Hummingbird Hilltop Homestead

Every Mom’s Dream

It seems every expecting mother enjoys preparing and decorating their baby’s nursery. It could even be said that the perfect nursery is every mom’s dream for their child and home. I had a unique experience in that I did not have a dedicated nursery room when we were expecting our first child. At the time we lived in a one room cabin that was a little less than 500 square feet. Safe to say we had to make do with what we had and while it was a bit of a challenge it worked out in the end; however, once we had moved to our new home our daughter’s room was one of the first places I was eager to decorate. Her room is officially my favorite room in the house (and the only one completely decorated) so I wanted to share all the details of my daughter’s bedroom.

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The Backstory

When we still lived in our cabin we had a small section of our home that I turned into a nursery. It was originally my office when I worked a remote office job, but after having our daughter I quickly realized going back to work in our particular situation and with my daughter’s personality and needs was not an option. When I became a full-time stay at home mom we turned my office into the nursery. Turns out becoming a stay at home mom was good for the home set up too!

The Vision

I knew what I wanted my daughter’s official nursery to look like and that was to be a sage green room with a lamb/sheep theme. When I got pregnant my husband and I had decided to go old school and not find out our baby’s gender until born. The sage green was a great neutral color and the theme was gender neutral as well.

When I decorated the temporary cabin nursery I used a lot of the sage green and lamb themed items we had but I could only do so much in that small space. It was a cute “room” though and everything we needed it to be especially at the time. It fit a crib, we had a dresser that used to be in my bedroom before my husband and I got married that we used as a dresser for us and our daughter as well as a changing table, and we had a rocking chair.

What the Nursery Has Become

Our family home took a bit longer to build than originally estimated (no surprise here as this is very common). Since we moved a lot later than expected our daughter was about one and a half before she was in her official nursery. This meant her needs were different than when she was just a tiny newborn.

Stepping into her room for the first time was a bit of a head scratcher for me. It felt so plain. Four white walls and ceiling to match and a dark floor was all there was and I felt like I was standing in a small stark box.

I was hesitant to go with wall treatments such as wallpaper or wainscoting to spice things up because while I liked the look and thought it’d be sweet for a nursery or child’s room it would be hard to change as my daughter grew and her tastes and likes grew with her. Painting the walls seemed like a similar issue so I resolved to do a few more inventive and simple techniques.

The First Step

To avoid difficult to change out paint, wallpaper, or other wall treatments I opted to break up the white room with some ceiling beams. In much of our home we have wooden ceiling beams that blend well with the dark wooden floors. Adding beams in our daughter’s room felt like the perfect way to make it blend with the rest of our home, warm up the space with wood, and break up the stark plain feeling the room currently had.

This is a DIY project I plan to share soon, but it was a pretty straightforward project and was relatively low in cost. Boy, did the beams make all the difference in her room! Her room immediately felt cozy and warm and cohesive in its own right and with the rest of the home.

What Came Next

The next step in designing our daughter’s room was making the white walls a little less white. While the wood helped to break up the space it still needed some color. This brought in the sage green color I was wanting to add. I found the perfect set of tie back traditional sage green curtains and boom the room was cozy, had character, and was already feeling much more like the nursery (or now “big girl” room) that I had dreamed of.

The Furniture Pieces

Our daughter’s room needed a few important furniture pieces. In our cabin we had a rocking chair that had been handed down from my Granny to my mom and then to me. My mom rocked me in that chair so I have loved getting to do the same with my daughter. It’s not only a beautiful rocking chair but filled with generations of love between a parent and child in our family – how amazing is that!?

Our daughter’s crib is a beautiful addition and has a classic look to it that I was hoping to find. The best thing is that the crib is on Wayfair, so it’s new and meets all current safety requirements while looking like a vintage style crib. I also love that it’s a soft white and not a bright white.

Lastly, we needed a dresser and changing table so we found one that combined the two functions. My goal was to find one that matched the white tone of the crib and I found the perfect one at Pottery Barn Kids. It has a sweet scalloped accent at the bottom of the dresser giving a little whimsy, dainty brass knobs which match a lot of hardware in our home and brighten up the room a bit, and as a bonus has a detachable changing top making it an excellent changing table too!

All About the Bed

Now that our daughter is a toddler and she has moved out of her crib, her room has transformed from a nursery to now being a toddler room. With that change came the need for a bed.

Oh man, I grappled with finding the perfect bed for her for a long time! I wanted so badly to find an antique pine sleigh bed. I love the look but I also love the practicality. It makes so much sense to me to move from a crib to a bed with bumpers, but attractive bumpers (the more modern bumpers aren’t really my thing ha!).

I looked and looked for a new bed that had that sleigh bed appearance and safety bonus, but I barely found any. Most of them that I found were incredibly expensive, or they were for toddlers so they were very small (our daughter is tall) and so it would have to be swapped for another bed in a year or two and maybe sooner for our tall girl.

I finally found a bed on IKEA’s website that had the look I wanted with the sleigh style sides, was at a good price point, AND it was expandable meaning it would work for her as a toddler but later could expand to a twin sized bed. This meant we wouldn’t have to purchase another bed in a year or two which would be nice for the money saved and hassle of finding another bed. It also meant that she would have a more natural transition from the crib to a toddler bed and then to a twin sized bed when the time came – a huge win in my book! Why don’t more companies make this transition easier and safer with this bed style!?

Troubleshooting

With all the wins this bed had going for it, unfortunately it had one downside. The only problem was the color – bright white. It would clash with her dresser and just didn’t look right in the space. It also looked pretty modern, which wasn’t the look I was going for in her room or even throughout our home.

I plan to do a whole blog DIY post on this bed – it was quite the project, but we made an antique pine looking sleigh bed out of the brand new IKEA bed and I couldn’t be happier! Details to come soon!

A Little Shelving

We added a couple of shelves on two walls of her room, all of which I stained to better match the wood tones in the space. One shelf is a simple two-tiered unit with bobbin style turned wood edges. I love the subtle vintage style the bobbin edges bring and I carried that over into a set of three shelves I ordered off of Amazon.

The three shelves have a bar that goes across them to prevent things from falling off the shelves and those bars are beaded which give them the bobbin look. I also love that the bottom shelf of the three piece set has a place to hang clothes as it’s the perfect place to set out next day’s outfit and makes the corner even cozier with sweet clothes hanging down. On the shelves in her room I added sweet little accents of her favorite books, piggy banks, and a couple of knick-knacks I used to have in my room as a child.

The Final Touches

My favorite part of decorating our daughter’s room was finding all the little things that make it her own. I love details that bring life to a space, a bit of whimsy, color, and cozy feels.

One of the first things was finding a good and comfortable rug that tied the room together. I share all the details about the rug here.

The next item I purchased that went with the lamb theme for her room was an adorable rocker lamb that I found on Amazon. I found a lot of expensive versions but this one was just as cute but way more affordable!

One of my favorite pieces in her room is a lamb mobile that I made that hung over her crib and now her bed. I taught myself needle felting so that I could make an affordable mobile after seeing expensive ones online. I love how it turned out! More details on this DIY project coming soon!

The shelves in our daughter’s room are not the only places you can find things that I used to have in my room. There is a picture of Jesus and the little children over my daughter’s bed which used to be over my bed as a child too. I used to remember thinking I wanted to put that picture over my child’s bed because I found so much comfort in it growing up and that has come true – how cool is that?!

A blank space behind the bedroom door was the perfect place for a height chart and I found the most beautiful one at Pottery Barn Kids that my mom had customized with our daughter’s name and gifted us. It’s so sweet, unique, and the colors are perfect for her room with the sage green and white.

It’s the Little Things

My daughter’s room is my favorite room in the house. To be fair it’s also the only completed room in the house when it comes to decor, but it is cozy, bright, kid friendly, and while a small room, each space is used wisely allowing every square inch to serve a purpose.

Practical, functional, and beautiful is always the goal I have for every room in the home and this room checks all those boxes. I feel like the little accents like the rocker lamb, the mobile, the right placement of shelving, etc. was what brought the extra cozy factor to the space. Nothing is too heavy handed or too messy, but it’s still full and busy in all the right ways.

I also love that it’s neutral but not boring with a little color, but a calming color at that. The sheep theme keeps things sweet and cozy, is perfect for a baby but also a young child, and naturally adds warmth and comfort to the space.

Work Smarter Not Harder

In this case, maybe it would be better to say we worked harder to save money but it was well worth it! The beams, the mobile, the bed, and even the shelves saved us thousands of dollars. The beams we made and installed ourselves – the labor alone probably saved hundreds. The mobile cost me time but from a financial standpoint it saved me hundreds of dollars as well. The bed was about a quarter of what we would have paid for an actual antique sleigh bed. The shelves we went with were inexpensive, cute, and easy to stain; however, the shelves I found online that were the style and already the color I wanted would have cost about three times what I paid for the shelves and the stain we went with.

Sometimes doing the hard work of the do it yourself (DIY) option can really pay off. Don’t get me wrong some projects won’t feel worth it to everyone, the bed came close to being too much of a hardship, but at the end of the day it means a lot more when you made something yourself or had a part in it. Plus, it’s cool to be able to pass down to your child a one of a kind piece made by your own hands – maybe even their hands played a part.

The Future

My daughter is going to grow and her room will grow with her. I know that one day her room will likely look very different from how it does today, and that’s part of the fun. I am excited to see who my daughter becomes and what her tastes are and how she expresses that in her room. Because I know the inevitable changes are coming it feels important to make her room feel special and magical as a child, but to be ready and willing to switch things out and update them when the appropriate times come. This means keeping things simple is key. A lot of neutrals, and again nothing hard to switch out like wallpaper or paint is helpful. Items that are beautiful and classic timeless pieces like her bed can easily grow with her and likely stay on trend for years to come.

While I love her room now and sometimes wish she would stay this age forever I am excited to see who my daughter will be and pray that her room reflects the wonderful person I know she is and will be. If that is not the most important focus of our child’s room to have a safe space that is full of life, whimsy, magic, and a reflection of who they are then I think we might be missing the mark on what our child’s rooms should be. Here’s to the fun, chaos, and years to come of bringing my daughter’s room to life!

Looking For More Inspiration?

If you are looking for some more interior decorating inspiration then check out my post on how to Give Your Home a Cozy Feel With These Five Easy Tips. If you are looking at how to balance more than just decorating a child’s nursery or bedroom then have a read on How to Balance Homemaking and Parenting. Lastly, the new year is just around the corner. I have a free downloadable cleaning checklist if you are wanting to start the new year off with a cleaning routine that will keep your home clean all year long. You can download it on my Homepage by clicking on the link that says “Download Your Checklist!”.