Remember when I used an outfit of mine to inspire our powder room makeover (which will still haven’t finished)? Well it happened again, sort of, this time with the nursery!

I guess I should explain a little of what I’ve been thinking for the nursery first. I haven’t really had a chance to put my thoughts here on the ol’ blog, so here it goes. First, Mike and I will be finding out the gender of our baby next week. Second, we are not telling a soul. Many people have asked me what this means for the nursery, assuming that when we paint the room, everyone is going to figure out the gender. Come on guys, did you think we’d be that easy to crack? 🙂

When we say we’re not planning on painting the walls a gender specific color, everyone assumes we’re going with a yellow ducky, green frog or brown bear themed room (not that there is anything wrong with any of those). But, what we plan to do is paint the walls a neutral gray/taupe/greige (TBD), add some tall board and batten paneling around the entire room and keep all of the same furniture regardless of whether the baby is a she or a he.

Molding Inspiration via Decor Chick

We figure that is going to take us quite a bit of time, so everyone will be filled in with those updates as they happen (we also have some plans for stenciling the ceiling, yaaay!) Most of our gender specific elements will come in the form of textiles: The curtains, area rug, sheets, changing pad cover, etc. Those are all things we can buy/make in advance and add at the very last minute. So no, no one will be finding out the gender before our baby arrives 🙂

I will go into more detail with what we want to do furniture, bedding, area rug and curtain-wise another day, but for now, I just wanted to share my general inspiration. Which goes back to how I started this post, which is with fashion!

I’ve been on the lookout for a Kate Spade baby bag. Read: I love Kate Spade. I’ve scoped out the outlet and I’ve been stalking the store and the website for sample sales. In the process, I’ve noticed and fallen in love with her latest color campaign, this fabulous multi-colored stripe.

Lately I’ve been loving all sorts of bright and fun things on Pinterest so when I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted bright colors. I wanted bold pinks and purples, or blues and greens. I had just never seen a bunch of bold colors together that was done well that sort of hit the nail on the head for me. And then Kate saved me.

iPhone 4 cases, $35 each

Flying Colors Idiom Bangle, $58

Live Colorfully Medium Heddy, $70

Live Colorfully Gift Set, $30

There are so many great colors to pull out of all of these designs. The general plan is to use two gender neutral-ish colors, maybe teal and yellow? Maybe orange and teal? Then throw in some gender specific ones like pink and purple or blue and green to complete my bright and classy nursery. I hope to find a lot of great fabrics in different prints to bring in a lot of fun elements to the room. After all, it is for a child.

So yes, our boring neutral walls, combined with a playful, bold color scheme of accents, I promise will not be boring for our baby.

Yes that’s me there smiling, complete with disturbingly creepy smile. Drawing in Photoshop (which I am still a rookie at), with laptop touch pad is not the easiest. But it’s comical…

Of course, as with any home improvement project, it’s going to be a process that won’t be completed in a day. And sorry, we won’t be sharing the final reveal here until after the baby is born, but I think we have plenty of fun projects up our sleeves to keep you entertained for the next 4 months 🙂

All item images, as well as stripey images via Kate Spade

Ps- I announced the winner of the Black & Decker Rapid Roller giveaway! Check the post for an update!

Mike and I made a last minute decision to host Easter yesterday. We literally did all of our grocery shopping at 8:00 on Saturday night and were flying by the seat of our pants up until our families arrived, going with the no plan plan. I’m not a big holiday/seasonal decorator, with the exception of Christmas and a little Thanksgiving, so there was not much to do to get ready. I wanted to dye eggs but we just didn’t have the time to this year. So when I spotted some pretty colored hydrangeas at the grocery store I just couldn’t resist!

I placed them in some Kate Spade Larabee Dot vases we received as a wedding gift.

I’ve been itching to use these, but thanks to my highly allergic husband and flower eating cats, there aren’t many flowers we can pull off in here. Luckily, the cats didn’t even notice that I put the flowers on the buffet in the dining room.

I mixed in my icy blue pillar holders to get another pastel color mixed in and called it a day.

It took very little thought, but that purple hydrangea stem in that rose bowl has been making me smile ever since 🙂

Now if Macky would just fail to notice if I slipped it on the island or eat-in table…