Safari Bedroom Inspiration Board - Elephants and Giraffes and Monkeys, Oh My

So the boys are 1 now and although I love to design and decorate, I have done very little in the way of decorating their bedroom.  Before they were born, I made a few things for their room and it looked pretty good.  The fabric collection that I used is the Zoo Menagerie Collection by Eleanor Grosch in both cottons and flannel. I made some bunting flags, a couple of crib sheets, a lamp shade cover, a bedskirt and a window valance.  The print is of giraffes, elephants and rhinos (expect for the window valance which are the whales from the same fabric collection)

Since we've moved I'll admit that I haven't decorated one iota.  Their room is bigger now in our rental house and we have two cribs as well as their changing table and the glider.  I have been reluctant to hang pictures as I didn't want to put holes in the walls and those command hooks for me are always hit or miss.  But I was recently at a twin mom friend's house and she decorated her girls' room so cute that I got inspired to revamp the boys' room. Here is an inspiration board I put together for their room

So I think the colors will be along the lines of lime and navy with elephants and giraffes and maybe a monkey or two thrown in for good measure.  I really love the chartreuse elephant and giraffe fabrics along with the coordinating chevron print from Premier Fabrics.  They are about $7.50 and yard so I am not sure if I am going to use them for curtains. I would need about 6 yards for the giant window in their room and I am thinking about doing a roman shade application.  As for a rug, well, the room in carpeted wall to wall in beige carpet which i hate because it gets dirty so quickly and its a rental so the quality of the rug isn't great for sitting and rolling around on the floor all day.  I have been in LOVE with FLOR carpet squares forever and used them all over my previous home.  Here I think I might do a lime green 5x7 or so carpet which should only run me about $170, depending on the style of carpet I choose.  I have samples coming in the mail to test for softness and color.  

For bedding I already have a couple of sheets in the Zoo Menagerie fabric but I have been contemplating adding a few different sheets, maybe in the Safari Sky print from Carters (right middle with coordinating quilt and giraffe lamp) or the SkipHop Elephant Parade sheet (right bottom) which is like $24 but is really cute and has a different pattern on the top and sides to mimic a bumper without having bumpers. I also really love the Pottery Barn Harper quilt with the elephant and name applique (top right) but that runs like $110 and is mostly white which is not great for kids in my experience.  I guess it would be just for show so that is a pretty expensive wall hanging.  I am going to see what I can find at our big Garage Sale at the beginning of October before I go out and buy anything new.

For decor, I found some really cute things on Etsy.  The top middle shows a cute print of an elephant with a navy blue chevron.  The artist had two of the same print with the elephants facing opposite directions so I bought those and figure I will frame them and use them to "bookend" a decorative shelf on the wall.  I love the idea of name blocks or letters and I think i'll make these myself with wooden letters form the craft store. Vinyl wall decals are the hot thing in nurseries these days and there are TONS of options on Etsy.  I like a jungle scene with a tree and a couple of animals that you can customize all the colors.  They are pretty expensive, usually over $100 for a large scene, so I have been looking for decals that are reusable so that we can take them with us when we move again.  I figure this would be a great way to spice up the plain old white wooden closet doors.  I also found this giraffe and elephant stuffed animal set that just happens to be made from the Zoo Menagerie fabric so I might pick those up as well.  

I have been so eager to get started on the decor but I have done only one craft project so far. I made this adorable hanging elephant lantern mobile from the lanterns I had used for the Very Hungry caterpillar decorations at their birthday party.  Basically I just strung the lanterns together vertically and then decorated with navy blue fabric elephants that I cut out of some material I had laying around.   I just pasted them on with a glue stick and hung on a nail away from the wall so they can spin.  The kids seem to like it and it was so easy!

before

After