Decorating a Gender Neutral Jungle Themed Nursery
My husband and I love surprises so naturally we wanted the gender of our baby to remain a surprise, but it certainly made planning for a nursery a bit of a challenge. We of course are always up for a challenge however, and enjoyed using our creativity to create a fun and exciting gender-neutral nursery.
We chose to do a jungle theme because if there is one thing that we learned from raising our son (now just shy of two years old), is that babies and toddlers are wild about animals! Our son spends the majority of his days looking at animals in picture books and imitating the noises of each one, so we wanted our next son or daughter to have a wide variety of animals to look at while spending time in his or her room.
When choosing a paint color, we decided to choose a sky blue color. Now, I know what you are thinking, that blue is usually reserved for boys’ rooms, but I say, why can’t a girl have a blue room? The blue for this room represents the sky so it will work for either a girl or a boy’s room. And besides, blue is a very beautiful color and it can certainly be used for a girl’s room too!
In addition to the blue walls, I wanted to create a mural of jungle leaves to give you the feel of being in the actual jungle. My mother in law is an artist, so she agreed to paint jungle leaves for me. It was very easy for her to do, so if you or you know someone that can paint, put them to work for you! We used 3 different kinds of paint, a dark green, a light green and a green with a brownish tint so the leaves would have some depth.
Once she finished painting the wall mural, it was time to choose bedding. One of our lovely Simply Real Mom’s partners, Emily, was generous enough to give me her son’s old bedding which works perfectly for this jungle room. If you would like to purchase it, you can find the Carter’s Green Elephant Bedding here. It is a very reasonable price for such cute bedding!
For the mobile, I found an adorable handmade mobile from the Etsy Shop, Sugar and Spice Studios. It features jungle leaves and animals; perfect for our nursery and absolutely adorable! In addition to the mobile, we placed wall decal birds for the top half of the wall to complete the jungle scene.
We chose to place a glider next to the window. For us, the glider was essential; we spent countless hours rocking our first-born son so we knew that we would have to have a comfortable glider in our nursery. I am a big fan of this glider, it is comfortable and fashionable and we got it for a very reasonable price at hayneedle.com.
I also am in LOVE with wall art decals, so I just knew that I would need to find a cute one for the room. I searched several different stores and finally found an Etsy shop, JaneyMacWalls that has the most adorable designs. Not only are their designs adorable and perfect for any modern nursery, you can also customize your own colors, which is such a great option for decorating moms! I chose a chocolate brown mom and baby giraffe silhouette and it works perfectly for the room. Be sure to check out all of her adorable designs at her store.
For storage, we fell IN LOVE with the 3 Sprouts storage bins, so we knew that we would need one of those for the nursery. The 3 Sprouts Storage Bins are perfect for any modern nursery and they have several different animals to choose from. They also have other amazing products for nurseries so be sure to check out their store! You can find a full description of the 3 Sprouts Storage bins here.
We placed our dresser and changing table on the opposite wall. I know some moms don’t need a changing table, but I really do love mine and all the storage that comes with it. Above the changing table is where I placed my handmade spray paint animal canvas art. I choose 3 animal silhouettes and bright colors for this artwork. It was very inexpensive and easy to make—if you are interested in making them yourself, please visit my DIY tutorial.
Above the dresser, I placed a lamp and a girafee storage bin. The bin is helpful to put baby necesseities such as diaper cream, nasal spray, thermometer….really anything that you need for your baby! I found the girafee storage bin at Hobby Lobby and was able to get it for $10. Be sure to print out a 40% coupon before you go to get your discount! Above the dresser is an elephant canvas picture that can be found at Babies R Us.
For the door sign, I chose the phrase “Welcome to the Jungle” as a tribute to my husband. He is an 80’s child and a big fan of Guns n Roses, so I surprised him with this sign! My best friend made this sign and she does many other nursery signs. To view her store, please visit Pinelli Studios.
So, there you have it, gender-neutral nurseries certainly don’t have to be boring. You can find a way to add a lot of fun and color to a nursery that either a boy or a girl would love!
