Decorating ideas (first of many to come I'm sure!)

The hardest part about not finding out the baby's sex ahead of time will be decorating the nursery. I've decided that I definitely want the nursery to look gender specific so what I'm planning on doing is painting the walls a green color similar to what's shown below. I'll wait on buying bedding and accessories until the baby is born. Some other features that I like about the picture below are the dresser (how it looks like a normal piece of furniture and not something baby specific) and the round mirror.

In addition to painting the walls green, I would like to add a plate rack style moulding about 2/3rds of the way up the wall and paint a stripe pattern similar to what's shown below. I'll incorporate the green color in the stripes, but again, I'll wait until the baby is born to determine what other colors will be included in the stripes - pinks and oranges for a girl and blues and turquoises for a boy.

For a girl, this is one (of probably many to come) of the baby bedding ensembles that I like. I definitely will be going with solids, stripes, dots, or other geometric patterns as opposed to a character theme (like Disney, etc.).

An option for a boy...

And this is the crib style that I will be going with. I never thought I would have a preference on cribs, but here is what I like about this style: The front is the same height as the back (meaning that it doesn't convert to a full size bed like some cribs do that have the higher headboard and lower footboard styling) and the sides are the same height and don't flare out like a sleigh bed. I like the clean lines of this crib. I think we'll be going with a white crib, although I would love to get my hands on a "distressed" or "antique" white crib if I can find one.

As far as a changing table goes, I purchased a dresser for $15 that is in desparate need of refinishing! I'd love to pull out a color from the bedding and paint it to coordinate. Again, I like the idea of using "everyday" furniture as opposed to baby specific furniture so I'll just be using one of those countoured changing pads on top of the dresser as opposed to buying a changing table.