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The official room theme is Patty Reed's Jungle Babies, which is a series of fabric designs featuring the adorable Mary the Monkey, Timmy the Tiger, Leo the Lion, Geri the Giraffe and Eleanor the Elephant. I thought animals would be a neat tie-in with Tony's zookeeper history, and I just love all their little smiling faces. (Friendly and smiling is important in a nursery. You wouldn't believe all the scary nursery animals out there! I wanted to make sure we had a nursery theme that said "We're your happy jungle friends!" rather than "We're going to eat you as soon as the light goes out!". Kids worry about these kinds of things, you know).
The other thing that you should know about this room is that because it is just fabric, Mom made EVERYTHING in here. (Well, except for the light switch cover, which I picked up on ebay). She really went to town on it. There's something like 60 different Jungle baby items in here if you count all the sheet sets she made to go on the crib. I have a list that I can email to you if you're looking for someone to sew some nursery (or any other) items for you. She's a master seamstress. (And I'll only charge a small finder's fee).
Anyway, onto the tour. We'll start with the focal point, which I think is the crib corner of the room. The crib itself is the Canton 4 in 1 Convertible Crib in Espresso, and I love it. It's very solidly built and the lines are just beautiful!
The crib contains the JB dust ruffle, giraffe patterned sheets, bumpers (we'll pull them out when baby is young and looking for ways to suffocate herself, but they'll come in handy again when she hits toddler stage and becomes a very active sleeper), assorted JB decorative pillows (also to be removed for sleeping), and roughly 6 million JB stuffed animals for company.
Oh, and I wish you could see the quilt in person to really appreciate it, because Mom quilted around all of the animals to give them a stand out 3D effect. It also has a very functional soft back side for playing in the floor.
The shelves above the crib contain some soft JB flat pillows in the shapes of the animals, and the adjoining wall holds the official Jungle Babies wall hanging, featuring the crew in all their jungle cuteness.
The dresser and chest of drawers are actually the same set that I used in my nursery 30 years ago. (Tradition! TRA-DITION!) I think they cleaned up quite nicely with new hardware and some official decopaged Jungle Baby knobs (a Mom original!). Sitting on the chest is the JB tissue box holder and JB nightlight, which I have hooked up to a small remote so that I can turn the light off and on from anywhere upstairs. Above those are excepts from the JB story book featuring the characters, which Mom framed and glued together with ribbon.
This is the changer wall. It has the changing station, JB diaper stacker, picture frames, and wall organizer (to hold powder, butt paste and all the other things that delicate baby bottoms require). The open organizer beside it will hold things like burp cloths and onesies for now, and then toys when she's older. (It isn't Jungle Babies, but it did match and it is available at Target if you're interested).
The last corner covers the window/reading area. Mom made the window valance and growth chart, as well as the lamp shade and fabric Jungle Baby book (which I am given to understand babies like to chew on). We'll put the glider/rocker in this corner when we get it, and it'll make a nice little reading/book chewing/nursing spot.
So that's it. That's the guided tour of Jungle Baby land. We're so thankful that friends and family have been so generous with making/giving/loaning things that we'll need for the new baby. We have a lot left to do before we're completely ready for her, but we're already miles ahead of where I thought we'd be. We went from a hardly used guest room to the cutest little jungle-themed nursery ever!(And if this doesn't make her a world-famous zoologist, I don't know what will).
