Nursery Makeover – Our Monochrome Nature-Themed Baby Nursery
I’ve been working on this special monochrome nursery with a nature theme for MONTHS, and I am FINALLY able to reveal it! Come and take a look. I’ve included some links to some of the products I bought so if you are inspired by any of it, you can easily find them.
I’m so excited right now! I’ve been working on getting our new baby boy’s nursery complete for MONTHS. This is such a special project for me because with each of our other three boys, I’ve not been able to create a “real” nursery for them. Because of our living situations in each of my pregnancies, we just didn’t have the space or the ability to do anything special. In fact, the closest we came was with Dexter, our oldest. He had a little box room in our house in England, which I decorated with some wall stickers. But he was actually about six months old before we got around to it!
With both Daniel and Chester, we moved into new homes just around when each of them was born, and so we didn’t have the time to plan a nursery. It is only now that we are in our final and forever home that we got the chance.
Of course, I must admit, the thought of having another baby was SO far out of the realm of possibility when we bought this house that I never even conceived that I’d be able to do something like this. In fact, our second floor has exactly four bedrooms, which was perfect for mom and dad with three kids! But now that our fourth is due imminently, we’ve had to allow Dexter and Daniel to share a room together (not that they mind since they’ve been sneaking into each other’s rooms every night for two years!).
I knew that I wanted to use the room that was closest to our master bedroom. While baby will be likely sleeping in a cot next to our bed for a while, I wanted to make sure that he was used to sleeping in his own crib for naps and other occasions. The only problem with the room we chose was the colors! For some odd reason, the previous owners had chosen three different pastel shades to pain the walls! Ugh!
This was NOT part of the aesthetic I wanted to create, so our first step in making the room ready was to paint everything completely white. It ended up being quite a tedious process. I had thought the pink and green would be hardest to cover, but amazingly, it was the light blue that just would NOT go away. It took SO many coats to finally get rid of it.
I admit that I had intended to paint it all by myself, as my husband HATES painting, and he was really against doing a room makeover. But after he saw me struggling to climb up ladders and reach high spots, he decided to take over and do what needed done. He was a super star through it, even though the process took several days.
I already had a look in mind for the room, which involved mostly monochrome pieces. I shared all my favorites in a post back in August, and I ended up buying most everything on the list.
The crib and bedding ended up being just perfect for the look I was going for. Originally, I was going to get the crib in white, but I ended up ordering black, which I’m SO grateful for. I think white would have been too boring, and the black ended up matching the old dresser we decided to use.
7 in 1 Convertible Crib
Hypoallergenic + Waterproof Crib Mattress
Monochrome Crib Sheets
Zebra Body Pillow
Plus Sign Throw Pillow
Decorating was high priority for me. The crib was set into a perfectly-sized alcove in the room, so I wanted to be sure it looked good. I wound up buying some wall decals to stick on. I learned a lot about how NOT to do it, though, as they are not entirely straight. I kind of misjudged my original pattern intentions and placed them all too closely together. But I still LOVE how it turned out, even if the lines are a bit skewiff.
The sign above his bed was handmade by me and announces for all the world the name we’ve chosen for baby boy. We chose the name Wilder really early in pregnancy, even though it’s kind of a rare and unique name. We’ve never been able to pick a name so easily. In fact, with all three of our previous boys, we ended up changing it really late in pregnancy! But this time, it has stuck, and we love it. Baby Wilder.
Anyway, I made the sign using an old wooden hanging sign from Michael’s and some wooden letters I bought at Walmart. I painted them up, stuck the letters on and voila! Pretty cute!
The black and white canvas on the left of the crib was just an old ugly canvas painting that I got from Goodwill, and I covered it in spray adhesive and attached some fabric onto it. Then I stapled it to the back for extra support.
The blanket on the crib was attached to a little Zebra toy, and I absolutely adore it. I know Wilder will love it when he’s a bit older.
Changing Table
Black and White Drawers
Laundry Basket
Changing Pad
Rug
The changing table was a last minute buy. I had originally intended to just use a changing pad on top of the dresser, but it wound up being a bit too low. I wanted something like these dresser changing tables. I then thought I’d use Chester’s old changing table, but it was a dark mahogany color, and I just didn’t have the energy to paint it up. So I wound up finding this awesome changing table for a great price! I added in some black and white canvas drawers onto the shelves to keep it looking neat, and the changing pad fit perfectly on top. Note: it came with its own changing pad, but I liked mine better.
The little laundry basket fits between the crib and the changing table perfectly, and it’s foldable, so you can store it elsewhere if you like.
I love the rug, as it is a perfect size for the room and was SO inexpensive!
Also, do you see the two little paintings in the corner? They were gifts to the new baby from two of his big brothers! They painted small canvases for the room. The top one was done by Daniel (age 4) and shows his interpretation of Zion National Park, which is one of his favorite places. The other was done by Dexter (age 6) and is a dragon flying through the sky destroying things. Neither painting really fit my vision for the room, but I LOVED that they were so intent on helping make it a special space, and I knew I had to find a spot for them.
Zebra Toy
Bean Bag Chair
Curtains
The closet is one of my favorite parts of the makeover. Originally, it had some heavy white accordion doors on it. But since I knew it would be used for storage and I wanted to keep things neat, I removed the doors and hung cute tasseled curtains on a tension rod. Inside is a truly adorable bean bag chair, which will be useful for when the other boys want to come in and sit with the baby or when we need more seats for daddy and mommy.
The white chair next to the closet is from my vanity set, and it just looks so cute with the little zebra on it. I don’t know if it’ll stay long term, but for now it’s just too cute!
Inside the closet I have various baby supplies such as diapers, diaper creams, and a whole selection of baby Dove products that Dove sent me for baby Wilder. How nice is that??
I also bought a new Nose Frida booger sucker and some gas passer devices made by the same company. They are apparently miracle products, and I can definitely vouch for the Nose Frida.
You may also notice that the top of the closet is lined with canvas storage bins. Originally, they were on the shelves of the closet, but in the end I liked open storage better. Also, when I bought them, I thought they were white and black, but they were more of a tan/brown. So they now hold things like toys, baby carriers and other things that we won’t need right away.
Moving around the room, I used our old dresser as clothing storage. It fits plenty of baby clothes, which is great since we have a ton! I wanted to keep it fairly simple, so I left the top empty. Originally we had a nice little lamp and some blocks spelling out his name, but in the end I decided that the gallery wall above was enough.
Nearly all of the art pieces on the gallery were ordered off of Etsy. And I gotta tell you, it was hit or miss with these. Some of them came a little damaged, but still were usable. Some took a long time to ship, which was really frustrating. And some were just not that great, if I’m honest. But all together, I love how it turned out. I tried to go for nature-themed pieces and inspiring quotes.
I love the wood and metal designs on them all. It turned out great, though I think maybe a few more small pieces would finish it nicely.
I knew I wanted to have some sort of rocking chair in the room, and I found one that was PERFECT at Goodwill. It was small, but it was comfortable. It was also pink. Ew. So I found a slipcover at Big Lots to cover it, and then I used a black and white throw blanket to put on top. It’s not amazing, but it is comfy, cozy and perfect for those late nights rocking my baby to sleep.
I also have to point out the incredible mural my husband did. We have a large chalkboard wall in the room, and annoyingly it was painted a dark blue, which was not fitting in the monochrome theme. I knew we would have to do something special with it, and my husband asked if he could do something. I’ll admit, I didn’t want him to do it. This was my project, and I wanted to make sure that it fit with my theme. Mark had mentioned previously that he though adding some sci fi, outer space or video game pieces to the room would be good, and the thought of these terrified me.
In the end, I was so happy that he wanted to contribute that I agreed to let him have free reign over the chalk art. I bought him a large selection of sidewalk chalk and let him go for it. In the end, I was SO impressed with his artwork. He used the blue background beautifully by turning it into a night sky, and he kept the nature theme by creating a landscape that certainly looked like one of our Utah national parks. I was blown away.
Final touches around the room included various little decals over doors and a felt letter board to share messages about our little man.
I also found a small Buddhist prayer flag banner at World Market, which I hung above the window. Since the only window in the room is quite small, I didn’t want to use curtains, and I loved the little pop of color.
All in all, it was a LONG process to get the nursery I wanted, but I’m so excited to have it DONE. I’m not the only excited one, either.
The older boys have been going crazy now they’ve seen the room, and each of them wants me to redecorate THEIR rooms. I’m not sure when I’ll actually get around to doing that, but for the moment, I remain proud of the work we ALL did on this one.
What do you think? Did we do a good job? Anything you think would look cute. Any last minute suggestions on items we might have forgotten? Let me know!
Katie Reed is a passionate writer and mother of four vivacious boys from Salt Lake City, Utah. Drawing from her own journey through TTC, pregnancy, and the joys of raising children, she offers a wealth of insight into the world of motherhood. Beyond her heartfelt tales, Katie delights her readers with family-friendly recipes, engaging crafts, and a curated library of printables for both kids and adults. When she’s not penning her experiences, you’ll find her crafting memories with her husband and sons—Dexter, Daniel, Chester, and Wilder.