Asher’s Monstourage

Description

For our little boy's nursery, we combined modern patterns and color combinations with playful, fun tactile monsters - friends he can look at and touch as he grows in these first few years. We now jokingly call his new monster friends his "monstourage."

Design Inspiration

Both my husband and I were pretty energetic kids so we joked that we'd surely have a little "monster" when our genes combined. Early in our pregnancy, we came across a street fair where an artist made adorable monsters from recycled sweaters and we commited to have a monster nursery, regardless of the sex of our baby. We also love striking patterns and modern color combinations so we took the nursery one piece after buying those initial monsters until it all fell into place.

Decorating Style

As an architect and casual artist, we were excited to pull together our first nursery with our own special flare, but it was really important to us that it look original and not too thematic. This proved challenging along the way because we wanted a look that wasn't disparate, but in the end have use a space that feels like it's truly one of a kind.

Project Details

The biggest decision was which key colors to use on the walls, knowing we had a small space and the wrong choice could overwhelm the space and give it the wrong feeling. We loved the light robin's egg blue on the top half of the room contrasted against a chocolate brown, but we worried it was a color combination that was a bit overdone. When we found a brilliant Skip Hop "mod dot" sheet and pillow set , it inspired the color palette and inspired us to add deep red on the bedspread and a lime green on the floor rugs. While we may not have used those colors initially, the sheets inspired us to try them out. When we matched the wall paint, rugs and bedspread to the textiles, we had cohesiveness without being thematic - VOILA!

Everything else just fell into place after that. As a weekend artist, I had fun creating the monster wall art to coordinate with the look and feel of the room and took a lot of pride in the tiny details. Things like the matching storage bins with chalkboard labels in the closet, stuffed animals for the beds and wall art became the icing on the cake as we found them. Most of the pieces were handmade because we knew what we wanted and couldn't find it anywhere, but in the end, they were less expensive this way.

 

Favorite Items

The monster art on the walls were handmade by mommy, using recycled fabrics and buttons from Asher's great grandmother's sewing supplies. Though she's now passed on, it's really special to have her energy in the room in these art pieces and in the antique rocker she once rocked me in.

We also love the thick stripes on the walls. Just when we thought the room was done, my husband and I stared at the room with a feeling something was missing. We decided the architecture of the room would shine a lot more if we added a little punch to the angled eves so we got a paint color a few shades darker than the initial turquoise. In just a few hours, the room went from and 8 to a 10 in our minds - and with such a simple addition!

Advice

Don't make too many rules or themes for your room or you'll take the fun our of the project. Just take your time and creativity. Collect pieces you love and use your instincts to tie them all together into a truly unique space!