Nursery Progress 3: the trophy wall

One of my fave parts of the nursery, and the original inspiration for the entire room as a modern, modified, safari.

These paper mâché animal heads from West Elm add whimsy to this fella's room without being too babyish. We bought the elephant & the hippo. I think the giraffe is a little weird looking - like something from "Avatar." And the rhino is BIG! The others were a bit too harsh with their spiky horns and all. I found the smaller metal ones at Hobby Lobby and painted them to match.

Quite a trophy wall for a tot, eh? When he dreams of wild safari adventures, he'll wake up feeling quite accomplished. Don't worry, no animals were harmed in the process.

Originally, I was planning on going with this rug from West Elm, too. But, again, a white rug in a baby's room had me concerned. I love the rug, but found this alternate from Rugs USA during their after-Christmas sale.  At first, I was hesitant about going with chevron. I like chevron, but we already have the infamous DIY chevron rug in the neighboring bedroom, and I didn't want to overdo it. But, my frugality won the fight. 70% off = awesome. It cost about $100, free shipping, no tax. Hard to beat, that.

After letting the rug off-gas on the porch for a few days, we moved it into place with a cushy pad underneath to give those little knobby knees plenty of cushion when crawling days arrive. As stated in the rug reviews, it sheds a good bit during the first several vacuum jobs, so we got those out of the way and it seems to be fine now.