Six months since Ellie’s birth and it’s finally time to reveal her nursery! It has taken us a good chunk of time because we decided against it in the South Carolina house since we knew that we’d be moving six weeks after she was born. That didn’t stop me from dreaming up plans for when we could finally bring it to life someday. Now that we’re completely unpacked and the holidays have passed, we agreed that it’s time to get her room done! Girlfriend needs to be in her own room!

Here’s a reminder of the before:

And here’s how it looks now!

This space is full of sentiment. Do you guys remember the red (color is Magnolia Vine Ripened Tomato) dresser story? We had just lost our first baby and a few months later, I decided that I was going to makeover a dresser we had that I was saving for a nursery someday. I painted it my favorite color red and added precious ceramic bunny knobs. It was therapeutic to me. It was a way for me to grieve. It was my “I am putting all of my faith in you and your perfect timing, Jesus” proclamation.

In the months following you could find me just sitting on the floor of that unused room in front of that dresser, usually with the dogs laying next to me. Sometimes I just sat there in silence. Most of the time though I prayed. About six more months passed and we received a “yes” answer to our prayers! It was only fitting for us to share our news next to our baby’s bunny knobbed red dresser.

It is just a piece of furniture but it will always have a lot of meaning to me. Someday I’ll tell Ellie the story about the dresser and how it has heard many of my conversations with God. Until then, I wanted to incorporate it into her nursery design.

I added this banner above it with a garland that I made. The flag was one of those things that I saw and immediately thought, “Yep. I’m getting her that.” What sealed that deal is when I learned that these banners (and everything else they have!) are ethically made by artisans in Kenya!

We diffuse every night in her room to support her sleep. Some of our favorites to diffuse are Sleepyize, Seedlings CALM, Peace & Calming, Lavender, and Orange. This diffuser also doubles as a sound machine. You can read all about why we got into essential oils HERE! They changed our lives.

Her growth chart is also sentimental. I was browsing Anthropologie one day while talking to one of my close friends on the phone. It was around the time that I painted the dresser. I came across the growth chart and said to her, “There’s this growth chart that I love here. I’d definitely be getting it if we had a babe.” She said, “You should get it!!!” I thought about it but decided not to and left the store. I sat in my car in the parking lot for a bit and I don’t know what came over me but I just lost it (this rarely ever happens to me). I sobbed and I prayed and sobbed some more. Then I decided to go into the store and buy the growth chart for the baby that we would have someday.

Little did I know that the elephant would become Ellie’s symbol of sorts! God is funny that way. You can read about how that all came about here.

I knew as soon as I saw this painting that it would also be in our baby girl’s room someday (even though we never received medical confirmation we were having a girl 😉 ) As soon as I saw it, I saw myself in the image. I think what I really saw though is Ellie Joy and I just didn’t know it yet. I typically love the look of white curtains but we decided to go with these velvet navy blue ones from Ikea to bring out the blue from the bathing suit in the painting! We hung them up with our go-to curtain rod. It was also important to us that they did a good job at keeping the sun out for nap time. They aren’t technically considered blackout but they do the job well (we also close the blinds underneath when she sleeps)!

Stephen and I found this rug in a thrift shop two moves ago when we lived in Phoenix, Arizona. We always had the plan to use in one of our girls rooms someday. I actually didn’t even work the colors or design of the room around it at all (I was planning to use this rug in here but it wouldn’t fit with her closet doors) but it ties all of the colors in perfectly. It also serves as the vintage that I crave and love to add to each room. Winner winner. I’m so excited to see it against the new floors someday!

But wait… Can we talk about this new fan for a second and how BEAUTIFUL THE CEILING LOOKS?! We tried out a new method in here and we are so excited about it. It cut our time down from over a week of scraping to only 4 hours of work. Yep you heard that right. We’re going to share the tutorial so soon! As for the fan, Stephen and I both LOVE it! Fans are a necessity here and as much as I prefer pretty and fun light fixtures, this is my favorite fan to date. The pink is perfect!

This house is relatively small so we’re trying to maximize the storage the best we can! We picked up this shelf system from Ikea. It’s very budget-friendly and we liked that it’ll be easily adaptable as we move in the future. We got these bins to use in it. One holds all of her toys, one for blankets, one for carriers and swaddles, and one for stuffed animals. I topped it with handmade quilts that are not only also sentimental but functional! Team functional decor around here! Do you want to know something amazing? The pink quilt on the bottom was made by Ellie’s great great great great Grandmother in the 1800’s. The blue quilt was made by Jacque, the oh-so-talented woman that made all of our wedding florals and the yellow quilt was made by Ellie’s great aunt, Aunt Janice. All of them are so special!

I’m a sucker for wallpaper. We loved this one so much in this makeover and loved how the blue in the wallpaper and in the painting looked together so we decided to use the leftover that we had in here. We ended up needing to order another roll (poor planning on my part, I’ll totally admit it) but luckily this company ships super fast. It adds another cottage-y vintage touch in here that I love.

I hope if anything you feel inspired to do what makes you and your family happy in your home. Who knows! Maybe you’ll even paint a dresser red… And LOVE it! 😉

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