It makes me so freaking happy that you guys liked the Moodboard Files idea!  Hooray for us!  I really love practicing making these imaginary rooms.  It all stemmed from the Chicago trip where I was challenged to make a moodboard.  In that moment I felt so inept.  But PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT! (or at least better than before! ha!)  I feel like that practice is helping me understand a little more about room development when it comes to mixing and matching decor elements.  Last week, I asked if anyone had a room that they needed some suggestions for and I loved all the feedback.  This week we are tackling a request directly from a reader named Andrea at My Kinda Perfect.

This was her comment….

As you can see…she is leaning toward gray and orange but didn’t really know if she could use it and it still be a calm space for her gender neutral nursery.  Orange really is a vibrant and fun color and I think that if it’s your favorite – a nursery is a great spot to use it.  My biggest suggestion is to just use your accent color sparingly and then balance it in the room with other saturated colors so that it doesn’t feel like an attention hog.  I mean…the world really should revolve around the newborn….amiright? yesiam.

I decided that the best way to tackle this gender neutral task was to create a nursery that would have mix-n-match furniture, a basic color scheme and gray walls.  I am partial to more green grays but as always with paint colors – make sure you try the paint samples on the walls first so that you don’t get something crazy with your lighting.  All the elements in this room can grow with the child so that you don’t feel like anything expensive was too ‘baby’ as they get older (exception being the stacking toy….your teen might want to replace that later!)  And since this was a basic template, you can add more gender specific items later as your child grows.  Here is the basic template for the room….

I love the use of that star wallpaper but if it seems too crazy, then the trellis pattern paper is a good alternative.  And the dark curtains will set off the room’s walls which would be gray.  Also it’s absolutely necessary with a nursery to get good black out curtains.  Trust.  And I balanced those little splashes of orange with navy, turquoise and a splash of warm colored woods.  All of those elements together will tone down the orange and make it feel very natural.

As it is, I totally think it would work as a gender neutral space.  BUT if you wanted to make it a little more girly or infused with a little more boy-geared stuff, here are two little ‘extra-accessory’ boards to help take the basic template to completion….

It’s amazing how adding three pieces of artwork and a couple pillows can completely change a space.  That domino art is so cute!

And switching it up to make it a little more PINK is super easy with art and pillows too.  I am obsessed with that painted abstract print.  The colors are tooooo good.

Okay!  So that is the one I chose this week and I hope you guys like it!  You can click on any of the photos to see more info on that particular item so if you are in the market for a gray & orange (and a TON of other colors! ha!) anything in your nursery – happy shopping!  And if you are want to put your name in the hat for the next moodboard – I’d love it if you put your comment on this post.  I need to know what the space is and a few specifics or parameters….kinda like how Andrea did it!