Max’s Bright and Bold Nursery

Description

A bright and bold gender neutral nursery with lots of patterns for baby to look at.

Design Inspiration

Pinterest!  I knew that I wanted to do Tiffany blue walls for the nursery and that I'd like to incorporate black, white, and red.  A "typical pastel nursery" with animals or clouds or anything that just screamed "baby!!" wasn't for me.  I wanted to create a room that was bright, bold, and fun.  I found the black and white chevron fabric and the red and white polka dots and from there started a pinboard where I collected all of the things that I saw on Pinterest or around the web that caught my eye.  I was sure to incorporate details to represent Mommy (owls!) and Daddy (fire trucks!).  I love everything about Max's room - just walking into it makes me smile!

Decorating Style

Eclectic.  I love a little bit of everything.  I picked out the Jenny Lind crib because I wanted it for its classic, kind of romantic feel.  At the same time, I love the reading nook area for it's modern clean lines. 

Project Details

I was on a very limited budget for the nursery, but I had a very specific idea of what I wanted the room to look like, so I did a lot of DIY projects, inspired by tutorials found all over the web.  After I picked out the colors and fabrics, the first DIY project I did was the crib skirt.  I was inspired by the crib skirt tutorial at Hibler House (http://dkhibler.blogspot.com/2009/06/crib-skirt-tutorial.html), but I ended up using a McCall's pattern.  After the crib skirt, I used a Prudent Baby tutorial (http://prudentbaby.com/2009/12/baby-kid/diy-changing-pad-cover-tutorial-2/) to do the changing pad cover.  I used another Prudent Baby tutorial (http://prudentbaby.com/2011/07/prudent-home/striped-grommet-curtains-made-from-designer-fabric-and-sheets-2/) to make the grommet topped curtains.  I was inspired by the Bunting Blankets at Gus and Lulu (http://www.gusandlula.com/2011/01/bunting-blankets.html) to make my crib blanket.  Then I used the Fabric Pennant Banner Tutorial from Your Home Based Mom (http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/fabric-pendant-banner-tutorial/) to create a matching pennant banner bunting.  I used a tutorial from Our Happy Family (http://www.kenjiandjen.com/p/tutorial-recovering-glider-chair.html) to recover my glider cushions - which was a lot easier than I thought it would be!

After I was finished with all of my DIY projects, I started to fill the room with accessories found mostly at Target or created using free printables found on Pinterest.  The black and white chevron rug was purchased from RugsUSA.com and was much cheaper and shipped much quicker than I ever expected - I'm very happy with it!  The wall quote was purchased from a Totsy sale.   I chose the wall quote because I'm a huge Beatles fan - and all you need *is* love!  

I moved the little cube storage unit from my sewing room into Max's room to use as cloth diaper storage.  I decided to do a little gallery wall above it using the signature frame from my baby shower (which now has his birth announcement in the center) and some printables that I found while surfing pinterest.  I modified a couple of them to match the nursery better - I changed the colors of the pennant bunting and added the All you need is Love quote to it, for example.  The red shelves are from Target and have owls (for Mommy's owl obsession - inspired by our love of Harry Potter) and fire trucks (because Daddy is a firefighter) on them.

I created a little reading nook using the "Ikea spice racks as front facing book shelves" idea and placing two storage ottomans purchased at Target underneath.  The ottomans hold more books and some toys.

The large red garbage can on the left side of the changer is our cloth diaper pail.  A printable owl mobile found on Pinterest hangs above it from a large shelf that was originally made for my husband by his grandmother.  Max loves to stare at the owl stickers that are below the shelf while he gets changed.  On the table to the right of the changer is a lamp from Target and a framed piece of artwork created by Max's cousin when she was a year and a half.  Max loves to stare at that when I'm nursing him on the glider.

Favorite Items

I love the way that the crib area turned out, with the DIY crib skirt, crib blanket, and pennant banner bunting above it framing, "All you need is LOVE".  I also really love the way the glider cushion covers came out - I think because I was really intimidated by the project, but it turned out to be easier than I expected!

Advice

Definitely go with your gut.  If you like something, try and incorporate it into the room - don't worry about if it's "right for a nursery".  Also don't be afraid to DIY.  Even if your project doesn't come out perfect, you'll probably be the only person that would ever notice the imperfections and you'll end up with something totally you and totally unique!