Rustic Chic Gender Neutral Nursery Decorations
by Melissa Mangold
(Bay Ridge, Brooklyn NY)
Colorful paper lanterns and stars make super cheap nursery wall and ceiling decorations. These look amazing with my red gingham baby bedding!
The tree branch picture hangers give my framed black and white photos a chic yet rustic appearance.
I stretched vintage fabrics in wooden embroidery hoops, painted wooden letters and even an antique door lock and key to make this nursery wall arrangement.
A collection of framed black and white photographs displayed using tree branches and ribbon picture hangers that I made myself!
Our rustic gender neutral nursery decorations, as well as everything else in the baby's room, were inspired by some shabby chic, rose print Rachel Ashwell curtain panels that had been stored in my storage bin since 2002! I bought them waiting for the day that they would be used in my baby's nursery. I knew they would be perfect whether I had a baby girl or boy since the floral design of the fabric also has lots of baby blue.
The curtains are finally in place covering the nursery windows and the extra curtain panels were used to make matching crib sheets. To further neutralize the roses, I added a red gingham check crib skirt and bumper pad by Tadpoles. The contrast of the patterns and colors is amazing and sewing my own fitted crib sheet kept the cost of the entire crib set less than $100.
The paper lanterns that I found at the Pearl River Market on Canal Street in New York City were another inexpensive find. I love to shop at this store since their inventory is so vast and affordable allowing me to get so many pieces in various sizes and colors for added effect without stretching the nursery decorating budget too far. You can see from the pictures that the blue and red really pop with the yellow wall color in the background. What a great color scheme for a boy or a girl!
At this point, everything in the room was bright and colorful so I started to experiment with some rustic nursery decorating ideas. The tree branches I collected from my parents back yard in NJ made perfect accents to for the black and white photos I framed and hung on the wall. The red and white gingham fabric brings a touch of color to the earthy display. I feel that gingham is a great gender neutral fabric so I incorporated it several locations throughout the baby's room.
The embroidery hoops that are part of the eclectic wall arrangement were made with wooden hoops filled with vintage fabric remnants that I found at a tiny fabric store here in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
None of my rustic chic gender neutral nursery decorations were very expensive and they were exactly what I wanted!
