In the Nursery with Kelly Lyden

This is our interview series in which we bring you the nurseries and kid rooms of successful designers, entrepreneurs and moms. Through this series, our featured guests will divulge some of their design secrets and share stories of how their nurseries came to be.

Today’s featured guest is Kelly Lyden, and she’s no stranger to the Project Nursery community. She was one of our first contributors and offered our readers some of the best tips in party planning. We are so excited for her because not only are her businesses growing, but she recently welcomed her son Daniel to the Lyden family.

Kelly first became popular with her site The Party Dress, and she started WH Hostess five years ago. WH Hostess is a social stationery company specializing in personalized printed party invitations, paper goods, birth announcements, holiday cards and personalized gifts. They offer complete collections for baby showers, baptisms, birthday parties and more. Moms love their preppy, modern designs, impeccable quality and the convenience of receiving their order printed, constructed and ready for the party!

Speaking of paper goods, Kelly also just published her new book—check out this sweet picture of her two “babies” on Instagram! Stylish Kids’ Parties is a gorgeous collection of 12 different parties to get you inspired for your next bash. Today our Well-Heeled Hostess is inspiring us with her fresh and newly designed lime green and pool blue nursery.

Kelly, your Project Nursery days started pre-Daniel. Did you apply your experience in interacting with the PN community to this project?

Being a contributor on Project Nursery definitely helped me both by providing inspiration for Daniel’s nursery design and by giving me the foundation of my knowledge of baby resources. Daniel is my first, so this is a whole new world, and being able to search through the Project Gallery and posts from other contributors has served as a huge resource for me!

Knowing you had this very familiar resource at your fingertips, did you start right away?

The design process started for me once we found out we were expecting a little boy. I knew I wanted to create a space that was calming, yet happy. I wanted a place where both he and I could enjoy spending time together. My love of all things patterned and preppy definitely came into play when it came time to pull together a look. I started the process by searching for the perfect wallpaper for my focal wall. I knew I wanted it to be either two or three colors with a bold pattern that looked trendy now but would also take on an “updated classic” look with time. After what felt like months of searching, I fell in love with Thibaut’s Bungalow Ikat wallpaper from their Resort book. It’s the perfect combination of prep and graphic, and it doesn’t look too girly. I covered one main focal wall with the Ikat wallpaper, and then I painted the remaining walls with a shade of blue that we pulled out of the pattern. With crisp white woodwork and white furniture from Pottery Barn Kids, the colors really pop in a fun way.

You shared with us that Daniel decided to arrive 8 1/2 weeks early. Was the nursery ready for him at that point?

The nursery was not nearly complete yet, and it was a challenge to get it put together while we were spending all of our time in the NICU for the first six weeks of his life. Luckily the furniture had been ordered, and the room was cleared out and painted before he arrived. My parents stepped in and hung the wallpaper for us, and I had a friend that came and helped me unpack and organize all of the baby shower gifts so that the room was close to being complete by the time he came home.

Do you feel like the room transitions well with the rest of your home?

I do! I think it’s a much more fun version of the rest of my home. I tend to lean towards classic furnishings and update the look with modern accents, and I tried to incorporate design elements that I have used throughout my home in other rooms. The Greek key trim on the windows, the gallery frame wall and the use of books and throw blankets are also found throughout our house.

Daniel’s nursery is eye-catching with fantastic details, yet you didn’t cram in too many items. You made some great choices! Now for a tough question—what’s your favorite part of the nursery?

The wallpaper definitely grabs my attention the second I walk in the room! One of my other favorite details is the book ledge we put up under one of the windows. It was the perfect spot for it, and it’s at a height where he will be able to grab books on his own as he grows. We started reading to Daniel in the NICU as a way to bond with him, and it’s still one of our favorite things to do together. I hope this tradition continues as he gets older and we get to use his little reading nook for years to come.

With her focus being all things baby these days, Kelly has designed a whole new Baby by WH Hostess collection of paper goods, including new baby shower collections, baptism and christening invitations, birth announcements and stationery. She tells us she had so much fun designing Daniel’s nursery that she created a baby shower collection inspired by it called the Baby Safari collection.

Check out more details about the nursery including product sources in the gallery.

Photography by Kathryn Hastings Photography (Photo of Kelly and Daniel)
and Kelly Lyden (Nursery Photos)

Do you know of a fantastic nursery or big kid’s room designed by a successful designer or business owner? Please send a photo of the room to Adrienne@ProjectNursery.com for consideration.