Train-Themed Nursery Reveal

When a young couple who are already parents to two little boys approached us to design their third son’s nursery, we were excited to jump on in! Their older boys’ rooms feature themes—airplanes for their oldest and outer space for their younger son—and they wanted the nursery to have its own theme as well—trains! The couple had a vintage train set that was important to them, and they really wanted to display it in the nursery, so we used that as our starting point.

The colors of the train are mostly primary. Primary colors can be a bit strong for a nursery, but if you use them in the right way, they can be a lot of fun. We really wanted to incorporate stripes but in a way that we hadn’t used them before, so we decided to paint them on the ceiling. We love the unexpected pop when you enter the room. It’s a bright statement, but it doesn’t feel too overpowering. Next, we paired the bold stripes with a neutral faux bois wallpaper for texture. We then added more pops of color with the artwork above the crib as well as the bedding. The rug was the perfect finishing touch to the room. It really reminds us of a warm flannel.

On the other side of the room, we added in a rustic dresser from Restoration Hardware that we had painted red. Above the dresser, we hung these great gear mirrors that play on the locomotive theme. We dressed up the changing table with a monogrammed caddy that can hold toys for baby Adam to play with while mom can easily change him.

Of course we had to include our favorite shelves from Ikea that we love so much! Not only do the shelves provide a place to put Adam’s library on display, but the books themselves act as artwork to bring more color and whimsy to the nursery. We just love the idea that Adam will be able to look at the covers when he is a little older and pick out the book he wants mom or dad to read. We dressed up his custom rocking chair (that we had covered in a kid-friendly tweed) with a bright yellow side table and a fun little fox-shaped pillow we found from the Etsy seller Tidwell Hollow Friends. Seriously, isn’t Etsy the greatest? All of those artisans right at your fingertips!

We hope you enjoyed a tour of this cute little train-themed nursery that we designed. We had so much fun pulling it together. Stay tuned to see older brother Ben’s outer space room for our next reveal!

photography by John Woodcock Photography