Blue and Brown Nursery Ideas

by Jan

We began planning Owen’s nursery with two very different ideas. My husband wanted a blue and brown color scheme, while I had my heart set on a room filled with sweet baby animals and jungle safari details.

Neither of us wanted to give up our favorite part of the plan, so we decided to combine them. The result was a warm blue and brown jungle nursery that gave my husband the classic colors he preferred and gave me the playful wild-animal theme I wanted.

This room is one example of how a strong color palette can bring very different decorating ideas together. More combinations can be found among these baby color schemes, while the baby nursery themes collection has additional ideas for creating a coordinated room.

Blue and Brown Nursery Ideas with a Jungle Theme

Baby animals were the part of the room that mattered most to me. I wanted Owen’s nursery to feel cheerful and imaginative without losing the rich blue and brown colors that my husband liked.

Instead of choosing a traditional green jungle palette, we used blue as the main color and brought in warm shades of chocolate brown through the fabrics, furniture and animal-print accents. The combination made the nursery feel comfortable and welcoming while still being clearly designed for a little boy.

Parents looking for additional decorating combinations may also find inspiration in these baby boy nursery themes. A darker version of this palette could be created using ideas from the navy blue nursery ideas collection.

After many conversations, it became clear that neither of us was going to give in completely. Fortunately, our compromise worked better than either of the original plans. The blue and brown colors gave the room a coordinated foundation, while the giraffe and leopard details added the personality and charm that I had imagined.

The beautiful blue and brown crib bedding was handmade with love by Owen’s Mimi. She also made the wild-animal window treatments, which combine leopard print with brown checked fabric. That unexpected mixture of prints became one of my favorite features in the room.







Mimi continued the theme by making a matching leopard-print diaper stacker and covering the lampshade with giraffe-print fabric. Repeating the animal patterns in several parts of the room helped the jungle theme feel intentional rather than added as an afterthought.

The solid blue and brown fabrics also kept the animal prints from becoming overwhelming. This balance allowed us to mix checks, leopard spots, giraffe markings and other patterns without making the nursery feel too busy.

Mimi is an experienced quilter who temporarily set aside her quilt projects to create a one-of-a-kind room for her grandson. Her quilting background explains the unusual but successful combination of colors, prints and textures throughout the nursery.

Quilters are skilled at bringing many different fabrics together to create practical works of art. She used that same approach in Owen’s room, carefully repeating colors and patterns so that every handmade piece looked like part of the same collection.



In the end, the disagreement that made decorating difficult at first led to a nursery that was more personal than a completely coordinated store-bought room would have been. Owen received a room filled with handmade pieces from his Mimi, my husband got his blue and brown nursery, and I got the adorable jungle animals I had wanted from the beginning.