Dave and I have been absolutely blessed when it comes to children and we are so grateful. We are fortunate to have 2 healthy boys and a beautiful baby girl, in that order. Prior to getting pregnant with our first son, Bowen, Dave and I had the opportunity to visit Africa and we went on a week long safari. A few months after we returned, I found out I was pregnant with Bowen and I knew I wanted a safari baby nursery as we had seen so many momma and baby animals on our trip. At the time we were living in a rental house but everything we picked out for Bowen's nursery, transitioned just fine to Walker's nursery in our current home.
In both homes, the rooms were/are relatively small so we needed to come up with some small baby nursery ideas. We knew we would need the basics, a crib, dresser, rocking chair and lots of storage options for all the little things. We chose a small, very simple grey crib so that it didn't dominate the space as I knew I wanted a large, comfy rocker.
For a dresser, we found this one at a second hand shop for $40 and Dave sanded, primed and painted it grey and white to fit our color scheme. This particular dresser was a great find as it has 5 small drawers across the top which are the perfect size for baby socks, hair bows, burp clothes, etc. Babies come with all these little pieces!
For the boys' nurseries, I wanted a turquoise, grey and white theme. We chose sort of a muddy, light turquoise as it is appropriate for a baby, soothing, and cheery all at the same time.
There was a very short time where I was considering naming our first son Hunter so I was inspired to put in mock-up taxidermy safari animals heads in the nursery. Kindly, my mother in law who is so skilled in anything sewing or creative (thanks Mary Beth!), transformed this plush stuffed animal heads pattern into the perfect animal mounts for our nursery, an elephant, giraffe, and zebra. She chose a soft, white flannel material with a grey and turquoise check pattern.
My sister Jackie is an incredible artist and kindly gave us water color prints for each of our babies. For Bowen, she gave us a momma and baby giraffe which we hung above our plush gliding rocker.
I have spent so many hours in this glider between the feedings, rocking babies to sleep and reading to young children, a side table was essential. I ended up taking a very old wine box that was in our family for years and turning it on it's side. This worked out great because the height was perfect for a side table and then the opening was a perfect storage spot for additional books. At the time I was even able to find a very small lamp that had a rhino base from Cost Plus World Market which was perfect for our safari themed nursery.
When we found out we were going to be again blessed with a little baby girl, I was pleasantly surprised that everything we had picked out for our boys turned out to be gender convertible to a little girl nursery with literally a simple coat of paint. We painted the walls Summer Night from Valspar which is a super feminine but yet once again, very soothing pink. With just a coat of paint, we had converted our baby boy safari nursery to a baby girl safari nursery. Even the art work and the animal mounts made sense!
Just a few final touches for both the nurseries. Of course you will want access to tons of books to stimulate your baby and put them to bed when necessary. Dave built me these book rails that have been so much fun over the years. When our babies turned into toddlers, they just absolutely loved walking up to the book rails and picking their bedtime stories. You'll also notice in this picture a metal bin that is lined with canvas that my sister in law (thanks Becky!) had given me at my baby shower. This felt like a perfect addition to our safari themed nursery as when we were in Africa, we slept in canvas tents...perfectly on theme!
After that we just peppered the space with storage bins to wrangle in all the tiny things that come along with baby. For the boys we had elephant printed grey and white bins and for Ayla we found several pink, polka-dot bins at Homegoods.
By our third child, we also abandoned our traditional nursery monitor and upgraded to a series of Wyze cameras throughout the house. These little cameras show you unbelievable images (like you can zoom in and see your baby's chest moving up and down), have night vision, and are relatively less expensive compared to traditional monitors. I know several monitors do connect to your phone, but the one we had registered for when we were having Bowen did not so this was another added bonus for me with the Wyze cameras. I always have my phone on me so I didn't have to carry around the monitor anymore when the kids were napping.
In short, our safari baby nursery transitioned seamlessly from a boy nursery to a girl nursery with essentially a coat of paint. This may be a creative alternative to a gender neutral nursery if you're willing to paint the walls again. Do you have any other clever ideas for a small baby nursery, a safari baby nursery, or how to easily convert a nursery? These are the sweetest things in life :).
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