Sophisticated Neutral Nursery: Before Photos + Mood Board | Spring 2018 ORC Week 1

One of the most highly anticipated days in blogland has arrived! Week 1 of the Spring 2018 One Room Challenge hosted by Calling it Home is here! You may have already guessed [or maybe I’ve dropped a few hints!] but I’ve decided to work on our soon-to-be little one’s digs for the 6 week challenge as a guest participant this year. The timing couldn’t be more perfect since the baby will be arriving in June. With the ORC wrapping up in the beginning of May, the nursery will be checked off the Master House Project punch list and I will have a few weeks to focus on other things…or maybe just try to catch up on sleep and relax a bit before baby #3 arrives and life gets all the more cray blissful! We aren’t finding out the gender, so I’m creating a Sophisticated Neutral Nursery for our little one!

The nursery is the 3rd space I’ve worked on for the One Room Challenge, but actually haven’t participated since the Fall 2016 ORC when I designed our Dining Room. [Yes, the one that was featured in Good Housekeeping this year! [You can see my first ORC space – the guestroom here]. Before I dish on my plans for the space, there’s no better way to introduce a new room project than to share the before photos. When we moved into our home in June of 2016, we literally plopped the littlest’s nursery gear from his old room down in this room. And left it. Never touched it again. The walls, we left alone. We didn’t paint nor did we hang a single thing up! It really is a sad space that our little guy has dwelled in for the last 18 months! But, he’s over-the-moon excited to be moving into his brother’s big boy room and proudly giving up his space to his new little brother or sister.

They are both rooting for a boy, btw. Saying there just can’t be another girl around here…as if there are so many already ha! And both of them have names picked out if their dream of a third boy does come true…in fact the littlest wants the baby to have his same name. 😉

Here is what the room looks like right now…as in, I took these photos yesterday…

This is the view from the doorway…

Do you recognize those striped curtains?! Gosh, it seems like ages ago that I DIY’d them!

Here you can see the wall opposite of the closet, to the left of the window. That door leads to a Jack-and-Jill bathroom which leads to the biggest’s room.

Here you’ll see a head-on shot of the closet and the lovely mini rainbow ceiling fan. Oh and I forgot to mention the plastic heart sconce to the right of the window. I still can’t believe I haven’t removed these!! Although the littlest likes the multi-colored view 🙂

This view is slightly different than the image above…you can see the door that opens to the hallway and a peek at the crib wall.

And finally the crib! As you can see there is not one continous wall in this room. There are 2 doorway walls, a closet wall and a window wall, which didn’t leave us any other option for crib placement. It is a small space to begin with but feels very divided because each wall has a large opening of some sort!!

And now, we can move on to the good stuff — my vision for our Sophisticated Neutral Nursery!

Here’s my mood board…

[*Affiliate links are use below.]

wallpaper | large abstract art | conversation bubble art | “I love you so much” art | crib | side table | rocker/glider | fiddle leaf fig | gold planter pot | black floor lamp | tall storage bin | white vase | rug | 6-light chandelier | white curtain panels | changing table | natural baskets | set of 4 bins

If you’ve been following along with my since the beginning, you’ll quickly notice it is a MUCH different color palette than the last nursery I designed. Partially due to the fact that I wanted the space to start out as gender neutral, but also because my style has changed over the last 4 years. Now, it’s almost impossible to find a space in our home without loads of black and white with touches of gold throughout. I feel this nursery design really embodies my style, but slightly adapted for a little one’s space. With a completely neutral palette, after the baby is born, it will be so easy to throw in a splash of blue or green… or dare I say, pink?!!!?

We’ve got 6 posts, but only 5 weeks to complete this space from top to bottom, so here’s a quick run-down of what we’ll be focusing on over the course of the challenge.

Sophisticated Neutral Nursery Punch List

• paint the walls
• decide on a feature wall treatment
• remove rainbow ceiling fan
• remove heart wall sconce
• install new ceiling light
• buy new curtain rod 
• hang new curtain panels
• replace blinds with cordless, blackout pleated shades
• remove wire shelving in closet and do complete closet makeover
• determine changing area / dresser situation
• swap out rocker / glider with the one from the biggest’s nursery
• rearrange horizontal bookcase to a vertical position
• get [new] rug
• style and decorate the space with accessories fit for a little one 🙂

Well, what do you think?!

Are you as excited as I am to see this blank and bland, untouched bedroom be transformed into a Sophisticated Neutral Nursery for baby #3?!

Let’s get this party started! I’m 25 weeks along and feeling ready to rock and roll in this space, which is a good thing because I will be spending a looooot of time in here from now until Reveal Day on May 9th! I hope you’ll follow along with me right here each Wednesday until then. There are so many wonderfully talented bloggers participating this round and another group of fabulous featured bloggers joining the Spring 2018 One Room Challenge as well! Be sure to check them out each week; I know I will be!

Don’t forget to pin for later!

Get caught up on all of the Spring 2018 One Room Challenge Sophisticated Neutral Nursery posts below:

WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 | WEEK 3 | WEEK 4 | WEEK 5 | WEEK 6

 Thank you to these generous sponsors for their partnership in the Spring 2018 ORC. And thanks to you for supporting the brands that help make This is our Bliss possible!

See you back here soon!