Designer Vanessa Antonelli recently designed Lauren and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino’s nursery and playroom for baby boy Romeo, and the rooms are gorgeous! Both spaces perfectly merge the classic with the dramatic. As usual, Vanessa has thought out every inch of the space, and in each part of the room, there is something special. Luckily, Vanessa shared all the details about the space with us—we’ll let her take it from here!
When I first met with the Sorrentinos about their nursery and playroom, I fell in love with their incredible ceilings in the spaces and knew we needed to highlight them in the designs. I worked with Barron Designs to create custom beams to go across Romeo’s bedroom and then had Micalizzi Furniture match the exact color of the beams on his crib. The end result is a room that is modern but feels warm, with so many textures and an inviting color palette.
The furniture is just outstanding! The dresser and bookcase were custom designed for Baby Sorrentino by me and then brought to life by Buildlane with acrylic hardware from LuxHoldups and an acrylic changing tray by Lello Baby, which all perfectly complements his crib. The room is a great size and shape for the crib to be placed in the center and with a two-sided acrylic crib, we get a great view right through.
I loved working with Lauren and Mike. Lauren put her trust in me and gave me the freedom to work my magic and create these amazing rooms for her family. Mike was focused the entire time on making sure the rooms were everything Lauren wanted, which was super sweet.
There are so many pieces of unique art in these spaces! Once the room was designed, Jessie Rubin worked with me to create two custom oversized canvases that are showstoppers! Lauren wanted a subtle “prince” themed room so there are elements of this theme throughout the space. In Jessie’s art you can see a somewhat hidden crown and Le Petit Prince, as well as stars. On the other side of the room is one of my signature acrylic filled frames. The frame was created by Architectural Plastics, and we filled it with THOUSANDS of tiny little gold crowns. Seriously, that many.
The playroom is so much fun! We wallpapered the ENTIRE room—floor to ceiling with a custom wallpaper I designed with Spoonflower. Most clients would be terrified of that, but Lauren and Mike were like, “Cool, let’s do it!”
How fun is that custom daybed? Lauren wanted a bed in the room for guests or Romeo’s future sleepovers, but we also needed to accommodate all of the toys he would one day have too, so I designed it playful and fun where the top looks like a house and the team at BuildLane brought it to life for us. One of my favorite details in the room is small, but I love when elements of a space tie together. The daybed has a custom mattress cover, and there are vegan leather handles on it. That same fabric was used across the room on the book ledges. It’s all in the details.
The room also features a tiny tyke-sized custom sectional by Micalizzi and Fabricut and a custom swing and basketball hoop for their future baller. The bear chairs that go with the tiny table might be the cutest thing I’ve seen in a long time.
No room is complete without the finishing touches. I always get so many questions about where pieces on the shelves came from. Sometimes they are family items, other times they’re gifts or things collected over the years. It varies, but I can always guarantee that there is something from Home Goods. It’s always a fun little field trip we like to take before the big reveal. Bringing spaces to life right now is extra hard due to so many material delays and worker shortages. The Sorrentinos were so patient and understanding with all of it, and I think the end result was definitely worth the wait!
Photography by Chris Veith
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See more of Vanessa Antonelli’s work here.
