Colorful and Fun Big Girl Room + How We Transitioned

I’m so excited to be sharing Ivy Jean’s colorful and fun big girl room plus how and why we transitioned her into it now. When we started thinking about moving her from her nursery (see it here) into a big girl room, I knew I wanted it to be able to grow with her. My taste is not overly girly. That being said, since we did not find out the gender while I was pregnant, her nursery isn’t overly feminine. I definitely wanted it to be fun, a space she would enjoy, and something that represented us as a family. I’m a person to which visual space matters a lot. I love design, but I am not always the best at putting things together. I did a lot of pinning (follow me here) and planning. 

Colorful and Fun Big Girl Room Details

Places to Shop for Big Girl Room Things

Pottery Barn

I shopped around a lot for the items in Ivy Jean’s room. The things you see are from a variety of places with some from the obvious, like Pottery Barn. We found her bed and bed side table on a great floor model sale and took advantage. She actually isn’t in her big girl bed yet, but I wanted to share the photos with it. We are leaving her in her crib as long as possible since she hasn’t tried to climb out yet. Her bedding is also from Pottery Barn (links below). We registered for it when she was born and have been amazed at the quality and durability, so we opted for it again. Her pink chair is also from Pottery Barn and something we have had for a while. She loves the cozy reading space and regularly plays peek-a-boo there! 

Overstock

The majority of the rest of the large pieces in her toddler girl room are from Overstock. I was pleasantly surprised at the affordability, quality, and shipping process Overstock offered. I found her amazing rug ($80) and shelf ($149) while browsing, and things took off from there. Her dresser is also from there and was the splurge of the room. I actually cannot recommend it. It shipped all in one piece and was damaged during the shipping process. We had a wonderful customer service experience and ended up getting a large discount after getting shipped a second damaged one. The cute bunny shoe rack is also an Overstock purchase. I will say, the shelves put in place with a rubber band type thing. We ended up super gluing them so they wouldn’t rotate which worked perfectly. I think it’s adorable! Just wanted to mention the quality a bit though. It’s only $32 though, so…

Target

I will forever love Target! Target makes amazing decor for kids’ rooms. The baskets on her shelf (large size), the rainbow and heart pillow, her adorable canopy, and the really cool art frames (not pictures) are all from Target. If you missed my Instagram story about those frames, they are amazing! They open up so that you can slide your child’s art into the front with storage in the back for other art. Such a fun way to display your kiddos’ work. 

Other

Besides the above mentioned places, I also got some decor at Hobby Lobby and Etsy (see below). The shelf and non-print items on the gallery wall are all from Hobby Lobby. They are both great sources for decor and just ideas in general when decorating anything let along a big girl room. I was really impressed by the full room type sets Hobby Lobby has available. 

Big Girl Room Gallery Wall

I had so much fun picking and organizing her big girl room gallery wall. Okay, maybe fun isn’t the right word… I agonized over it a bit to to be honest. I found this adorable free alphabet print on Pinterest. It started things off. From there, I bought this heart download on Etsy. Both of those I had printed at a local print shop for under $10. The sheep and giraffe are also another Pinterest find here. The frames are all from Target (large size, medium, and square). 

Why We Transitioned to Her Big Girl Room

As many of you probably know, we are in the process of adopting. We are an active waiting family which means we are “paper pregnant.” We have completed everything we can to be able to adopt and are currently just waiting to be matched with the sweet baby God designed for our family. Essentially, as birth moms come into an agency, they are asked about their preferences and shown life books of families according to those. They then select one (or more) families they want to meet and the match process goes from there. We have met with one birth mom so far and did not end up getting matched with her which was a hard process. However, she was due in 10 days. It opened our eyes that could be a very real reality for us. 

How We Transitioned to Her Big Girl Room

We want the transition for Ivy Jean to be as smooth as possible. Since she won’t see my belly growing for 9 months, it’s a bit harder for her to understand. We talk about adoption, having a baby brother or sister, and pray for a sibling all the time. We read books, etc. Russ and I decided one thing we could do to ease the transition was move her to a room totally independent of this process. We started by talking about it. Then we cleaned the room out and played in there some. We slowly bought things, worked on the room, and played some more as we continued to talk about it. As we talked, we made it a positive, exciting thing! We read in her chair. Then, finally, we moved her crib into the room. It went sooo smoothly. She loves it! I think it was really helpful to not transition her bed/sleeping arrangement at the same time as her room. 

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