Travel Nursery - Part 1

Since we found out we were expecting in January, I have been thinking about how to decorate the baby's room. I didn't want anything that was too pink or blue, or anything that was too pastel "baby." Ideally, we'd like to be able to modify things slightly and still have a room that will be fun and interesting for a toddler or older kid. One of the ideas that I'm starting to take pretty seriously is a travel themed nursery.

There are lots of awesome examples online, including this couple who actually painted a world map in their baby's nursery:



That's amazing, but I am not that talented, nor do I have that much time. Also, I'm not supposed to be around paint, right??

Fortunately, there are a lot of fantastic, easy vinyl decals, including this one from Etsy:




It comes in over 30 bright colors, so you can find something that would be perfect for any nursery. It also comes with little star and circle decals, so you can mark places that you've been, or homes of family and friends.

There is also some really fun travel-themed wall art out there. These are some of my favorites that I've found so far:

From Society6:



From Etsy (comes in lots of other cities and colors):



From L'affiche Moderne

 

I think this will be the first post of possibly many about this travel theme, so stay tuned!

Smart Shower Gifts, Part II

It's time for our second installment of Smart Shower Gifts! Since our last shower gifts post, I found out that I was expecting a baby, so this time through, I'll be looking at things with more of an eye toward what I would actually want to receive for the new baby. This will be fun--and hopefully will help me start planning a gift registry!

Recently, I've been talking to a lot of my friends who are moms about different products that they found especially helpful when their baby was born. One of my friends mentioned something that I hadn't thought about--when her son came home from the hospital, he wasn't able to wear onesies at all, since his belly button became very irritated when rubbed with a onesie. I had thought that awesome onesies were the very core of all newborn clothing, so this came as quite a shock! My friend recommended these very reasonably priced side snap t-shirts from Carter's:



One of my other friends loved the easy close feature on these magnetic-fastening clothes and bibs from FAO.com:


And now for our less practical offerings....

Just look at these hilarious onesies from The Wishing Elephant on Etsy!!

They have something that will put a smile on the face of every new parent.

The nerd:


The party animal:


The musician:



The gamer:



The gamer parent of twins:


And, of course, the Star Wars fan:

The Perfect Chair

Generally, when choosing things for baby and baby's room, I try to pick items that are very reasonably priced. I don't want to buy six pieces of equipment when one would do, and I don't want to spend a lot of money on a wildly expensive piece of furniture that the baby will outgrow quickly. One area, however, where I have prepared myself to splurge a little bit is the rocking chair (or glider--I'm not picky).

While you can certainly get a perfectly fine rocking chair at a very reasonable price at a discount retailer or on craigslist, I am assuming that this is a piece of furniture that we will be keeping in our home for the long term, so I'm ready to shop around a bit....

This beauty is available at Room and Board, and comes in a number of fabrics and colors, including an easy-to-clean polyester microfiber. It looks like it is generally about $800-900, depending on fabric options.



Less comfortable (but so beautiful) is the classic Eames rocker, which comes in a million colors. The Eames rocker is available at a number of retailers at a fairly wide range of prices. I just love the pop of color, as seen in my Robot Nursery post!



Another thing that I am considering is purchasing a rocking chair from Chairloom, and having them reupholster it in something wonderful.  I love their work--for example, look at this before-and-after of an adorable child's rocking chair:



A couple of years ago, I had them redo this chair for me in Cayenne Stripe by Hable Construction. Isn't it fun?? I think this time through I would choose something a little kid-friendlier than linen, though. Maybe something indoor/outdoor for easy cleanup!