The Nursery Bedding Saga

So, let me explain the whole saga to you. Back when we first got pregnant with Little Boy, we picked out a boy bedding set and a girl bedding set that we loved. They were both from Pottery Barn and both had a common color–sage green. When we found out that our little bambino was a boy, we ordered the boy set and filed away the girl set info (Penelope bedding set) in case we ever had a girl. Knowing that the girl bedding we liked had the same green in it that the boy bedding did, we felt comfortable getting a sage green glider for his room. Ever the practical ones that we are, we also made sure to get his crib sheets, changing pad covers, and curtains in sage green as well so we could reuse them if we ever had a girl. 

Now, fast forward a few years and we find out we are pregnant with a girl! Woot! We scoured all of our bedding choices for her, but came right back to the Penelope bedding we had picked out years ago. My vision for the room was brighter colors and I loved the raspberry pink in the bedding. Considering we had liked this bedding for years, we felt comfortable making the purchase and ordered it with much excitement.

Here’s the picture that made me fall in love with the bedding…

It arrived and we both loved it, but I will admit that I was disappointed in the color difference from online to real life. The pictures show more raspberry/dark pink, but in actuality, the only dark pink in the bedding is a couple birds on the quilt. There’s not a bit of dark pink on the bumper or pillow sham. The pink on those is a medium pink and unfortunately reminded me of Pepto Bismal. Sad. 

This picture is closer to how it looks in real life. It’s a tad more Pepto in person. See how the pink is all the medium and light pinks and none of the dark pink like in the first picture?

We decided it would still work, though, because we could paint the walls a darker pink color and could incorporate the dark pink in the curtains and accessorizes to make the room less Pepto. We ordered the dark pink duvet cover to make into curtains (That’s a post for another day, but let’s just say, my mom rocks!) and brought home a couple paint samples to try out. 

The duvet came in and Mom started to work on the curtains. Guess what? The duvet was not the dark pink shown in the pictures. It was the medium pink color. Sigh. I liked the duvet fabric and love how the curtains are coming along, but was becoming increasingly concerned about how much of the medium pink was in the room. It had quickly become the dominant color.

Here’s a phone picture my mom snapped of the curtain fabric. Definitely medium pink, not raspberry.

In my last effort to squelch the anti-acid attack that was taking over the room, I tried out the paint in the dark pink color and a light pink color. The dark pink was such a great color, but it was too dark and bright to use for the entire room. The light pink won. (They both dried darker than the swatches below.)

The nursery colors had been bugging me, but now I felt sick about it. The room I had envisioned with happy raspberry and medium pinks and greens was now a tidal wave of Pepto Bismal with pastel pink walls. The bedding was not cheap in the least and was our splurge for the room. It is very hard for us to splurge in the first place, but keep a splurge that we’re not 100% about anymore? Nope, can’t do it. I finally came to terms with the fact that the bedding was not working. Back to Pottery Barn it went. Sigh. I truly loved the bedding and am so sad it didn’t work out. 

I went back to the drawing board with the bedding and quickly found the Petite Paisley bedding also from Pottery Barn. It was fun and had the bright, cheery vibe I was going for in her nursery. It also had the same pink from the curtains and the same green from the glider and linens, so I knew it would all still match. After belly-aching over it, we finally decided to pull the trigger and order it. As an added bonus, it was on clearance for half off and we had a $10 off coupon! We bought the bumper and the quilt for a grand total of $90. We had gotten back $225 from the bedding we returned, so we did a happy dance for saving $135! 

Here is the new bedding. Guess what? We love it! It’s bright and cheerful and is not swimming in a sea of Pepto Bismal. Hooray! I also love that it introduces a pretty aqua blue color. Ahhh, now we’re back on track with our vision of a bright and cheerful nursery, not a pastel nursery. So excited!

We will still be accenting the room in birds by painting a branch on the wall and through a special little project I’m cooking up. We love the birds and just couldn’t give them up just because we returned the Penelope bedding! Oh, and we did keep the Penelope crib sheets. They have the birds on them and match the new bedding colors!

Oh, and fun fact, we had also picked out Little Girl’s name back when we were pregnant the first time. We still loved it this time even after revisiting a bunch of other names and first/middle name combos, so went with it. Thankfully, I haven’t changed my mind on that one! Haha!

Now, if you’re still reading and haven’t fallen asleep trying to get through this crazy long post, go get a cookie. You deserve it! 😉