Baby Baxter’s #2’s Bedroom – Gender Neutral Design

What a crazy few days it was working on the baby’s room while Craig was gone hunting for a week. It ended up resulting in me overhauling and redecorating several other rooms in our house, which was quite the job. It was crazy, chaotic, messy, and I barely got any sleep, but it is done now, and it feels so good!

I love love LOVE how the room turned out. It isn’t necessarily Pinterest-worthy, but it feels calm, warm, and inviting. It’s a place I look forward to spending quite a bit of time when the baby comes. I am happy that I only spent about $200 to transform this room and was able to use a lot of what we already had. Plus a fresh coat of paint makes it feels night and day different than what it was.

I realized when I went to start working on this blog post that I hadn’t taken any ‘before’ photos of the room. I guess I was too excited to get started that I completely forgot. I also started painting around 8:00/9:00p.m. one night, so it was starting to get dark. However, then I came across these photos on my phone! Luckily Cullen (who loves taking pictures on my phone) happened to take some pictures of the room a few days prior to painting, and I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful. (ha!)

The bright blue on the walls was painted that way when we first moved in 6 years ago. We’ve used this small room (8 feet x 9 feet) as our spare bedroom for a few guests we’ve had over the years, but it really has gone unused. I’ve had no real push to ever work on it until now but finally having this room done makes my house feel completely done!

Craig said he was okay keeping the room this color (typical guy). I, on the other hand–who will be spending the most amount of time in the room, couldn’t have relaxed in it with this bright color. (Side note: we did get rid of the ceiling-to-floor mirrors that used to line two of the walls a few years ago, but this room still needed an overhaul.)

With Cullen’s help, he said we should paint the two previous blue walls an ancient stone/oatmeal color and the other two walls that were previously white a light gray color. Luckily these were colors I already had at home from previous painting jobs, so I didn’t have to buy any new cans of paint. So one night at 8:00p.m., I finally got a start and was practically painting by candlelight until about midnight that first night.

In the photo below, you can see the two different paint colors. I love that the curtains match the light gray color better while the art print on the other wall goes really well with the “oatmeal” color of the other wall.

Luckily the built-in primer in the paint was enough to cover that bright blue color. It did take me a couple coats of paint (ahem. . . . three and four in some), but eventually it was completely covered in the new (much more calming) color.

I really wanted to do an accent wall with wallpaper, since it is trendy, and it can totally transform a room, but then I realized it was going to cost me about $300 just to do one wall (which is not even that big), so I decided against it for now.

We had the crib and dresser from when Cullen was a baby, and they are currently on loan from Craig’s aunt and uncle. Before Cullen was born, I did switch out the dresser knobs and handles for a more modern look since it originally had gold knobs and a 90s feel to them. It was amazing how much of a difference just simply changing out the knobs made the dresser look.

I had a few decor pieces already picked out that I wanted to start with, so with those in mind, the other pieces came together quite quickly. I got nearly all of the decorations from Target, and I won’t tell you how many trips I took to Target that week.

I don’t think this picture does justice for how the decor items pulled together so nicely. I started with the ‘dot’ art print, added the shelves, and then picked out decoration items for the shelves that would match. I had the wooden pine tree on the top shelf, which was a Target dollar spot purchase quite a while ago. The wooden ‘&’ symbol was a gift from a friend a while back. The third shelf down is a square glass vase with this rose gold vase fillers. The rose gold from this pulls out the rose gold from the wall print, which makes it feel maybe slightly more feminine than masculine or gender neutral, but I like it too much to change it. The bottom shelf has a faux arrangement in it. (I found it at Target in the home office section but can’t find it on the website now.)

The other wall includes four farm animal prints that I moved from Cullen’s room to the baby’s room. While getting the baby’s room ready, I knew I was going to be updating Cullen’s room too because I was going to pull a few of the “baby” items from his room, which then meant I was going to need to replace some of the items in his room. I wasn’t able to find the same farm animal prints, but I did buy them off Etsy, and there are several other ones that are just as cute if not cuter now.

4 farm animal prints (another cute option) | lamp (similar) | faux eucalyptus arrangement | marble top round table | glider chair (similar)

I absolutely love this little side table. I originally had a wooden half circle side table that I was going to paint white to put here, but I ended up using it in Cullen’s room. It looked much better in there anyway, and so I was on the hunt for another side table by the glider. As I scanned the Target website for options, I came across this one and immediately fell in love. I accented the table with Cullen’s old lamp, a faux arrangement, and an icon of Mary and Jesus–very fitting for a nursery (which is mostly hidden in this picture).

storage basket/laundry basket |Diaper Genie | curtains (similar) + blackout curtain| changing pad | changing pad cover

The fourth wall of the room is the closet. I had rearranged the inside when my parents were here last month, so luckily I didn’t have to tackle that project as well.

I hung a few clothing items in the closet but most are in the drawers. I also have totes containing all of Cullen’s clothes, stacked by size. Up top are a box of cloth diapers (which I didn’t have much success with Cullen, but I’ll try again with this baby), a box of wipes, a playmat, jumping toy, and a Bumbo.

The top drawer of the dress includes items that will be used the most: basket with Nose Frida, diaper cream, pacifiers, swaddles, and wipes.

The second drawer includes all of the clothes sorted by size, along with socks and hats in a couple of baskets to keep things organized.

Like I said before, I’m so happy with how this room turned out. I wanted both Cullen’s room and this room to go together but not be matchy-matchy. (i.e. I didn’t want both rooms to have the same color of paint.) I didn’t do a theme with Cullen’s room, and I didn’t do a theme with this room either–which some people have asked me about. When Cullen was about to be born, I did see some themes, but if anything I just remember how crazy-popular chevron was. I did incorporate some yellows and grays into his room, but it wasn’t over-done. I realize I haven’t seen a lot of themes happening any more. I’ve seen a lot of gender neutral (even if the parents know the sex of the baby), or I’ve seen a lot of simple, clean rooms with pink or blue accents.

When Craig saw the finished result, he was really happy with how it turned out–as well as the rest of the house, which I’ll be doing a full house tour on Instagram Stories later today, so be sure to watch those videos before they expire after 24 hours. He asked me how much it cost, and I said that he saved $100,000 because I no longer have the desire to move to a different house (unless it was to Minnesota).

Now that the baby’s room is done, I am feeling much more ready for this baby to arrive. Of course there is more I want to do and a few more things I want to get, but 98% is done!