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Penny’s Pastel Nursery

Description

A budget nursery "born" from happenstance.

Design Inspiration

It's kind of a long story. :/   I actually started with the room layout and furniture. Boy or girl I wanted white furniture. Also, the room is rectangular with a window smack in the middle of the shorter wall. I thought this would make sweet window seat but was not going to pay for built-ins. I found what I needed at Ikea (my first stop of course), a set of bookcases and what is actually a matching TV stand to use as a bench.  The bookcases (which miraculously fit perfectly) have a beadboard detail behind the shelves. From this a sort of "cottage" theme was "born". (For the record, had the baby been a boy I would have parlayed the beadboard into a nautical theme. :))  Its hard to see in the pictures but the crib and owl picture frames have a beadboard detail too.

As for colors, I painted the walls years earlier as a guest room and thought that the color would be too masculine for a girl's nursery. However, when I put a few baby gifts (a light pink blanket and a mint green onesie) in the room, I noticed how they popped against the blue walls. So, I decided to do a room of a variety of pastels instead of focusing on one color. Once I figured this out, and in keeping with the cottage idea, I wanted the room to be soft and sweet with a garden feel without being literally a garden theme. Hense the baby animals, flowers etc.

Decorating Style

I don't think I have a set style its more of zillion trial and error trips to Homegoods.

Project Details

Almost every piece (furniture, art, accessories) is on the Pinterest board I created for this room. (Penny Room Pinterest Board)  I even searched out and added items I bought at Homegoods, previously owned, received as gifts, etc. to keep track of all of it. I think that helped a lot to keep things straight and allowed me to have picture of everything with me when shopping.

Some things worth mentioning in further detail.

The owl prints: I got these from a sweet woman on Etsy. She makes all different kids of adorable prints. (Etsy Shop)  She also put up with me agonizing over the colors of each tiny part of the pictures which she lets you customize (I even picked out the eye color).  She also performed some kind of magic and matched the blue in the prints to the wall paint color when sent her a link to the color on the Benjamin Moore site. Once they arrived, the color vibrancy and paper quality far exceeded my expectations.

Duck picture: I also got the duck print on Etsy (Amy Tyler Photography) They are also gorgeous.

The walls are Airway by Benjamin Moore. (Airway)

The glider is a bit of a DIY project.  I wanted a white slipcovered glider so that I could wash (and bleach) the cover. The only white slipcovered glider I could find was at Pottery Barn Kids and cost over $1,000 plus $400+ for the ottoman before delivery. At Ikea, I found a very similar white slip covered stationary chair and ottoman for $400 all together. This was too close to rationalize the Pottery Barn one and I knew their had to be a way to covert it into a glider.  It was easier than I though to find a variety of glider/rocker bottoms all over the internet. I got this one from amazon. Swivel Glider Ring Base  The bottom of the Ikea chair was not big or sturdy enough to attach the glider base. So, I went to Home Depot with the glider base part and pictures of the bottom of the chair. I explained to do to the awesome guy in the lumber department what I wanted to do.  He cut me a piece of 1/2" think plywood to fit the chair bottom (I brought the measurements) and showed me the screws to use to attach the wood to the chair and the glider to the wood. I went home and slapped it all together before my husband got home from work. (Kudos to me :) )

Advice

If possible, start with the furniture or at least a layout plan, this will establish where you need accessories/art. Then, pick a piece of art or a rug that you love and take your colors from there. (I didn't exactly do that this time but I do usually.)