Jungle Safari Nursery Idea

by Liz and Jen Matson
(College Park, MD)

This Jungle Safari Nursery Idea was most definitely a labor of love! We purchased a small fixer-upper a few years ago, and have basically gutted every room in the house. We originally slapped up some paint to make this room a livable guest room, but with our first baby on the way, we decided to go all out to convert this small-ish room into a fun place for our son to live and grow.

It took about four months from start to finish, with a significant amount of time spent on repairs and carpentry. I had to put up some drywall to repair the previous owner's "home addition gone badly", as well as patch several holes in the closet. I also put up new baseboards, wainscoting, and a chair rail from a kit from Home Depot. This meant 2 different kinds of power saws and a variety of other power tools, but once that was finished, the fun decorating began.

The bedding is Alphabet Soup by Cocalo, which we chose before we knew the sex of the baby. It is a fun print with bright colors, and the quilt has several fun textures.

We chose Behr's Disney paint colors (Silly Old Blue Birds and Christopher Robin's Swing) from Home Depot to match the blue and the green in the print.

The quilt in the Alphabet Soup pattern has a giraffe, elephant, and zebra. We wanted to run with the safari theme, but not overload with matchy-matchy items in the set, so we put up animal wall hangings from Zoo-Wallogy on the dresser wall.

We also have the elephant, giraffe, and palm tree prints. I love that the mama giraffe and the baby giraffe are in the corner by the crib and can be our son's imaginary play friends.