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When we decided to name our second daughter Isla, I thought a tropical theme would be fun.  Unlike her older sister’s room where I tried to avoid the color pink, I decided to use a lot of pink in this nursery and round it out with more neutral woods and black and white and grey.  I had seen a few tropical nurseries that were more muted, but I was happy with the whimsical, modern edge Isla’s nursery took.
I knew I wanted an accent wall with removable wallpaper and when the initial design I wanted from Pottery Barn turned out to be out of stock, it happened for the best because I finally got to buy some of Chasing Paper’s wallpaper that I’ve been in love with forever.  I love how different the black and white design is and our newborn loves the black and white as well – she stares at it all the time.  To go along with the funky design of the wallpaper, I decided to also do the modern chandelier and to leave most of the other elements pretty simple so as to not make the room too “busy”.
Once I had the pops of pink figured out in the drapes and some of the accent pieces like the flamingos and baskets, etc., the rest of the room came together pretty easily.  We live in the city in Chicago so space is somewhat tight and we decided to take the doors off the closet and make it another design element by painting it pink while adding practical storage with the ELFA shelving from Container store.
I am more of a stickler for practicality in design now that I’m a mom of 2 (although I’m sure my husband would beg to differ) so I wanted to make sure most of the items in the room served a purpose like the bookshelves and the bins and the book ledges that are actually spice racks from IKEA.  I had fun finding the tropical trinkets I was able to add throughout the room and my mom did some custom artwork (the pineapple) in addition to enlisting our toddler to make some artwork for the room.
If you look in the sources, you’ll see I shopped high and low for most of these pieces but we’re really happy with how the room came together and I enjoy the calm but fun feel the room has from the design.
Photography is by a wonderful photographer in Chicago named Katie Basil – highly recommend her for newborn and family photos if you’re in the Chicago area.  www.katiebasil.com
 

When we learned we were having a girl, we were overjoyed!  When I went to design her nursery, I was sort of unimpressed with the options for a girl’s nursery that weren’t purely pink.  I knew I wanted something feminine and soft, but not overtly “girly.”  Once we decided on the name “Adeline”, a “sweets” theme seemed to suit nicely.  Sweet Adeline, like the song.
I loved the idea of a mint color on the walls and some sort of “sprinkles” design feature on the wall with her crib.  Once we found the “Love You” conversation heart pillow, I used that as my original inspiration and moved on from there.  I was surprised that there really aren’t many “sweets” themed nurseries on pinterest, etc. so I had to compile pieces as I went and try to stick to the theme without being over-the-top.  I found a lot of sweets parties that I tried to garner ideas from, but the aesthetic I wound up liking most was when I would look up “bakeries.”  This especially helped with choosing the chandelier and the shelving.  I thought the gold accents would also be fun and give a more modern feel in addition to using clean lines for furniture like the crib and glider.
Designing a girl’s room without primarily using pink (I was very specific to try for peach or coral over pink) wasn’t easy.  Once I found the crib sheets and skirt that were more peachy, I was happy to know it was possible to decorate without all pink.  I also found a lot of good sweets decor options around Valentine’s Day.  Again, I consciously tried to keep the thematic in mind without buying every single dessert decoration I could find – although they’re so cute, it was hard to restrain.  My mother is a fantastic artist and I asked her to design some of the art for the collage above her changing table.  She also gave me some vintage china that belonged to each of my grandmothers to add to the collage.  I love the sentiment behind the heirloom pieces along with original artwork that my mother created.
The room itself is fairly small – maybe 10×9 feet – so I had to be conscious of space.  Taking the doors off the closet freed up a lot of space and gave me another area to design.  I also wanted to be mindful of mixing items from pricier places like Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware with more inexpensive stores like Ikea and Target.  In the end, I actually had to go to several different stores to get all the pieces I wanted to complete the room and the look.
My husband was a great help in executing my vision…because I was so large toward the end of my pregnancy, I couldn’t help much.  He happily obliged my requests like sticking sprinkles on the wall where I couldn’t reach, installing her chandelier with a dimmer, spray-painting a gumball machine gold, and painting the whole room and closet.  We were ecstatic with how the room turned out and feel all our hard work paid off.   Even now that Adeline’s 3 months old, I feel like her room is a very peaceful sanctuary and such a relaxing space full of special touches.  Girls truly are the sweetest!
Photo Credit: Bethany at Maypole Studios Chicago; http://blog.maypolestudios.com/