Description
This is the nursery we put together for our daughter, Lark. We reused the crib, dresser, changing table, and rocker that were in our older son's nursery and changed out all the accessories to create a bright, cheerful, and stimulating space for our baby girl to grow in.
Design Inspiration
The primary design inspiration for Lark's nursery was actually the rest of our house, which is pretty consistently modern with white walls and colorful accents, and a few vintage pieces scattered throughout for balance. It's certainly not a requirement that all the rooms in your house have a consistent style, but it was important to me that ours do—so that determined the style of Lark's room for me!
The second piece of inspiration for Lark's room was that beautiful red, pink, green, and blue striped rug from Pattern Society. I really disliked the ugly, builder-basic beige carpeting that was already in the room, but we couldn’t afford to replace it with wood flooring, so I decided to cover as much as I could with an area rug. I’d pinned that Pattern Society rug awhile ago and I came across it once again as I was searching for options, and lo and behold, it was on sale! I snatched one up immediately and it was perfect—colorful, modern, gender neutral, and it set the stage for everything else that was to come in the room, because from then on everything was pretty much trial and error. I would bring things into the room and ask, “Hmm, how does this look in here?”
Decorating Style
My style is probably best described as bohemian modern: I like a clean white background, interesting lines and forms, and a colorful, textural overlay. I want every room in my home to be cheerful and inviting, but most of all comfortable and FUNCTIONAL. There's nothing too precious in our house; everything has to work with the way our family lives on a daily basis.
Project Details
We DIYed a few elements in the space as well: my husband and I built the little modular shelves that house Lark’s toys and books; I sewed the floral pillow cover for the pillow on the rocking chair out of some fabric scraps I had left over from making my son a bowtie; and (mostly because of budget limitations), I also crafted several of the art pieces in the room.
Favorite Items
I have lots of favorite things in the room: the cactus crib sheet is one. The cat-in-glasses print that hangs over the crib is another. Both are examples of recurring motifs throughout the room (and our home) that I really love: succulents, cats, and eyes!
There are also several things in the room that are meaningful to me personally: a crocheted blanket that my mother-in-law surprised us with that matches the rug and room and perfectly; two fairy-tale pop-up books that were mine as a little girl; a floral watercolor painting that was done by my great-aunt and left to me by my grandmother when she passed away several years ago; and the little porcelain birds (a sugar and creamer set) that belonged to my great-grandmother and somehow found their way to me. I put them on the shelves before we'd decided on the name Lark, but now they're even more special!
Also: I freakin' love that macrame wall hanging over the changing table. It's a showstopper, for sure.
Advice
I have two pieces of advice. The first is: make your nursery work for you. Make the important things accessible, and then pretty them up as much as you can. I put my blankets and burp cloths in a nice basket by the chair where I nurse most often; I put lotion, hand sanitizer, Vaseline, and nail clippers in a pretty bowl on a nice tray. Your nursery can't just be a showpiece; it has to function as well.
My second piece of advice is to create a space that appeals not just to a baby, but you as well—because babies grow up quickly, and you want the room to be able to grow with them too. So choose elements that are interesting for baby to look at—high contrast, patterns, bright colors—but aren't necessarily baby-specific. For the most part, Lark's nursery consists only of things I would use—or have used!—in any other room in my house.