“Damn right I like the life I live,

‘Cause I went from negative to positive,

And it’s all (it’s all good)…”

– Christopher Wallace –

Now that it’s finally completed I’d like to share with you how I came up with the idea, gathered and created the unique little pieces to design my second sons hip hop themed nursery! When we found out we were expecting baby #2, I was so excited to do something a little different and outside of the box. For our first child, the decision on a theme for his room was pretty easy – my husband is one of the biggest Dallas Cowboys fans out there, so we decided to go with that! It was fairly easy to design as there are a ton of football and Dallas themed things out there, and it ended up pretty cute. And don’t get me wrong, I love the sports and team theme for Noah’s room – it fits his wild and spirited little linebacker personality perfectly. But I was really excited to do something a little more unique and different for baby G, and because I had satisfied my husbands football man cave dreams without ruining our family room I was able to have complete creative control for this second nursery!

In my previous Bougie On a Budget post I stated that I always have a central piece for each room I design, as inspiration for the theme and vibe.  In case you don’t know, despite my lack of melanin I am a huge hip hop fan; I love rap and R&B, always did, and have since I was old enough to pick my own music and blasted Dr. Dre’s Chronic 2001 from my bedroom. I grew up in the 90’s hearing some of the best (in my humble opinion) hip hop music ever created, and it made an impression on me in a big way. One of my favorite songs is “Juicy” by Notorious B.I.G. – I mean, if you’ve heard it you must remember the epic opening to this song: “It was all a dream…”. So when I found a huge poster with Biggy and these lyrics on it I was inspired and purchased it instantly – to display above my new babies crib. I mean it was all a dream, right? I really used to have such a tumultuous and difficult past, and would dream of having all the things I have now – happy life, good man, great kids – so it seemed absolutely perfect to have these lyrics with their creator proudly displayed in my second babies room.

But now to add in all the little touches to go with the epic room I envisioned for my future baby. Colour wise I kept it as monochrome as possible, because I knew that despite a boy or girl I wanted this theme for the nursery. And like I’ve mentioned before, I am a frugal but fancy girl – meaning I love to invest in certain pieces, but also strive to save and create my own things when possible. So to start, furniture wise I purchased the crib and glider on Kijiji in almost mint condition. The rocker was $20 but has an awful plaid print on it, so I took a color swatch of the light gray that my husband painted the walls to Fabric Land and got an inexpensive but durable fabric that didn’t cost much to match; a friends mom who’s a part time seamstress reupholstered it for me and voilà- I had an adorable glider to rock my baby to sleep in that matched the wall color perfectly. The marble and black and white pillows displayed on the glider are from IKEA and JYSK, about $5 each. Stuffed Zebra and crocheted doughnuts are from a friend, letter G is from Michael’s and the letter board, which I highly recommend to new parents for milestone pictures, is from a shop on Amazon. My grandmother’s old and sturdy oak chest we refinished and painted white, and found the dresser/change table/nightstand at a yard sale for about $20 and did the same. I used black triangle or “play” sign decals to accent the handles as well.

For bedding, I found the black and white sheets at Winners that looked like “play” symbols as well as the black and white changing pad. The stereo pillow inside his crib is from Amazon, and “Like A Boss” pillow is from Bebe, found in at outlet store. It was super important for me to get a special blanket for Gigi to have as a keepsake, with his moniker on it, so I shopped around until I found an awesome shop, called Ivy + Joy, that created the most perfect, soft black and white blanket with his name on it. It’s awesome for swaddling and breathable for when he’s a bit older and will want his favorite blankie with him at all times.

Next section was a fun one to do – the large wall above the changing area. I wanted to do something to pay homage to the musical theme of the room, and being that we’ve referred to Gabriel as “G” since we found out we were having him I decided to make an art piece with a reference to the G note. I purchased a wooden plank at Micheal’s, as it resembled the look of sheet music, and painted four sections white. I printed a large treble clef, quarter note, and letter “G”, pasted them in the place the G note goes (remember “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge”?) and bam – I had something I created myself that was super unique, fit perfectly into his room and a piece I hoped he could keep and remember as a special handmade gift by his mama. The wooden arrow or “play” shaped banner underneath is from Hobby Lobby.

For the prints on his walls I wanted references to some of my favorite hip hop lyrics but also refer to it being G’s nursery, and that he’s a baby. I couldn’t find the exact style print’s I envisioned, so what to we do when we can’t find what we want? Create it ourselves! I found the lyrics/phrases I liked, chose a cool font, played with it a bit and made these cool prints, placed in plain black frames. Next I’m planning an “In My Feelings” print: “Gigi, do you love me? Are you riding? Say you’ll never ever leave from beside me…”

Next  project was a little area of the room I had envisioned in my head for a long time – I wanted to create a spot where where I could pull pieces from G’s closet, plan his outfit for each day, and leave them there, organized, displayed nicely and ready to go. I found the letters I needed from Hobby Lobby to spell ‘#OOTD’ (Outfit Of The Day) and got a wooden, Nordic style piece that hung from a shelf to create the perfect spot to do this. For Noah I used to throw his outfits together on dresser beside his crib, so I absolutely loved that I had this little space to have things organized and ready for the next day, or outfit change. The wooden hanging piece with “Play” signs is from Hobby Lobby as well.

Lastly, I had one last wall that needed a special something added to give it a hip hop vibe, and also stick with the monochrome look I had going. I came across the most amazing shop on Etsy called SamJam that had a graffiti print banner, absolute perfection for the theme. They also had the most cute and creative banners, and found one with a peace sign that I knew would look amazing up in his room, and also a good message for the kids (we don’t want any Biggie/Tupac rivalry going down between my boys – peace and love only). This is the first thing wall you see when you come into the room, and I was absolutely thrilled with the end result!

So excited to be finished!

So there you have it! I had a dream in my head of exactly how I wanted this little nursery to come together, and I was so pleased with the final look. If I could give advice to anyone who wants to do something similar or out-of-the-box, I  would simply say: GO FOR IT! When I told people I was going to put a picture of Biggy above my kids crib a lot of them looked at me like WTF, or said I was crazy. But I think it’s frickin’ awesome, and just like anything else in parenthood – it’s your child, your home, your choices – your life! And it’s too short not to have a rapper’s picture displayed in your house if you want to, cool graffiti prints on the walls, or lyrics that you love posted up everywhere. If you can dream it – do it! Have some fun, turn your can’ts into cans, and your dreams into plans.