Category Archives: nursery

Gender Gab and Nursery Notes

February 1, 2015

We find out the gender on Tuesday, February 3 and I can hardly wait! I love knowing the gender and planning more specifically. And I just love to know what the heck is swimming around in my stomach!

I am secretly hoping for a girl – growing up with sisters makes me really want a sister for Ivy. Plus, I mean, look at all the ADORABLE girl stuff! So easy to shop for!!! (Not always a plus… :/) On the other hand, I definitely want a boy at some point too! John always talks about Ivy coming to work with him (he owns John Koch Construction) when she’s older, and well, let’s face it, a boy would probably have more fun on the construction job with him than a girl. (BUT! Maybe not!) Sooo, I guess either one. However, it sure would be nice to reuse all those girly items I have for Ivy :)

Finally starting to look at nurseries! Lay Baby Lay and The Little Umbrella are my two go-to websites for inspiration and planning. Project Nursery and Project Bambino are other ones that have a ton of nursery ideas.

Here are some of my favorite nursery inspirations ideas for girls and boys

(A million links, sorry!!! I had a hard time narrowing it down… obvs)

Girls

For girls, I’m always so drawn to coral, pinks, golds, and mints, just like this girl nursery from Land of Nod and this inspiration board from Project Bambino . But that’s practically what I did for Ivy (see her nursery here), so I’m trying to extend my likes.

For this nursery, I’m all about the eclectic look because I’m not really a theme-type person nor have the talent to coordinate that much. My FAVORITE nursery is new little baby Juniper’s room, her mama is Amy, owner of Little Hip Squeaks, an adorable clothing boutique. I am absolutely obsessed with the colors she picked out and that bright mint wall! So much fun. Everything is different, but all mixes so well, eclectic. LOVE. And that crib! MUST GET THAT. I love the lagoon color she picked out for the crib. So cool.

Another eclectic fave is in this month’s Pregnancy and Newborn magazine (which, if you don’t receive, I highly suggest getting the subscription! I love it! Fun reading each month). It’s called free spirit, and brings out the inner hippy in me. The flower cribs sheets are too adorable!

Pinks are always my top fave for a girl, and I’m really loving this pink lemonade inspiration board. The pops of yellow are fun and I have eyed Candy Kirby Designs sheets in the board for a long time, especially this ikat watercolor one. And that girly type alphabet poster?! SWOON. Look how much fun it is to be a girl!!

More on pink – Joy Cho of Oh Joy is a woman of so many talents and when she paired up with Land of Nod it was to die for. Loving this inspiration board and all of the fun bright colors! Another one featuring Land of Nod is this bundle of joy board with that super rad ombre striped rug.

Purple is my second favorite color for a girl. I love how it’s more edgy and hippy and bold. The purples and greens mixture in this nursery inspiration board are a perfect match. Might have to go this route. I really love purple.

Also, one of the new trends for 2015 is adding wood/rustic to the nursery. The wood dresser and wood crib is super cool in this little darling nursery design.

Colored cribs are another of my favorite nursery ideas right now. Check out this black one in the flower power nursery design! Black in a nursery, EEEEK, but it sure looks good on this inspiration board with some added pops of flowers and colors. Kinda really loving this.

Also, I sort of am getting obsessed with wallpaper. There are so many gorgeous ones out there! I would love to do maybe just one wall in the nursery. This watercolor peony wallpaper is so beautiful from Anthropologie. And this rosa yellow wallpaper and this red peony wallpaper from Rifle Paper Co make me want summer time and pretty flowers.

Or you could do the fake wallpaper/wall decals route. Especially like this one! So cool with the big coral triangles on the wall then all the other different patterns through the room. LOVING this room! And the name Sienna :)

Boys

I think of boy and I think outdoorsy and bringing nature indoors. I’m loving all of the woodland themes and nurseries out there lately! This one is so cute, love the Anthropologie wallpaper, the real wood rocker, and those shelves. This inspiration board is woodland white and so cool. Love the lamps and and the feather art prints. And John would be quite happy with my if I included some arrows like that. He has some fascination with Native American Art. You should see our cabin. ALL OVER.

Better yet, eclectic woodland, there we go. The wood art prints are perfect.

Whispering Pines has it going on. The fox reclaimed wood painting is calling my name as well as the gold bars rug from Land of Nod.

Loving this baby bear inspiration board from Pregnancy and Newborn magazine. The galvanized metal lamp, wood felt bear head, and woodland animal mobile brings a little cabin to the nursery. This rustic animal lodge feel is pretty cool. And I think I’ll always be in love with rustic.

And the last outdoorsy/woodsy one I’m eyeing is Woodland Wonder. John also has a fascination with vintage signs and this hunting sign would be perfect. We would also have to have a deer antler mount like in that inspiration board! We have a few of those :) That bear hug art print and the r is for racoon art print are so adorable.

Even maybe a DIY wood pallet wall?! Or even this wallpaper for a boys room – I likey like.

Also I love just a natural and light feeling to a boys nursery. This one is so delightful. The dresser looks so great in the room. In the comments she wrote she got it from Ikea, SCORE! I have the similar one to that in white for Ivy’s room and it is so perfect. Overall the natural and light is so dreamy.

Obsessed with this dream above the clouds nursery board. The yellow and neutral tones of gray and blue are meshing together just right to give it a natural and light feel in the room. And those wall tiles, OH YA.

See more of my inspiration on my baby girl’s nursery board and boy’s nursery board on Pinterest

Argh. So many choices! I can’t wait to find out the gender then I can narrow down my vision. TUESDAY! WOO HOO!!! I’ll let you know soon!

Until then, I’m reminiscing about when we found out Ivy’s gender… I still adore this picture with our doggy. HOW PERFECT WAS THAT DOGGY SMOOCH?!

On another note – SUPERBOWL!! I can’t wait! I wish my Peyton Manning was in it :( But, Tom Brady is a close second for me and not too shabby on the eyes ;) Most of all, I am so anxious for Katy Perry’s halftime show! I love her and always enjoy her rambunctious stage shows! We are just having a few people over and I’m making italian beef sandwiches, buffalo chicken dip (my sister’s recipe), mexican layer dip, and deviled eggs, of course! I just noticed three of these recipes are from The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond, I am sort of obsessed with all of her recipes and her blog. She’s quite witty and her food is A M A Z I N G.

Off to start the food! Have a great Superbowl Sunday!!! WOO HOO!

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7 months

May 1, 2014

Baby girl is 7 months today! May 1st, May Day, fiiiiinally getting closer to summer! And, I have 10 days left of work until summer break! I can’t WAIT to spend more time with my little lovebug. Betsy is soaking up her last few days. But we will have a lot of time at Lake Madison together this summer! Ivy is surely going to love the water being a Koch.

This month, Ivy is getting closer and closer to crawling. She’s bending all the way over, occasionally completing a nose dive to the ground, but, nonetheless, closer to crawling. She is babbling all the time and I hear that her first words are most likely “dada?!” WHAT. I’ll definitely be jealous about that one, buuut it’ll be just as sweet hearing her love on her daddy :)

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Nursery

January 25, 2014

Now that we are into our new house, I finally got to do her nursery. This is a big deal. This is the room that Ivy and I are going to spend HOURS in. I wanted it to be something, hip, fun, and cheery. Something that I enjoyed as well, not too childish. Here it is… Ivy’s room

Description: This nursery gives off a hip, cheery, and fun vibe! I used pink and mint as my color choices and found anything that used those colors to make my little Ivy’s nursery come alive and become a place her and I could enjoy together.

In the crib corner, I created an art print wall with modern white frames. I loved prints with creative sayings and fun pictures!

The crib is a cute white Jenny Lind crib with spindles. I followed that theme and added a mint spindle night stand and a hot pink spindle lamp.

I also used my DIY skills and made a ribbon garland for an empty corner where the dresser is. I transformed my dresser into my changing table and hung some little mobile birdies with cute fabric prints above. I found an adorable mint changing pad cover to add a delicate color to it.

For the recliner and reading corner, the room has some serious high ceilings so I bought a tall bookcase to break up the room. I have a comfy chair from Pottery Barn with a knit blanket on the back. I used canvas prints from Ivy’s newborn photos and my maternity photos as a backdrop.

Lastly, the room is pretty big, so I knew I needed a little bit of color. I wanted it to be calm with a bit of pop. I added a pink accent wall and used a grayish color on the rest of the walls. I just LOVE the accent wall! It’s so much fun!

Design Inspiration: When I began envisioning my baby girl’s nursery, I knew I wanted something hip and fun. Something that my baby and I could enjoy, even as she grew older, and as I spent time in there, hour upon hour, day after day. I used inspiration from different blogs that I just loved to see what they put together and what other moms were doing for their nurseries. I remember the first thing I bought was the knit blanket and her crib sheet. I decided those were the colors I loved, and I was going with it! From there, I chose the pink and mint to be my main colors, but I wanted to keep with the hip vibe the blanket and crib gave. I wanted this to be something my baby and I could enjoy together. The best thing is, this nursery is cute for babies, and will be even more lovable and fun when she is a toddler!

Decorating Style: Hip, fun, cheery, trendy. Full of colors and spunk.

Project Details:

Art Prints: Lucy Darling Shop, Rifle Paper Company, The Painted Arrow and Field Trip on Etsy

Bunny Ears and Deer Print – Specifically Made for Me by Christy Steen at Steen Studio

Crib Sheet and Knit Birdie Blanket – Oh Baby!

Birdie Mobile – Elevated Scraps on Etsy

IVY Letters – Land of Nod, then DIY Yarn Wrapped by Myself

Crib – Jenny Lind Crib

Storage Baskets, Lamp, Crib Skirt, Pink Garland – Land of Nod

Curtains and Night Stand – Urban Outfitters

Changing Pad Cover and Boppy Pillow Cover – Ivie Baby

White Frames, Basket on Changing Table – Target

Book Stand, Dresser – IKEA

Ribbon Garland – DIY

Deer – Zing

Rocker – Pottery Barn

Sheep Skin – Gift from a Friend in Montana

Diaper Pail – Ubbi

Paint Colors – Pink – Amaryllis, by Sherwin Williams, Gray – Sweet Innocence, by Benjamin Moore

Favorite Items: My art prints! I just LOVE my art print wall! The prints are so much fun and are ones that I specially picked out for my baby. It will be fun to add to it throughout the years.

Advice: My nursery was just sort of plain before I added my pink accent wall. I sat in there just staring at all of the gray, thinking of what else I could buy to fill it up and add more color. Well then I realized I just needed to change the whole wall! Instead of buying all sorts of shelves and other filler items, the pink added the perfect touch to the room. It made it so much better! And it was much cheaper than buying all sorts of new things to add to fill up the space. Don’t be afraid to go bold! The pink was nice and balanced with the other light gray walls, so it isn’t overwhelming.

Also – find things YOU love too! Sure it’s your baby’s nursery, but you have to spend HOURS in there too :)

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