Katie McSwain

With sweet little Nash Tucker being my 3rd boy-I wanted to do things different with his nursery. My first two boys had themes and there was just a lot to them so this time I wanted to have a somewhat “themeless” nursery and stick with the motto that less is more. This was an absolute challenge for me as I love themes and I love designing rooms that have themes so I had to think a little more outside the box this time.
Once we decided his name, I knew that I must have hints of Nashville included in his nursery. While my husband and I love Nashville (it’s actually one of our absolute favorite places) and country music…No-We did not name him after the city we just  simply loved the named Nash and knew it was the one from very beginning.
My inspiration was a country meets modern color scheme along with keeping the room neutral so he will be able to grow into it. I have always loved Buffalo Plaid Check patterns and it just so happened it was  super popular at the time. I needed to pick another solid base color that would mesh well with the black and white buffalo check patterns and that is where this pewter meets navy color came to life. Finally, I needed to use sliver or gold as an accent color and while at first I was drawn to silver, I decided to challenge myself and go with gold. I am not a HUGE fan of gold, I am more of a rose-gold gal but I knew that once I added all of these colors/patterns together-it would come to life. Pinterest was a huge inspiration for me as it always is! It truly made my vision of these colors come to life.
My favorite piece of any nursery is a name sign above the crib. This is the one item I put the MOST thought to as I feel it is always the focal point of a nursery. My husband and I were shopping at a local antique mall and we came across this large marquee light sign that had one of those famous lit up arrows that you will find at any bar in downtown Nashville. The the sign was advertising a George Straight show and I am convinced it was hand plucked from a bar in downtown Nashville back in the day. As much as I wanted this sign and immediately dreamed of way I could make it work- it was just too large for the wall in our nursery but that is when I knew I had to have Nash’s name in lights or a marquee lit arrow, so the search begin. I searched high and low for Marquee lit letters and arrows and could not find anything that I liked. I came across these black thin steel letters at hobby lobby and I just loved the way his named looked when spelled out with these letters. The search went on for a marquee lit arrow. After months and months of searching, I finally came across a company on Etsy that had exactly what I wanted and his name sign came to life!
This nursery is by far my most budget friendly nursery I have designed and I am super proud of it. It was a lot of DIY work at the hands of my handy husband. We put this nursery together in about 2 weeks all while adding an additional bedroom to our house and raising to other rambunctious boys-talk about crazy! I’ve listed all the deets below, hope you enjoy!

I have always been a huge fan of nurseries that children can grow into so this is something I always keep in mind when deciding on a theme. I went with a traditional nautical theme for our first born and knew I wanted something totally different for our second. I knew  I wanted to do some type of painting or ship lap for the main wall of the room and I happen to come across the collaboration of Carousels Design/Project Nursery’s beautiful mountain bedding. I instantly knew this would be my color scheme and theme, so thank you for that inspiration! I was going for a mountain/adventure/dreamer room. I fell in love with the Peter Pan quote ” To live would be an awfully big adventure” and knew I had to incorporate it somehow.
I get a lot of questions about the mountain mural. Luckily, my husband is as handy as they come and I knew he would have no problem making this come to life for me. I found different pictures of mountain paintings on Pinterest and was able to give him an idea of exactly what I wanted the mountains to look like. The hardest part of this was picking out the paint colors. I am such a visual person and we all know how different paint looks once you get a couple coats on your wall. It took us 2-3 months and 500 trips to the paint store to finally decide on the colors. The actual painting itself took a couple weeks as it was very time consuming but my husband and son had so much fun working this together. I will eventually post a DIY Blog post to show exactly how he did it so be sure to check it out! ( link to blog on profile)
Another must have this time around was a “dainty” crib. I knew the mountain wall was going to be busy enough so I didn’t want to overwhelm the room with bulky furniture. I found the perfect crib at Ikea AND it was very budget friendly so that was a win-win in our book! We were also able to find a dresser at Ikea that gave us maximum storage which was important. I changed out the boring knobs with cute ones that went along with the theme and it really added a nice personalized touch to the room. We also painted a lot of things if the color wasn’t quite right. My husband purchased a professional sprayer which made it super easy to do-highly recommend doing, especially if you are a crafty person.
I am a huge fan of supporting small businesses and Etsy is one of my favorite places to shop. While I did manage to find things at some big box stores, a lot of the decor is from Etsy or small shops that I found right here on Project Nursery! I was able to find pieces from all around the world- Greece, United Kingdom, Canada to name a few. This is another perk of Etsy and the ability it gives us to connect with other mom’s all around the world. There is nothing sweeter than knowing another mama half way across the world put so much love into a unique one of a kind piece for your child’s room.
Nursery Photos- Ashley Hales Photography
 

My husband and I went through infertility as well as a loss of our first child, so Beckham was our miracle baby. Despite anything going on in our lives, knowing that I was carrying a healthy baby boy is what kept us anchored each and every day. A nautical themed nursery couldn’t have been a more perfect theme for our son’s room. I also wasn’t into the any of the monkey/jungle themes and wanted something he could grow into!