How To Create A Modern, Gender Neutral Nursery That Doesn't Skimp On Style

We are so excited to welcome our third sweet baby to our family. Today, I’m sharing our design plans for our modern, gender neutral nursery.

Everyone thought I was crazy when I told them that we were waiting until birth to find out the gender of our third baby. How can you prepare if you don’t know the sex? What are you going to do about clothes? Are you waiting to decorate the nursery? How will people buy you gifts?

So many questions. But to be honest, waiting until birth to find out the gender was such a fun experience. I mean how many times do you have the ability to actually be surprised in life? I’m not sure if it was easier since I already have a girl and a boy, but I would do it again for sure.

Gender Neutral Nursery Design Plan

Decorating the nursery has been my favorite part of this experience. Back in October, we moved into our new house, which luckily included an empty fifth bedroom. It was so exciting designing this space for a girl or a boy, which was easy for me because I naturally love all things neutral. Even if I knew the gender, I’m sure the decor would have been similar.

Design tip: Instead of adding pops of color, utilize texture such as wallpaper to add character and a bit of personality.

I absolutely love the way the nursery turned out. It was a labor of love for sure especially since I thought it was a good idea to hang the wallpaper myself while being eight months pregnant. The result is cozy, yet minimal, modern, and clean. It has a slightly bohemian vibe, but not in a way that is too trendy and I’ll need to redecorate in a few years. I literally smile every time I walk into the nursery. It’s currently my favorite room in the house. It’s also the only room that’s fully decorated, but I digress.

Keep reading to see how it all came together…

Shop the Gender Neutral Nursery Design Board

Working on this nursery was therapy for me, and it helped me connect further with Baby J and made the experience that much more real. Let’s explore the details.

The Wallpaper

The statement of the nursery is definitely the wallpaper. I searched high and low to find a wallpaper that I loved, but that also didn’t cost a fortune. I ended up stumbling across this print one day in Target and fell in love. It took a little less than four rolls and a couple of hours to complete. This wallpaper is peel-and-stick, so it was so easy to apply. I even did it at eight months pregnant — I do not recommend it.

PRODUCTS FEATURED: crib | rug | mattress | wallpaper

The Crib

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to do a gender neutral nursery since we were waiting until birth to find out the baby’s sex. Because I was doing neutral, I didn’t want to go with a sad beige theme, IYKYK. So I decided to do white and natural wood with pops of greenery throughout.

This Delta Children Essex 4-in-1 convertible crib was the perfect merge between the two and it’s very affordable in comparison to some others that I had my eye on. For now, I went with basic white fitted sheets, but I’m sure I’ll eventually add a few others to our collection.

The Dresser/Changing Table

Instead of going with a dresser and a changing table, I decided to choose a dresser and use the top as a changing station with the Keekaroo Peanut Changer. This is the Delta Children Essex dresser, and it is a bit smaller than I would have liked, but it gets the job done. I hate that there’s no space for any decor on top, but I did opt to use the top drawer for diapers and wipes and added a Diaper Genie and clothes hamper on either side.

The Window Treatment

I struggled with deciding what window treatments to go with. Again, strolling down the aisle in Target, I spotted this faux wooden rod and I thought the details on the balls complimented the wallpaper nicely. The nursery is right at the front of the house and it gets a lot of natural sunlight so I went with these blackout chambray curtains.

PRODUCTS FEATURED: sign | bookshelves | stuffed animals | books

The Bookshelf

We are a huge book family. When I was pregnant with Jade, we asked for books instead of cards at our baby shower. As you can imagine, we were gifted with a ton of baby books that were first passed down to Jaxon and now we get to share them with Baby J as well. I love the look of acrylic bookshelves and the ones that we currently have from IKEA were no longer available so I opted for these acrylic bookshelves from Amazon. They are a little shorter than I would like, but they work for the baby’s room. The “Once Upon a Time…” sign is an Etsy find. It shipped fast and was so easy to hang.

The Rug

I found this rug while browsing Amazon. It had pretty good reviews, so I took a chance and ordered it. As soon as I unboxed it, I fell in love. It’s so soft, durable, and well-made. It fits perfectly in this space.

Accents, Decor, & More

To keep the space minimal, I didn’t want to add too much decor or accent pieces to the room. Eventually, Baby J will go from a newborn to toddlerhood and I don’t want to have to make too many adjustments to make it toddler friendly.

The swivel rocker is also from Delta Children, and I found the ottoman at TJ Maxx (sorry no link). The lamp is from Target and the side table was another Amazon find. I absolutely had to get a Hatch sound machine for Baby J after much success with it with Jaxon. This is probably my number one baby essential.

Originally, I wanted a faux fig tree, but I couldn’t find one that I loved and that was within our budget, so I opted for the olive tree from Amazon. I think I like the way it looks better. I placed it inside this wicker basket from IKEA to add a little more texture to the space.

There are so many more ways I can personalize this space as Baby J gets older, but if we choose to leave it as is, I’ll be just as happy. You’ll notice that I didn’t include any images of the closet. I plan to make a separate post on how I organized the closet. Right now, everything is sort of stuffed in there so it’s out of the way. Stay tuned.

So what do you think? Do you love the nursery as much as I do?