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Ellis’s Vintage Modern Travel Nursery

Description

A vintage modern travel nursery for my son Ellis.  Full of color, pattern, vintage pieces, modern accents, and personal touches.  It is a welcoming and fun space where I am reminded of great past adventures and can't wait for new ones with the little man!

Design Inspiration

My husband and I have a love for travel.  We are always ready for the next trip.  I wanted to incorporate that excitement and diversity into Ellis's nursery.  I also wanted to marry vintage and modern to create a very unique space.

Decorating Style

I think that good design can come in all mediums, price points and styles and should be available to everyone.  With that being said, I am constantly on the hunt for great deals.  And I love incorporating bright color into any space.

Project Details

When I found out I was pregnant I immediately started thinking about the nursery.  Being that interior design is my profession I was excited to get to design something from scratch for myself for a change.  I knew I did not want the typical baby nursery.  No baby blue or pink, depending on the gender.  It was important to incorporate furniture and accessories that had meaning in them.  I wanted to combine some found vintage pieces with more modern and straight lined pieces.  And we can’t forget the color.  I love color so I knew I wanted to go bold.

Once we found out we were having a boy I started putting all the pieces together.  First up was the color.  I decided to go with a deep royal blue.  It is a great backdrop for all of the other bright colors throughout the space.

We changed out the ceiling fan for a funky, modern light fixture that came in at a whopping $29!  And I even found it at my local Lowe’s store (IKEA has one that looks like this as well).  The floor lamp is one that I have had for about 8 years and works great because it is on a dimmer.  I keep a small lamp on the changing table on all the time.  In those first few months it made middle of the night changings and feedings a lot easier.

My mom made all of the bedding from fabric that I selected.  Boy was that a process.  I ordered so many different fabric samples online that I had enough for my grandma to make a baby blanket out of them!  Pregnant women having to make all of these decisions is just simply disastrous.  I mixed and matched many simple patterns and colors.

The curtains I pulled from our master bedroom (it’s in need of a redo anyways).  I stumbled upon the fabric years ago and have loved it since.

The rug is something that I found at Silver Dollar City when I was 8 months pregnant.  Random, I know!  It is a “sock loop rug” made out of cotton sock remnants that are woven together.  I selected a white and off white linear pattern.  It can be washed in the washer and everything.  The company is called Rainbow Crafts and they are out of South Carolina.  But they are at Silver Dollar City every fall!

The large E above the crib was a find Vintage Market Days in Bixby last year.  It was originally black and my dad spray painted it yellow.

When it came time to decide on furniture I knew I wanted to combine different pieces and I didn’t want to spend a lot of money.  I know I will be ready for a complete redo by the time we need a toddler bed.  This way I am not tied down with expensive furniture that I have to use.  And lets be honest….it is going to get used and abused!

The crib is the  IKEA GULLIVER crib.  It is extremely simple and I love how the bright white pops off the blue walls.

To contrast with the modern lines of the crib I convinced my mom and dad to let me use their vintage kitchen as my changing table.  They have had this vintage Wilson Kitchen Cabinet for years and it hit me one day when I was getting something out of it that it would be the perfect changing table.  Back in the day this was used to store flour (top left door pulls down and has a flour sifter inside) and other kitchen and baking items.  The counter is porcelain so it was perfect for rolling out dough…or in my case for a changing pad!  This is probably my favorite item in the nursery.  It provides great storage and I love the warm wood tone.

I decided on the IKEA POANG chair.  It has a tall back which is good since I am tall and it gently bounces.  It has been great!

I used IKEA spice racks to hold books.

The afghan was found in Hot Springs, Arkansas at an antique store.  I fell in love with all of the colors.

After an ice storm a few years ago I saved some tree stumps.  My dad cleaned one up, sealed it and it works great for a little side table.

The rocking horse was made by a dear friend.  Can’t wait to see Ellis try it out!

For toy storage I chose a simple cube bookshelf unit that I purchased from Target.  As you can see Ellis likes to pull everything off the shelves!  Having some bins and baskets makes keeping track of all the smaller toys easier.

The wall art and accessories in the nursery all have a little bit of a story.  My husband and I love to travel and we wanted to incorporate different items from our travels into the room.  The wall art above was created using an old canvas I had laying around and wrapping it with some fabric, using a staple gun on the back.  To hang the clock I simply put a nail through the canvas into the wall, so the clock is not actually attached to the canvas.

The world map that hangs above the crib was a super cheap find online for $6.95.  I bought the frame at Hobby Lobby and simply taped the map onto the cardboard that was in the frame.

The adorable plane was a Tulsa Flea Market treasure.  We suspended it from the ceiling using fishing line.  Other flea market finds include old school books that are the perfect colors and wooden initial blocks that came from a sweet friend.

The train set is super special to me.  I found three pieces at an antique store in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  But then I remembered that my grandma had a couple pieces as well.  She was sweet enough to pass them on and make the set complete.  They were made by Shawnee Pottery in the 40′s and 50′s and are actually planters.

I love baby accessories…they are just adorable!  They make for great decor, even if they won’t always wear them.

And finally, the collage wall.  This was a lot of fun to put together.  Three of the photos are from our travels, Paris, Rome, and Colorado.  Then I framed a postcard from when I was in Australia and New Zeland, and another from London.  The center piece with the deer silhouette was a find on etsy that helped suffice my husbands love for outdoors and hunting.  Throw in a mirror that I painted yellow and a couple more hats and it’s complete!

It was a lot of fun to put together this nursery for my sweet boy.  Each time I am in there I am filled with memories from all the different pieces and photos.  It will be great to add to them as Ellis grows.

Favorite Items

The vintage kitchen cabinet.

Advice

Rummage through your grandma's house, visit garage sales, estate sales and antique stores, think about ways you can reuse some of your existing furniture, and be sure to add personal touches!

27 Ways To Create The Perfect Travel-Inspired Nursery - Limitless Duo

Thursday 5th of May 2016

[…] projectnursery.com […]

Rachel

Tuesday 12th of January 2016

What website did you find that great map on?

Ross Neytiri

Tuesday 16th of July 2013

Very nice, masculine room. This is certainly something he can grow up in.

PN_Sabrina

Wednesday 10th of July 2013

I really love the color blue that you selected! Beautiful!