{Nursery} Pink & Green Apples: Part 1 The Inspiration

I'm so excited to finally share the nursery I've been working on for the past several months!

Today's post is to give a little background and share some details about my inspiration.  

 

A few years ago we bought a black trundle bed for the 2nd bedroom to act as a guest bed.  With real estate being so expensive in the area where we live, the guest bed will have to stay in the nursery. So all the nursery furniture needed to coordinate with the black bed.

So the goals for the nursery were: 

1.  Furniture and colors coordinate with the black trundle bed. 

2.  Incorporates a subtle green apple theme. I say subtle because I wanted to incorporate apples, but I didn't want any of the over-the-top apple fabrics that I'd seen.  (There were lots of cute ones, but they were all just too much for anything bigger than a dish towel. And I originally (and mistakenly) thought I was having a boy, and didn't want it to be too girly.)

3.  No traditional bedding sets.  Besides the fact that I've never seen an apple one that I liked, I knew I wanted to do something a little more original and crafty.
4.  Create storage space! I'll say it again: our house is not big. Therefore I needed to create places to store the many items a baby causes you to accumulate.  

5.  Stick to a budget!   I wanted to DIY what I could, look for furniture on the cheap, etc. 

I'd perused a few of my favorite nursery sites for inspiration when I was starting the process. 

In case you are wondering, my favorites are: 

Project Nursery

Lay Baby Lay

Nested

Chic & Cheap Nursery
Spearmint Baby

I was very inspired by this photo:

via Project Nursery

I loved the bold colors, patterned curtains, and the adorable Jonathan Adler lemon pillow reminded me of an apple. 

The day after we found out we were having a girl, I was browsing at JoAnn's fabrics and stumbled upon 2 fabrics that I fell in love with. I wasn't even sure what colors I wanted to use at that point, and was leaning toward some turquoise after the above picture caught my eye. But when I saw these fabrics, I knew this was it.  And they were on sale for 50% off for one more day, so I had no time to second guess my decision!  (Of course, if you remember the posts about my wedding & reception, you'll know that I tend to be drawn to these colors. I just can't get away from them!)

(This is the picture I took on my phone to send to a few girlfriends with a "Should I do it?" text.)

I was a little nervous because it was upholstery fabric (which I have never worked with before, completely novice seamstress that I am), and it had to be custom ordered and was therefore final sale.

But I was lured in by the 50% sale and committed right then and there!

And then the work began... (to be continued)