Northern Lights for Lorents « Project Nursery

A Project For: Lorents
Age: expected in June 2012
Location: Upstate, South Carolina
Description:
I had to transform a BLANK, empty(white walls, no furniture) room into a magical, cozy, stylish nursery. I have a 11 year old daughter and have wanted to have a baby boy forever....I would fantasize about boy clothes and rooms etc. Once we knew we were having a boy, I was "frozen"..I had no idea where to start or what to do!
Design Inspiration:
Starting from scratch. literally..it is very hard to "find" a point of inspiration. Most people have something, a print, fabric, a pillow..whatever as a jumping off point for inspiration, I had NOTHING! So I searched and searched, hours on end. My husband's grandfather immigrated from Norway so I started googling images of Norway. At the time there was a rare occurrence of extreme displays of Northern Lights in Norway. I have always dreamed of seeing the Northern Lights, so I began to google images of northern lights in Norway. I found an awesome photograph by Thilo Bobek http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/photogalleries/100921-aurora-borealis-northern-lights-norway-new-pictures/ . This became my jumping off point. From here, I knew I wanted to focus predominately on turquoise as the main color for the nursery and wanted to pull in heavy use of patterned fabrics and textures.
Decorating Style:
I don't think there is a name for my style b/c it's a little bit of a everything. I have learned and discovered many new aspects of decorating through this process! It's a mix of modern, classic, contemporary...I like clean, bold, simple things.I have fallen in love with fabric and patterns!!!
Project Details:
I originally wanted to wallpaper using a bold, big texture print, however it was clear that was not feasible, I guess I have expensive taste! So we decided just to paint. Paint color: Eddie Bauer Lakeside Collection Sea Breeze EB8-2 the hardest part was picking this color! I took the photo to paint stores for them to pull palette colors, used palette color creators online...nothing was giving me what I wanted.I googled turquoise and somehow came across this http://design-ties.blogspot.com/2010/07/i-think-i-found-perfect-turquoise.html , I also had several images of rooms that had turquoise as their base colors, so my husband put all the pictures in power point and copied a chip of the EB8-2. We put the chip on each picture and picked the EB8-2 right away! Turned out to be PERFECT! Once it was on the walls...it was INTENSE, I knew then I had to 'ground" it using a dark color and navy just seemed to be perfect.
Curtains: sewn by my mom, fabric.com Premier Prints Indoor/Outdoor Coral Deep Blue with blackout lining

Blinds: walmart 2 Canopy 2" Faux Wood Blinds, White; Size: 31x64

Crib: WalMart Baby Mod - Modena 3-in-1 Fixed Side Crib, Navy; Color: Navy

Changing Table: this was my daughter's(who is 11) changing table from Pottery barn , we had it painted to match the crib.

Side table: this was the nightstand from my bedroom suite as a little girl...it was traditional, old and brown. I had it painted Navy to match crib and changing table and we changed the hardware. hardware was purchased at Lowes.

Lamp: Pier1 Imports, SeaGlass lamp

Paper Lanterns: The Wrinkled Egg Flat Rock , NC

Book case: this was in my daughters room, we bought her a taller one and used this one for his room, originally purchased from home depot, I covered the back with fabric from fabric.com Premier Prints Gotcha Twill Blue

All Picture frames on wall: Michael's

Keep Calm prints: my husband created in word (very time consuming-but doable)

Old Sheldon Church print: this is where we got married AND the source/inspiration for his middle name, so we chose from our wedding photographs, I applied Sepia tone to it in Corel paint shop Pro(at same % as other prints in the "Norway" gallery) we had our local UPS store print them out.

Norway/ship print gallery: this is the ship that Lorents' great grandfather came over on in 1923 from Norway. We had a copy of his great grandfather's passport, my husband found the original "ad" for the ship and also the picture of the ship...I applied Sepia to it in Corel paint Shop pro and our local UPS store printed them.

Chair: this is a glider/recliner. BuyBuyBaby. Little Castle , "treasure", Holland navy fabric

Bins on changing table: Big Lots

Bedding: custom listing for crib sheets, changing table pad cover, boppy cover, pillow cover in Premier Prints True Turquoise 'chaz' desingsbychristy on etsy.

Letters: Michael's. white letters

Rug: urban outfitters, turquoise mixed media shag rug 3 x5

Laundry basket & toy bin- the container store, Umbra Crunch can, round and rectangular, blue.

Arc lamp: Adesso Eclipse floor lamp from Bed, Bath & Beyond

Little aqua baskets: dollar general

Navy Baskets: Michaels

Diapers on changing table: Bum Genius Cloth Free Time from http://www.upstatebirth.com/

Cloth wipes on changing table: etsy IntrovertCreations

Lorents chevron blanket & chevron burp cloth on changing table: Ava & Elliot etsy

Pacifier clips: lovebugwraps on etsy she also did coordinating burp cloths
Favorite Items:
The WHOLE room..lol. It just FEELS so calm and magical. The Rug!!! It feels so good to walk on and I just adore the multiple shades and textures! The Chair/Recliner/Glider...I was so afraid I would have to get stuck with one of the traditional gliders b/c all the ones I saw online that I could customize fabric were wayyy to expensive. We were so surprised to find this one at Buy Buy Baby with so many fabric options..AND the perfect navy/white fabric!
Advice:
Pinterest, Pinteerst, Pinterest! I started there, searched key words and found great images which lead to great sources(pinners), when I found something I liked I would go to the original source which usually led to more ideas and images. I also used Project nursery's gallery,I literally went back to page one and looked at EVERY single nursery ...even it wasn't my style or colors I found that some projects would give me great ideas that I would then take further. Etsy is also an awesome source for ideas and products. You can email any "seller" and ask questions, request specific things etc. I had INCREDIBLE shopping experiences with many sellers, they all created perfect custom listings and prices are always reasonable. Google search for images...use any and all key words you can imagine, you never know what will come up! Start early...the more pregnant you get the less you can do.. I was out on bed rest for 5 weeks at 29 weeks...literally could not do anything for his room except for look and order online....when I was able to get up and about, I was just so limited in what I actually could do b/c of contractions, pressure and belly size...LOL. Also, DON'T limit yourself...if you want a certain color crib ...you can make it happen....research, source it and if you cant find it there is ALWAYS a way to DIY it...just use pinterest.You don't have to settle for the lame "themes" that are mass marketed for babies and you don't have to be limited to the "basic" white or brown crib or glider or whatever! Find your idea, find what you want and then search and search on line until you find a way to make it happen...ANYTHING is possible!

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Northern Lights for Lorents

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