Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner (A Nursery Reveal) May 5, 2016 08:00 1 Comment

Alternate blog post title: Baby Baby (as in the amazing song by Amy Grant, which I just learned has been remade by Tori Kelly in honor of the song's 25th anniversary. 2 things: 1) I don't know who Tori Kelly is, but if Amy Grant is ok with her, she's cool in my book, and 2) 25 years??? Way to make a girl feel old... This song was my jam, and the remake is great, check it out here.)

So, back on topic, I (Becky) am going to talk about something that MB and I both enjoy doing, as it's an extension of our everyday jobs: space planning and decorating. I had my second daughter, a beautiful little girl Nora, just over 2 weeks ago, and had so much fun putting her nursery together in the months before her birth. Creating nurseries when you're in a major nesting stage is so satisfying as you're working to design the perfect space for your newest family member, and I want to share her nursery today.

Nora's room started as a guest room when we first moved in, with all tan walls. (Sidebar: almost every wall in our house was originally the same tan color, we felt like we were living in a hay bale... We've since painted most walls grey, and my husband has nicknamed our house 50 Shades of Grey). So, when we updated the guest room (before we were pregnant with our second daughter), it got 3 grey walls with an accent wall in sage-y green (that's totally a color, right?). When we designed Claire's nursery (our first daughter), there was an intense amount of painting, so this time around we decided to work with the paint colors that were already in the room.  (Here is the mood board we used for Claire's room so you get an idea of the paint job we didn't want to tackle this time around):

Since we already had wall colors established in our then-guest room but they didn't scream 'baby girl' to me, I knew I wanted to incorporate colors in other elements, the biggest being the rug. I felt that the rug would hold everything together in the room. I narrowed it down to 3 choices that I loved and that had lots of colors, from West Elm, Anthropologie, and Ikea. Two of the rugs were pricey and I couldn't get my husband on board, but I just wasn't sold on the third, so we waited. MB and I happened to have a pop up show at West Elm RDU and were set up right next to the rug up for debate.  Seeing it in person helped me decide that it would be perfect for the nursery. My husband and Claire came up, saw the rug, and we ended up getting a great deal on the floor model (thanks to MB's suggestion of asking if that was an option for purchase - this is a great way to save some money if it works out.)

After the perfect rug, we found a dresser from a local mid century resale store, Gremlina Vintage, after searching at least 5 other stores. We found some more great options at other locations but again, it came down to price in the end. The crib and changing table were already waiting to be set up as we could use the same ones we had for Claire (both of these were Craig's list finds - Pottery Barn furniture still in the box). So as for putting Baby in a corner, I'm actually totally ok with it, because that's where the crib made sense, at least in this room.

Usually I like to start a project with a mood board but in this case I didn't make one until after we had purchased the rug and dresser; the major components in the room. This is what it looked like at that point:

The rest of the room was pulled together with details and smaller pieces of furniture: a patterned but monochromatic light fixture (Allen + Roth lampshade that my husband rigged up as a pendant), an Eames rocker, neutral bedding (again used from Claire's nursery), art for the walls (to go in frames we already had), a DIY mobile, additional wall hangings (aren't these little house frames from the Target Pillowfort line adorable?), and some sweet toys and gifts displayed from friends. The dress hanging at the closet is very special, made by Jessica of Little Grey Line. She works to create one of a kind garments from men's shirts, so one of my husbands old shirts was converted into a beautiful dress for both of our girls - Claire wore it to the hospital to meet Nora, and will enjoy wearing it until it's passed down to her sister, and maybe one day to a daughter of their own.

The art was homemade by yours truly, inspired by Scandinavian flower designs,  modern icons in an eye chart style, and modified modern font for the alphabet.

The DIY Himmeli mobile was another personal touch for the room.  I followed this blog post tutorial from The Design Confidential to create different shapes.  A word to the wise - the more pieces and intricate the shape, the more frustrating it can become to create, so be patient, and start small.  In the end it gets easier!

We were very happy with how the room turned out and had a lot of fun taking elements from Claire's nursery and pairing them with new ideas for Nora - now if we could only get her to actually sleep in there and appreciate all our hard work (babies... so ungrateful :) )

How do you start a space planning project?  Do you dive right in with purchases, or weigh all your options?  Create a mood board or let your shopping do the work for you as you go?  We'd love to hear from you!