YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE NURSERY
There’s nothing sweeter than a nursery designed around your favorite nursery rhymes and lullabies! My mom used to always sing “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…” to me before bed and it inspired me to create this bright and sunny collection of nursery room decor items. This yellow and gray palette is perfect for a gender neutral nursery. And with such a neutral base, you can easily swap out inexpensive decor items when you want to change the palette or as your kid grows up.
HOW TO GET THIS LOOK
Neutral Furniture
To get this modern nursery vibe, start with neutral bases for your furniture sets. I personally love this white crib from Crate & Barrel Kids. It’s ultra modern and sleek, but provides enough white paneling to bounce lots of light around the room and fill the space with sunshine. The Milo glider and swivel chair in gray is the perfect base for this sleek look (and it doesn’t hurt that it happens to be named after my dog!). And if you’re looking for great cribs for twins, check out mamawonder.com.
Pops of yellow!
The fun part of this room is the sunny yellow pops of color! Now, I say pops of color because you definitely don’t want to go over board. And it’s so easy to do when you’re walking around the store because the options are endless! But yellow is actually a very hard color to match so in order to ensure you’re in the right color family, carry a swatch around with you when you shop. Yellows can range from golden rod (more orange) to sunshine (more bright and white) to butter cream (light and white, almost pastel). So once you find the look you’re going for, stick to it. I recommend sunshine yellow for this particular look. And to help you out, I’ve curated some of my favorite accent pieces here.
When used sparingly, I a nice big pop of yellow can work quite well. Limit yourself to one big pop for the entire room because your small accents will tie everything else together. I personally love this yellow braided pouf. Not only does it add a nice pop of sunshine yellow, but it also brings a lovely texture to the room which will draw the eye and add visual interest.
If you’re not quite ready for a pouf, then your next best bet is a super simple yellow throw. Tossed over the back of your rocking chair, the yellow throw is a simple addition that can really bring the room together. Again, finding one with a great texture like this triangle knit baby blanket from Pottery Barn Kids will really add some nice sunshine to the room.
If you don’t already have your bookshelves planned out, then this yellow giraffe bookshelf will totally knock your socks off. Not only is it just super adorable, but it’s very functional and at a height your kids can reach as they grow up and want to choose bedtime stories for themselves.
Small accents
Okay, so now that you’ve nailed the big ticket items, it’s time to decorate with small accents. Remember, the majority of the room should be grey and white, so don’t get carried away with accents. But choose the ones that are most special or meaningful to you. I have a few of my personal favorites here to help you out.
If you love the You Are My Sunshine theme like I do, then you’ll definitely want to grab a sun and clouds baby mobile. I love shopping small businesses and I found this beautiful hand-crafted sunshine mobile on Etsy.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to go overboard on the sunshine, you can also accent with hand-painted wooden letters to spell out your child’s name. You can either hang these on the wall as a sign, or they look great just sitting on a bookshelf. Or you can simply purchase your baby’s initials and use them as bookends between children books. Using the baby’s name is a great way to personalize the room, but if you haven’t picked out a name just yet, you can also accent with a brightly colored stuffed animal. There are lots of options for suns and clouds, but I personally love the texture of the corduroy Jellycat lion.
ART
Now you have lots of options for decorating your walls with art! If you’re feeling adventurous and down for DIY, then I absolutely love the look of large chevron patterns painted in white on gray walls. It’s such a classic look and work great for a simple accent wall. If you’re not sure you want to commit to that, then check out these adorable new prints that I recently added to the GoodnightFox collection. This You Are My Sunshine series comes in sets of 3, 4, and 6 prints and can be done in various sizes. You can also add a custom print with your child’s name to add that little touch of personalization.
If you’re feeling extra adventurous, you can also try incorporating orange accents throughout. But remember not to go overboard! A few small pops of color go a long way toward pulling the room together while still achieving the modern and sleek gray and white nursery look.
SHOPPING LIST
So here you have the full shopping list for everything mentioned above! This nursery is sure to leave you feeling sunny and bright.
For some great free nursery printables check out Mommy to Mom’s post.