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“Welcome Home” Nursery and Guest Room Re-Design

Description

In anticipation of welcoming home a new baby boy, this dual purpose space is in need of a makeover. This interior design project tackles the ins and outs of creating room for a new baby into a shared space by a big brother and future house guests.

Shop this look at YouthuflNest.com City Night Light

Mission: Place to grow for baby, grown up place ready for adults

Style: Serene whimsy for baby, sophisticated comfort for adults

Budget: $2,000 (supplies, furniture & accessories)

Design Inspiration

This is a room inspired by a love of travel. A space where one of any age can dream big!

Decorating Style

I am a huge fan of all things clean and modern. I am also a huge fan of all things vintage and full of character. In a room like a nursery I wanted that new, fresh feel for the baby, but I also wanted to add touches of warmth so it didn’t wind-up feeling sterile and cold.

Project Details

Styling and DIYTips:

1) Re-purpose & Multi-purpose

Design Details: By bringing in vintage elements like these stacked, well-used suitcases and positioning them next to a brand new contemporary glider, a sense of history creates warmth.

I saw these gorgeous dark grey suitcase at McMillan’s Antique store in Omaha, but decided to go with the golden color versions I already owned because the color was a better compliment next to the grey glider. They also have so much character including some neat stamps and stickers from being used for extensive travel. Re-purposing items I already owned also saved me a chunk of money to use on other furnishings.

As for multi-purpose, these stacked suitcases are not purely aesthetic, their form serves two needed functions. They provide both storage for an overflow of baby things and act as a side table to rest a beverage, book or bottle.

Storage: These are essential nursery pieces, but with a modest budget and space we resigned to purchasing and refurbishing used items. With such limited space in this room we realized we wouldn’t be able to place comfortably a traditional changing table and a separate dresser. It was clear that re-purposing a dresser into dual purpose changing table/storage was key. I was about to donate a tall, four drawer dresser that we had no space for in any of our bedrooms. Then it hit me that I could remove the bottom drawer and cut it down to be a comfortable counter height. It would have been a shame since it was hand built by my grandfather for my father in 1951.

Additional hi-low storage is added splurging on metallic bins from Serena & Lily alongside attractive boxes that came with baby gifts inside.

Shop Vintage Furnishing Omaha:
Midwest Pickers, 3701 Leavenworth St, Omaha, Nebraska 68105
McMillan’s Antiques, 5002 Leavenworth St, Omaha, NE 68106
Back In The Day Collectibles, 2561 Leavenworth St, Omaha, NE 68105

Shop Re-furbished Furnishings Omaha:
The Humble Home, 5018 Leavenworth St., Omaha, NE

2) Customize, Personalize

Designing a room yourself means taking advantage of the opportunity to apply personal and custom touches everywhere you can.

Wall Mural: Originally custom designed for this nursery, it has been so popular that it is now available on YouthfulNest.com DIY Skyline Mural Stencil, $125. Set of 10 individual paper stencil buildings. Each building stencil has basic instructions for application. You can use one or all of the buildings together to create the complete skyline. It is totally customizable, one can use all or only a few of the buildings and can use any paint color they want to work with their room design.

Custom outlet covers: Using pre-printed papers to upgrade outlets covers allows you to do just this and save lots of money. Today with 1,000′s of scrapbooking papers out there finding just the right look that coordinates with the room colors and theme is simple. If you can’t decide on just one look mix and match prints.

As for cost, specialty outlet covers can run from $3, $5, $15 and up per piece. Times that by 5 or 6 covers and you are on your way to blowing your budget. At $.25 – $2 for one 12″x12″ sheet of scrapbooking paper, you can do up to six basic outlets for $.25 per custom outlet!

Wall Art: The inspiration for this collection of art came from an old Pinterest pin. I loved the organized chaos aesthetic of this art filled corner. To compliment the rooms subtle city and travel theme I searched my extensive postcard collection for images in the room’s pop colors. Instead of buying expensive trinkets and bobbles to remember a place or event I visited I always pick-up an inexpensive, but memorable postcard so I had 100′s of images to choose from. However, I wanted for the main image you see as you walk into the room to be personal and rich with history. I landed on my husband’s family crest, which I tweaked on the computer and turned into a simple one color file. A basic color copy costing $3 meets a $20 oversized frame and custom piece of art is born for less than $25. As for the opposite wall’s largest image I selected an old New York City subway map I owned.

Shop Omaha:
Archivers, Village Pointe, 17110 W. Davenport St. – Suite 102, Omaha, NE 68118
The Scrapbooking Store, 721 S 72nd St, Omaha NE 68114
Michael’s, various locations

 

Favorite Items

Each nook of the room was completed with attention to detail. However, the built in storage and changing area turned out particularly well. From the motion sensor light placed in the ceiling to help with late night changes to the re-furbished dresser, everything about this area boasts function, but with an elevated aesthetic.

Advice

When you are on a budget with champagne tastes it is imperative that you allow yourself time to develop and implement a concept. Other suggestions:

1) Research and shop all venues online and retail stores for best value products

2) Consider adding personal, custom touches everywhere you can, don't settle for store bought items

3) Mix high and low priced items, splurge here and there and save everywhere else

4) Consider your lifestyle and how the room will actually be used to best select fixtures and design details

Organizing the Nursery | Getting ready to bring baby home

Tuesday 28th of February 2017

[…] table: To save on space and create additional storage, consider placing a changing pad on top of a dresser and forgo the changing […]

Lisa Su

Friday 15th of January 2016

How did you get the dresser to fit in the closet? From the pic it looks like it won't fit unless you assemble it in the closet

Tricia

Sunday 29th of November 2015

Digging the rocker too! Where is that from?

Tricia

Sunday 29th of November 2015

Loving the adult style too and that rocker. Where is the rocker chair from?

Tricia

Sunday 29th of November 2015

Loving the adult style rocker too! Do tell where that is from.