Skip to Content

DIY Nursery with Modern and Vintage Elements

Description

This nursery is a mixture of modern, vintage and DIY. I loosely tied in a forest animal theme, however, it was important to me not to be constricted by the theme or make it match too much. I also didn't want to make it a stereotypical boy's room, instead favoring a gender neutral feel. Another thing I should mention is that this room was created on a budget and whenever possible I reused and recycled items I already had.

Design Inspiration

As an artist, I am usually first inspired by color.  I started the nursery with painting color swatches.  I had a feel, an impression I wanted to convey.  My inspirational palette included tangerine orange, a Tiffany blue-green, canary yellow, slate grey, and dark brown. I wanted the nursery to have a bright, fresh feel.

Decorating Style

I love mixing styles including modern and vintage.  I also love making things myself to give it a hand-made feel. My goal was for the nursery to feel cheerful, playful, and unique.  I wanted my son to feel that his mom put her heart and soul into making his room as artistic, inspirational, and cozy as possible.

Project Details

I painted the birch tree wall mural based on designs I saw online.  The birds and owl on the wall are made of fabric.  I made these fabric wall decals and accented the eyes with buttons.  The fabric wall decal tutorial is found here. The modern crib was a gift from my mom and sisters.  It's a Monza II crib.  The acorn fitted sheet was bought on Etsy.  I made the yellow crib skirt.  I found a pattern for the birds on the bird mobile and made it myself.  The branches were taken from my yard.  The orange chevron rug was found at Urban Outfitters .  I bought the changing table on Craigslist and my husband spray painted it white.  I bought a forest animal themed embroidery pattern on Etsy and embroidered the animals.  I made the paper mache clouds and painted them with primer and then gouache paint.  They were hung with old rusty nails and fun red and white bakers twine.  My husband made the orange display shelf I designed using wood we owned.  I decorated the shelf with vintage finds including the deer, books, and an old bottle.  I felted the owl on the shelf.  I painted the sunflower gouche painting a few months before and moved it to the nursery.

Favorite Items

I love how the bird mobile came out and I had so much fun making it! I also was pleasantly surprised with the embroidered animals.

Advice

Take your time thinking about how you want the room to feel and build it around that.  Sketch ideas and gather inspiration from many sources.

Alison Mar

Tuesday 12th of February 2013

Nothing beats handmade! All these DIY items make the nursery look warm and cozy.

CMF

Monday 11th of February 2013

This is the cutest nursery I have ever seen! All the handmade items are such a nice touch. The baby is going to love it! :-)