Interior Design: Sneak Peek!

My husband and I moved just about three weeks ago. We had been in a town home that our re-locator had helped us pick out when we first moved to Dallas; it was in a fantastic location, but was a two bedroom with a very small den. When we found out we were expecting, it was obvious that two bedrooms wouldn't suffice, as my mom quickly pointed out, "Where will grandma stay?!"

So we found a one level, 1950's era (that is straight up historic for Dallas!) rambler in another great neighborhood, close to White Rock Lake.  I mean, take two Minnesotan transplants who also happen to be big outdoor runners, put 'em by a lake, and they're happy campers, so this house was a no-brainer.

The recent move means that in addition to a nursery, I have a whole house to decorate! My husband and I didn't live together before we got engaged, so we both had accumulated all the necessary items a household needs to function, then blended them. We're slowing in the process of getting rid of our "blended singles" household and creating a "couples" household where we make purchases together.

My style is romantic, shabby-chic while his is ultra modern. So. That's interesting.

The nursery is, in fact, our first room where we're starting completely from scratch and buying everything together. We didn't really get a start on anything until I was already about 24 weeks pregnant, so you may notice we haven't made too much progress... But, we're workin' on it.

Ladies and gents, a sneak peek what we have so far:

We know that we're expecting a boy, but since this is our first and we hope to be able to add more to the pack in the future, I wanted to keep things fairly gender-neutral. So I went with a "jungle theme" and am highlighting soft blues, greens and neutrals. I think it's important to have the nursery be a CALMING space, for both baby and frankly for me - those late night feedings are going to need all the zen they can get, amiright - so I would never want bright oranges and blues, or go the hot pink and animal print route... I feel like I get 18% more agitated just THINKING about "those looks" and I don't have a screaming baby who's trying to gnaw off my nipples yet.

Item details:
1) Upper right hand photo: Metallic elephant book ends, in brushed silver and gold. The crib we ordered is a brushed pewter (we also ordered the matching changing table), and these will help highlight the shine throughout the room. The basket will likely function as a laundry hamper for the first few months of his life, and potentially transition to toy storage as he grows.

2) Upper left hand photo: I DIED when I saw this rug and bedding set. In fact, it's why there's a jungle theme in the room! We also ordered the bedding, which is all ready for when the crib arrives.

3) Lower photo: I ordered really a really cute set of four jungle nursery prints, which resemble the animals on the rug and have a dark grey chevron background (which will pop out, yet still have the "calm" effect with the grey-blue color of the wall). I wanted something to bring the green element into the prints, and found these frames. Alternating green and white will bring in some dimensional color, and also tie in the white woodwork found in the room.

Since I feel good about making some progress in the nursery this week, I'm working on a project for the living room and hope to share details soon!