Choosing a nursery theme has to be my favorite part of having a baby. Okay, getting another boy added to our family and snuggles are probably better, but it's a close third. Our first kiddo got an airplane room (shocking, I know). Our second ended up with the airplane room when I changed our first's to a space room (my favorite) once they stopped sharing said airplane room. That left #3 without an obvious choice.
I try to choose the room's color scheme before selecting a theme, simply because I want to be able to take out the theme and be left with a room they don't hate as older kids. It also keeps the theme from being too overwhelming. Maddox was going to have a navy, white, and lime green room since the eldest had baby blue blankets, the middlest had red, and #3 was gifted a navy blue and white one. What goes well with navy, white, and green? Why, CROC-DILES, of course! A crocodile nursery was just the perfect choice for our family's third little boy.
Needless to say, when it came to nursery themes, I was thrilled at the crocodile nursery idea. It was a room that would awe our big boys, honor my parents' sweet (if a little warped) involvement in my boys' lives, and be a super fun room to put together.
I immediately started searching Etsy for some incredible women to help me create the crocodile nursery for our little rainbow baby. Annie, of Annie's Bow Kisses, makes STUNNING letters that I could only dream of creating myself. She has virtually every theme you can think of, for both boys and girls (or neutral!), and the quality is next to none. When I suggested we work together, she was amazing at trying to get my vision for the room and even found extra crocodiles so they would work well with the space and decorate the longer name we had chosen. Annie covers the fronts of the letters in a pattern before adding wood versions of whatever your theme might be– baseballs, dance, crocodiles, animals, colors. If you don't need a name, she does numbers, too, which would be SO cute for a birthday party backdrop or yearly photo set!
Next, I needed prints to add life to the walls. Katie, of The Educated Owl, was just the lady to help! She had the most adorable prints for crocodiles/alligators and customized them for our little man beautifully. From equestrian to crocodiles, baseball to dance, and everything in between, she definitely has a print (or six) that will work as well for your little person's room as they did for ours. If you want a word art birth announcement, she does those, too (I may still need to add one to Maddox's room) and generally amazing home decor. She also created a print of 24 different crocodiles, mostly green, with one navy. It's interesting but simple and probably my favorite of the prints so I hung it on the short wall that you see as soon as you walk in the door to the room.
As cute as the crocodile nursery theme is, functionality had to play a part, too. These sheets were what I started theming the room around. I used our cloth diapers as a decorative piece (to find out how we cloth diaper, check out this post!). A crocodile-green pillow and cable knit navy blue blanket in the color scheme on the rocking chair pull it into the theme, even after 6 years' and 3 babies' worth of rocking. I chose large lime green wet bags to toss the dirty diapers in and a blue and white striped laundry basket for the dirty clothes (not that my boys would EVER go through a bajillion outfits a day). Possibly the most important piece of decor? Blackout, insulated curtains (in navy blue, in this case) to keep the room cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and DARK anytime we want it to be!
All in all, I feel like the nursery isn't overdone in crocodiles, but is definitely a room filled with what is likely Maddox's future favorite animal, whether he realizes it or not. I love the color scheme because he can grow with it (so we don't have to replace everything when he decides he's over the crocodile nursery). Meanwhile, we'll enjoy the letters and prints as long as he'll let us, the cloth diapers for as little a time as possible (#pottytrainingASAP), and the brightness of the room forever.