattress research before finally picking the Naturepedic Organic Cotton Classic 150 Coil Seamless 2-Stage Crib/Toddler Mattress. I selected this mattress because it is GREENGUARD certified, made in the USA of organic cotton and could be flipped over to use as a toddler mattress. Because I knew that I would be using this mattress for more than a year, I felt better about the $300 price tag.

Hamper

I fell in love with the elephant hamper from Home Decorators. The hamper is expensive for a hamper ($69) but loved it for my design. There are 3 sizes available for the hamper, and I got the Small. It has been the perfect size for around 1 week of baby clothes. It came with a bag that hung with velcro that I have since removed. All of the velcro fell off over the course of 6 months. I also stopped using the lid out of pure laziness.

Crib Sheet 

This organic crib sheet from Magnolia Organics looked adorable with the animal print, so I included it on my registry. Trying to fit it on the mattress was another story. I got bruises from fighting the sheet onto the mattress and eventually switched to YourEcoFamily Certified Organic Cotton Fitted Crib Sheet. I change her crib sheet at least once a week so the cuteness just wasn’t worth it for me.

Crib Skirt
The crib skirt is American Baby Company 100% Cotton Percale Ruffled Crib Skirt and fit our crib perfectly. It was surprisingly hard for me to find a crib skirt to match the rug I purchased to set the colors of the theme but loved the aqua color. The aqua was a perfect accent for the gender neutral theme too.

Blanket

The blanket hanging on the side of the crib is a personalized blanket that I got for my shower with our last name embroidered on. I know she bought it on Etsy!

Even though we have a small nursery, we really wanted to have a seating area for rocking her to sleep and reading books. I found every single item for our nursery seating area from a different store (all of the blankets on the chair are handmade gifts from friends and family).

Glider
The critical piece to any seating area is the glider or rocker. I wanted a cozy glider that did not cost more than $500. Let’s face it…all of this baby stuff adds up and by the time I was completing the nursery, funds were running low. I fell in love with the Monte Design Luca Glider that you can find at Land of Nod but it costs $1000. I decided to contact Wayfair to find out what glider brands they sold that were not treated with toxic flame retardants. They responded that Dutalier and Delta were not treated with flame retardants. I preferred the look of the gliders sold by Delta and bought the Delta Children Upholstered Glider, Sand on Wayfair for $265!

This chair fits me perfectly, but my husband isn’t a huge fan. He regrets us not getting a glider with a higher back, so we can lean back comfortably.

Foot Rest

I bought the grey pouf on Etsy because I really wanted one that was made out of cotton. It is a perfect size and has held up great.

Tip: The foot rest is a critical component for breastfeeding in comfort.

Rug

I wanted a rug for the nursery made out of natural materials, so I focused on wool or cotton. I probably looked at 1000 rugs before I found the perfect rug for our nursery. The rug was critical to my nursery because we have hardwood floors, and I was using the rug as the primary way to add some fun and colors to the room. I found the rug on the Home Decorators website. It is the MARTHA STEWART LIVING™ KIDS CANDY SHOP AREA RUG.

The rug pulls the whole color scheme together. Love it so much!

Nightstand

I was looking for a white side table or nightstand and came across this solid wood nightstand from IKEA for $100. You have to get the “White stain” instead of the “White” if you want the one made out of solid pine instead of particleboard. The 2 drawers are great for extra storage in our small nursery.

Lamp
I found our lamp on clearance at Target. HomeGoods is another great option if you’re on the hunt for a fun but inexpensive lamp.

Boppy Pillow

I used the Boppy Nursing Pillow and Positioner – Bare Naked with the Boppy Pillow Slipcover, Organic Elephant Gray a lot when I was nursing, but I did not love it. The slipcover did match our nursery theme though! Love the cute little elephant.

I always found the angle a bit off and a little low for nursing. I really loved the Boppy when Harper was learning how to sit up though. I would sit her up with the Boppy behind her, and if she ever fell over, the Boppy would catch her. No tears, happy baby.

We love our gender-neutral nursery so much and so does our little one. It is a safe and relaxing place for her. I hope you have as much fun designing your perfect nursery as I did!