Since we didn’t know the gender, we kept the nursery neutral yet fun and went with a puppy theme!  The best part about our choice to wait on finding out is that we can use all of the items we bought for the next child in the future.
A nursery is not only for the baby but for the parents as well. I wanted a cozy room that I didn’t mind hanging out in at night, and I feel like neutral colors are more relaxing. We went with the puppy-themed because we are dog-obsessed in this house, and hopefully, our son will be too. I LOVE how our room turned out, and I’m constantly hanging out there. I usually bring my loads of laundry in there to fold, I do tummy time with bugs with the sun beaming through the windows, and sometimes I type out emails while he’s asleep in the crib. I love being around him, and the nursery is the coziest spot. 

 
We tried many sample colors and fell in love with Filmy Green by Sherwin Williams. Kyle put up a board and batten in the nursery, the loft, and the hallway leading to the nursery. Our loft is also set up as a kid-friendly zone. We did the play mat, play gym, tv area, and a cozy couch, and we currently have his Snoo set up in there. That way, I can watch T.V. while feeding him in the middle of the night. I still need to get some fun artwork up there, but I’ll get to that eventually. 

Batten Color / Filmy Green by Sherwin Williams

I love the light wood and wicker details throughout the nursery. I thought it looked soft with the filmy green accents. 

Wall Mounted Wood Floating Shelves / Wood Round Mirror / Wicker Light Fixture


This is my favorite spot to sit in the morning with my coffee while feeding bugs. The sun rises in the backyard, so we watch it together before starting our day. 

Embroidered Alphabet Pillow / Swivel Glider with Ottoman in Performance Cream

I found this light wood shelf at Hobby Lobby for organizing all of the books, toys, swaddles, and other miscellaneous items. When Bugs gets to the climbing stage, we will have to attach it to the wall since it is lightweight. 

Dog Basket / Wood Shelf / Fern & Avery Swaddles / Metal Mesh Basket with Wooden Handle / Baby Blocks / Musical Bug Toy / Stacking Circle Rings for Play & Teething / Mushi Muslin Blankets


I love our changing table setup! I have a diaper cart next to the changing table with all the extra diapers, wipes, products, and more. This helps me from having to run to the storage closet to grab an item while Bugs is on the changing table. When I’m changing him, he likes to hold on to the musical toy, making everything go super smooth. Putting a rubber changing mat on top of the changing pad has prevented a lot of laundry cycles. It’s easy to wipe off and portable, so you can take it places if you need to. 

Wipes Dispenser / Changing Pad / Peepee Teepees / Ubbi Changing Mat / Baby Support Pillow / Changing Pad Muslin Cover /

His drawers have remained pretty minimal with clothes that are his size. I’ve already had to store his newborn outfits since he’s outgrown them these past few weeks. I’ve learned not to keep things in the nursery you don’t use, or it’ll become too cluttered. I bought clear bins to store all that stuff the next time around.

Organizing Trays / Muslin Cloths / Rolling Organization Diaper Cart

I ordered the shades from Amazon, and they came in a few weeks! They make them custom, and you also have the option to add a blackout lining. They do a great job with the curtains to black out the room during the day completely. I am going to order more for the loft area and our bedroom.

The toy chest was such an incredible $5 Facebook Marketplace find. We painted it the color of the board and batten. I haven’t put anything in it yet, but I just signed up for the Lovevery subscription and planned to store the items there. He’s a little too young for most of the packages now, but I can’t wait to see him play with everything as the months go on. He’s now starting to grab toys and social smile at us. 

Wood Window Roman Shades (Pattern 9) /Parsonburg Area Rug / Goldendoodle Rocker / White Blackout Curtains / Rattan Mini Accent Lamp Stand / Accent Lamp Shade / Bean Bag Chair


I just had to get the doodle rocker! It looks so cute in the puppy-themed nursery. 

Babyletto Hudson Crib / Wicker & Polka Dot Laundry Basket / Babyletto Changing Table With Topper / Fitted Crib Sheet / Crib Mattress 100% Breathable / Hatch Light & Sound Machine /
I went with the breathable newton mattress for the crib and topped it with the Mushie sheet. I also like the Burts Bees fitted mattress sheets. They were super inexpensive, so I bought several of them. We also purchased the Nanit but have not set it up yet. We will set it up this weekend since we plan on trying to get him to start napping in his crib. 

Lil Spot Doggy Blanket Pad (SO SOFT!) / Goldendoodle Muslin Swaddle / Goldendoodle Woobie Baby / Puppy Hug Warmies / Natural Wood Frames / Dog Prints

It took a while for me to pick out prints for the nursery. I found these adorable puppy prints on Etsy and fell in love! I downloaded them digitally, had them printed on Shutterfly, and framed them with super inexpensive frames from Michaels. I love how they turned out.
I am obsessed with this puppy mobile! 

Puppy Mobile
 
The light fixture and area rug are some of my favorite nursery items. I’ll use them in the guest room once we turn the nursery over to a big boy room. 

Doggy Stuffed Animals | Bashful / Toffee / Fuddlewuddle / Squiggle / Fudge / Barnaby / Huggady / Hudson / Dashing / Otto /

Touch & Feel Dog Books / The Scruffy Puppy

The bathroom is next to the nursery, making everything so convenient. We still have to decorate the kid bathroom, but it’s at least functional now. Putting a bath cart next to the bath has made bath time easy!

Bathtub // Turtle Bath Cushion // Bandana Bibs // Turtle Thermometer// Cart // Hair Brush // Bath Toys // Bath Towels 
 I hang out in the loft most of the day, and it is so cozy there! We will eventually get some kid-themed pillows for the couch that match the play mat, some fun, colorful artwork, window shades, and a few bookshelves in there.

Sectional Couch / Shelf Floor Lamp / DockATot / Curtain Rods / Play Mat / Boppy Pillow / Boppy Pillow Cover / Baby Play Gym / Black & White Activity Pages /Arm Table
I hope you enjoyed this nursery blog! Let me know if you need more links that I may have forgotten! 

Questions for you!

1. What nursery theme did you do (or would you like to do in the future?)
2. Are there any nursery items you cannot live without?

We just got back from a short mountain trip on Wednesday and it’s been raining here ever since. I’ve had a hard time motivating myself when all I’ve wanted to do is lay on the back patio reading and listening to the rain. I let myself do that yesterday, but today, it’s time to get to work.

We have a lot of projects planned for the cooler months. I wanted to share some updated photos of our house and talk about all the projects we plan on doing this fall/winter! I’ll also be covering a lot of questions I get about where items are from in the house. I wanted to put together a post to have all of those questions in one place, and if you have any questions, feel free to drop them in my comment section! Fall is almost here (4 more days) so unfortunately, the grass is dying, trees are turning yellow, and the summer flowers are done blooming. Next week, I’ll be pulling out the Fall decor, putting mums and pumpkins everywhere, and adding a few Halloween decorations. You’ll have to look out for those Fall updates on my home’s Instagram page. (@cottagestory)

This fall, we will be having our brick painting white and our garage door painted black.

Our stair runner is Anderson Tuftex. It’s in the Only Natural Herringbone collection in the color Plaza Taupe. We had a local company (carefree carpets) order, cut, finish, and install the runner.
Another project we have coming up is the interior door painting. We will be painting all of our doors black! We are removing the two mirrors over the console table today and adding a painting we purchased. The painting brings in more blues, greeens, and soft natural tones to the room. I first thought that I would want everything black and white, but I didn’t last long without a pop of color. We will be finishing our music room this winter as well. Those french doors lead into Kyle’s home office for now, but once he’s back at the office full-time, we will be building black floor to ceiling built-in bookshelves, a piano, record player, and lounge chairs. This is going to be for music and reading and I cannot wait! Kyle is a really good piano player, so I can’t wait to get a piano in there. All pillows and throw blankets are from Target. Our couches are Remington Sofas from Arhaus. This little hallway is going to get a big makeover. All of the doors will be painted black and the first door on the left will be removed and turned into built-in shelves on top of a beverage cooler.  We are still working on the guest room, but have thrown a few things in there from our old townhome. We are thinking about doing a shiplap in the room.  We are contemplating on painting the kitchen island.
I have been through so many rugs in here and I think we finally found one that we both like! Kyle also built the black coffee table with a black ink finish, but I think we are going to build the same one again and do a soft sand wood finish. I think with the black fireplace, black t.v., and black 5 ft coffee table, there are just too many black squares going on. 
 All of the lighting in our house is Kichler! I’ve linked up a lot of them and can share any that I missed in the comments.  Our floors are LVP, which is so worth it. They are indestructible with the dogs and so far, there isn’t a scratch!  We are still working on getting drapes for the back windows as well. We don’t want anything that’s going to block out the light. I’m almost finished with my office. I need to roll out the bubbles in the wallpaper, hang a few shelves and pictures, find a computer chair, and add shade for the window. I’ll do an office reveal on the blog once I’m done sharing all the details! We still don’t know what we want to do for the front porch. We are thinking of getting a hanging sing, but we are using our back patio chairs for now! We bought couches for the back porch and it was the best decision yet. The table was taking up too much space out there and we figured we’d use the couches way more.  (painting our patio)I have had so many questions about our garage gym! I will do an entire post dedicated to that after we are finished. I know my bedroom isn’t downstairs, but I made a few updates since the last blog post on my bedroom! 
I hope you all have a great weekend. I have so many blogs to catch up on this weekend, so I’ll be spending my time here! Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions in the comments!

Questions for you!

1. Have you decorated for fall yet?
2. What kind of home posts do you want to see next?
3. Should I paint the loft (movie room) black with a batten or keep it creamy?

My plans for the day are to get this blog post up (if you’re reading, yay I did it!) make some banana bread with the super-ripe bananas in the pantry, mop the floors, and take care of the flowers. They need some severe deadheading and water this afternoon.

My goal for yesterday was to get started with organizing the master bedroom and making it feel a bit cozier. The reason I labeled this blog with “part one” is because it’s nowhere near finished. I’m on the hunt for a new rug; the curtains need to be hung on the other wall, we have to bring up our T.V. console (the one we used in the living room in the other house), find art for above the headboard, I’m going to whitewash the bedframe lightly, and eventually find new end tables. These are the tables I’ll use in the downstairs guest bedroom. We just needed something in the meantime. All of those things will happen over the next few months or maybe a year! That is why I wanted to share an update today instead of waiting that long!
My goal for my bedroom and most of the house is to keep it light and airy. This is the one room in the house that I needed to be cozy, creamy, and inviting. I really felt that “modern cottage” theme while picking out things for this bedroom. I went with a soft blue quilted comforter for the summer months but will change that out for something warmer during fall and winter. Searching for the perfect rug has also been a struggle, but now that stores are opening up here, it may get a bit easier when I decide to go search for one.
I think it’s my dogs that have inspired my colors in the room. I love that ivory and oak theme.

I’m still deciding on the lamps. That is why you’ll see two different lamps throughout these photos. The black ones are the old gold lamps that I painted, and I can’t even remember where I bought the other ones (most likely Home Goods)

The quilted white fluffy pillows and ivory waffle quilt at the foot of the bed is from PiuBelle Premier matelasse coverlet, which can be found on Amazon! I found the pillows at Homegoods, googled the brand, and found the matching quilt online. When your HG opens up in your area, it’s a great place to look for them.

The quilted blanket is from Target!

The striped pillows with tassels are from Elements by Erin Gates. 
The light fixture is from Kichler. This is what I think brings the entire room together. Kichler sent us all the lights for our new home, and I cannot wait until you see each piece. The lights brought so much character to our spaces, and I love designing the room based on the lights. This light is cozy and romantic, which is what I love the bedroom to feel like. 
This is the Taulbee 6 Light Oval Pendant with Weathered Zinc.

We chose very modern lights for the rest of our house, but I wanted this light to be timeless and elegant. It adds the coziest lighting no matter what time of day it is. It is for sure the statement piece this room needed.
I let Kyle hang the curtains because I have a different style of hanging things. I stick a nail in the wall and go with it. He is much better at measuring, searching for studs, and using the proper nails. I’m forbidden from hanging ANYTHING by myself in this house.
The end tables are from Hobby Lobby.

We are going to put them in the downstairs room eventually, but they work in this space for now! They are not wide enough for our master bedroom, and I have my eyes on a set, but I’m waiting on a sale My chair is an old Home Goods find. I’ve had it for so long, and it’s still one of my favorite accent pieces. 
The curtains are DKNY Ivory. I didn’t want blackout because I love sunlight shining through no matter what time of day it is. The rods are black, and wood themed from Umbra. 
Target now has a feature on their website where you can upload your photo and insert their products in your space. I kind of love how these paintings look above the bed! What do you think?
I can’t wait to curl up this evening with a book in my room. I feel so cozy now.

Thank you for stopping by to check out today’s home decor blog post. I’m excited to keep sharing updates on all the transformations throughout the house. And don’t worry, I’ve been filming TONS of things for future youtube videos. Have the best weekend! I’m going to try to hop on here this weekend to blog the stir fry or chicken nugget recipe. Right now, my days are a bit unorganized, so hopping on here when I can have become the new routine—I kind of love the casualness of it.

Questions for you!

1. Send me a link to what you think I should put above my bed!
2. The black lamps or the taupe lamps?
3. How would you describe your bedroom style?