Under the Sea Nursery Ideas

by Bridget
(IL)

Our love of the beach and the ocean inspired our under the sea nursery ideas. My husband and I are scuba divers and love the ocean.


When we found out we were expecting, we knew that an underwater theme nursery was what we wanted to do.

See many more Under the Sea Nursery Ideas in our photo gallery.

Our fondest wish was to share our love of the ocean with the newest addition to the family.






Go here to see more



The two of us have limited artistic skills so we decided to use a projector to project the outlines of the sea creature images on the wall. We realized that we could not get the realistic effect we were working towards using any other method of tracing.

After we had the basic drawings in place we used "unloved" paint samples in various colors that came from Lowe's. The paints were samples that were returned to the store or mixed and not purchased.

We needed a big variety of colors to paint our underwater scenes on the walls so we bought colors that we could use to mix our own variations. The brand of the paint samples was Valspar from Lowe's.


We used a color called Valspar Granite Dust Stone to paint the "sand" and the main wall color is a color called Seaside Retreat East Coast also by Valspar.


To give the illusion of rippling water in the painting, we stippled the wall first using a stippling brush. The existing wall color was a very pale blue with lavender tones that was almost white. We rolled over it with East Coast blue and used a stiff stippling brush to "bang" on the wall being sure to wipe the brush clean every few strikes. This wall painting technique is best done while the paint is still wet and within a few minutes after it is first rolled on. We had to be careful not to tackle sections that were too big. We quickly learned that we could about 5' x 5' at a time bofore the paint got too dry for the effect we were looking for.

In order to eliminate seams or lines, we altered the rolling pattern and size of the painted sections completed. To create the "wave effect" for the merge into the ceiling, we used a brush to blend the colors together. Again, we were careful to wipe between every couple of strokes and to apply the strokes in a random fashion. We got the best results by brushing the ceiling color down into the wall color.

OUR SANDY BEACH WALL PAINTING TECHNIQUE
To get the sandy beach bottom we taped off and used a textured paint to which we added glitter in order to give it a real sparkling, sandy look.

We rolled the textured paint on using a thick nap roller.

How to Paint Sea Creatures, the Coral Reef And Tropical Fish on the Nursery Wall
We turned some actual pictures from our diving trips and some pictures from our favorite dive magazine, Sport Diver, into transparencies at FedEx Kinkos in order to paint the colorful tropical fish and the coral reef on the wall.

We purchased an overhead projector in an Ebay auction and projected the images onto the wall and traced the images with a pencil.

We used the colors in the photos as a guide, with a few modifications to make the fish more kid friendly and gender friendly since we chose to be surprised whether a baby girl or a boy would be enjoying our under the sea nursery ideas.

The only fish that we drew freehanded was the stingray. Since a real life stingray can be rather intimidating we drew a happy smile on this one's face since my husband
s rule for all the fish was that they needed to have big, happy smiles!

Beach Baby Nursery Ideas and Furniture

The baby's crib is a convertible crib by Delta purchased from Babies R Us which is the same place that we bought the Delta dresser and changing table. The children's table is a piece from my own childhood.

Baby Bedding with Sea Creatures

With all the ocean themed details in the baby's room, we chose a very basic crib set with no design. The breathable bumpers were purchased from Babies R Us and a close friend made the blanket that you see displayed on the crib from a sarong.

UNDER THE SEA NURSERY CURTAINS

The nursery window balances were purchased from Country curtains in Naperville. My husband made the Trident King of the Sea!) curtain rod using scraps from an old steel trellis and welding putty that he spray painted gold. He loves to brag about using old scraps that I wish he would trash to make the coolest stuff!

Under the Sea Nursery Decor to Make

We decorated the window shades to match the area rug with the wave-like pattern that we found at Home Depot. The fish lamp and crib mobile were purchased from Burlington Coat Factory.

The switchplate and outlet covers were ordered online from Switchplate.com.

We found the fish, starfish and turtle wall decor at the gift shop at our local zoo, Brookfield Zoo. Even though some of the decorations are hung within the reach of little hands, they were cheap and can be removed or tossed if needed.

The pictures on the shelves were garage sale finds and there is a framed picture of my husband and myself diving with a potato cod.

The handles on the nursery closet were ordered from Lowe's.


How do you store your baby's clothes and gear? In baskets, on shelves?
All of our necessities as well as the baby's outfits are arranged in the closet which has a wire organizer that was already installed when we purchased the home or stored in drawers or on shelves.


How long did it take you to make your under the sea nursery ideas a reality? Did you find decorating the nursery was easy, fun, difficult? What was your favorite part of the decorative process?

We started painting the nursery last September and had the very last piece, the custom trident curtain rod, completed around February 21, although the room was pretty much completed by mid January with only some minor details left.

The baby was due February 7th! We spent an entire weekend painting the details of the coral reef alone.

The first sea creature that we painted was the seal and that took 2 days. We had a blast working on the baby's room. We finally reached the point where I had to convince my husband that we were done and that we had enough fish on the walls. If it were up to him, we would still be painting!

My favorite part of our baby nursery theme was that my husband wanted to be involved. He was into it so much that I was not allowed to paint without him when he had to work late as we both really enjoyed painting the fish together! Painting the fish was easy, but very time consuming since we mixed our own paint colors and had to wait for one color to dry before applying the next.

Stippling the wall paint to give the water an illusion of depth was very difficult.

What do you love most about your baby's finished room?

I love that through his nursery decor we can share our love for the ocean who was born on Feb. 7th of this year. Through our painting we can teach him about the fish that live in his room and we can show him actual pictures of the fish on his wall and tell him how what we put on his walls are more than paintings, they are memories of his parents and our passion that we wanted to share with him.

My husband's favorite nursery decoration is the seal or his homemade trident curtain rod; my favorite is the coral reef. The baby's nursery is truly a labor of love that my husband and I created together.

Thanks to Unique Baby Gear Ideas for allowing us to post our nursery pictures and if anyone has any questions about where we found certain items, please feel free to send them to us via email using the comments section!

Thanks for visiting!

About | Earnings Disclosure| Baby Room Ideas Blog | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Affiliate Disclosure

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program
designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites as well as
Ebay Partner Network and others.
Contact us: info@unique-baby-gear-ideas.com
Copyright © 2006-2022. All Rights Reserved.