Skip to Content

No-Paint Birch Tree Nursery

So when we moved to Old Town Alexandria (Virginia) and into a rental house with all white walls, I thought it would be so hard to recreate our beloved Birch Tree Nursery. “No painting allowed” was what the landlords said. Therefore I was challenged to add the robin’s egg blue and rich orange colors to Ethan’s nursery without paint. And without my painted birch trees.
Luckily I found a great vendor, NouWall, who made extra tall birch tree decals for a very reasonable price. Problem, solved. We brought in more blue on the window cornices, changing pad, foot stool, and mobile…all homemade.
In no time we had a cozy, home-like nursery in our formerly cold rental house. No paint needed!

Ellie Bea’s room

I wanted to create a room that would be comforting and soothing as a nursery, but also a modern room that Ellie could grow into and have fun transforming.  I mixed bold patterns (chevrons, stripes, ikat) and color with natural elements (birch) to provide some balance.  Elephants and owls perk up the nursery and keep it fun and whimsical.Before we even knew the gender, we started with the gray walls and then striped the ceiling in a beige/taupe.  I always knew yellow would be the other accent color, but when we found out we were having a girl, I added in plum for some girliness! We re-purposed the birch poles that we used to create our wedding chuppah and transformed them into the frame for the chalkboard wall.  The birch material and theme is also carried through in the mirror and wall decal. I wanted the wall ledges to mimic a gallery and I love that I can constantly transform the look by switching out the art, books and photos as Ellie grows.The changing table/dresser was a labor of love.  I saw a “before and after” post on Design Sponge, and I knew that I wanted to recreate this look for the changing table in the nursery.  We found the piece on Craig’s List and a friend helped create the chevron pattern.  It came out exactly like the inspiration photo!