Projects

My husband and I wanted to do a nursery theme that was not only different, but would grow with our son through the years. We love moldings and traditional decor, so we let that guide us initially and when the idea to do an equestrian nursery came to us we knew instantly it was a hit.
I grew up riding horses, so on a trip to my parents house I scaled the ladder and climbed into the attic to see what my mom had saved from those childhood days. I was so excited to incorporate things from my childhood into my son’s nursery. There were so many great things to take with me back to Virginia. From my old model horses to pieces of tack to my collection of ribbons and trophies. Many of the items in the room are handmade from those items. Lamp on side table is on old rubber boot filled with plaster and fitted with lamp hardware (Home Depot) and a cute shade (Home Goods). The ribbons were used to make the shadow box wall decor (Michaels). We purchased very masculine and dark furniture (bought from Hayneedle) which we knew would pop against the white board and batten we installed. The navy plaid, red houndstooth, and hunter green stripe fabrics which are the base for all of the soft goods were bought from Joanns and I made most of the items (curtains, bed skirt, chair pillow, and changing pad cover). Pinterest and YouTube are great resources to find tutorials on how to make these things. I am not a sewing expert but I can sew in a straight line and managed to do myself proud. Thanks so much to Arli Quinn Photography for capturing my vision for Maxwell’s Equestrian Nursery. Can’t wait to do the next one!

When I found out I was having a girl my mother, aunt and I started my nursery project right away. My great grandmother painted the picture years ago that inspired the nursery, she titled it “Love Birds”. It is hanging above the crib. Coincidentally, the bedding I loved by Carousel Designs was also called “Love Birds”. Everything came together beautifully! My advice would be to take your time making decisions, find a piece that is meaningful to inspire you, and always carry around your fabric samples (you never know when you will come across something that works!)
 

My daughter loves the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and I have been singing her to sleep with this song since she was a newborn. I knew this would be a fun and beautiful theme for her birthday. I designed a twinkle, twinkle party using gold, light pink, hot pink, and aqua. I scoured sites like etsy and pinterest for months looking for the perfect decorations. The result was a sparkly and beautiful party, perfect for my little girl. I wanted the ceiling to be reminiscent of a night sky so I hung star gold glitter star garlands from the ceiling of my great rooms. On the fireplace I had handmade wands in gold glitter bubble vases. A stary chalkboard sign went over the fireplace and a gold glitter twinkle banner hung from the mantle. I made my own centerpieces using roses and gold planters with gold glitter wands. I used pink crinkled taffeta linens and gold sequin runners. Monthly baby pictures of Laila were displayed on bookcases in frames that had gold glitter die cut months. Hand decorated favor bags filled with star themed cookies, went on another bookcase. I did a bunch of DIY projects such as wands, a crepe paper backdrop, and hand punched confetti for balloons and the tables, and custom centerpieces.
We served brunch food such as french toast, mac and cheese, fritatas and bagels. My talented friend, Betsy, made star shaped sandwiches, delicious mini muffiins, fruit wands and beautiful star themes cupcakes.

Even though we were keeping the gender a surprise, we still wanted a fun, happy, youthful nursery.  Using inspiration from my favorite children’s book, Blueberries for Sal, we designed the room with plenty of black bears and blueberries.  With a limited budget we took the summer to DIY our nursery, doing everything from designing our own wallpaper, upcycling furniture, and repurposing finds to make everything match our needs.  Every part of the room has some form of our love and time in it making it so sweet and heartwarming.  Milk painting the dresser and decoupaging pages from the book gave it a unique, one-of-a-kind piece to the room, while setting up the old vintage crib from when I grew up was a walk down memory lane.  Seeing the hand-stamped blueberries on the wall reminds me of the time my husband and I spent getting everything ready for our own little blueberry.  We have lived with the room now for 6 months and my little one loves it!  The blueberries have been mesmerizing from the moment his little eyes started focusing and he still chats and coos to them when he is in his room.
My advice:

DIY can be therapeutic if you are into that type of thing. I battled anxiety through my pregnancy and having the fun of various DIY projects, helped me get excited over the baby and forget my worries.  It also was a great way for my husband and I to spend time together doing baby stuff that incorporated our creative sides.
Don’t cut Corners:  We made this mistake and paid for it.  Go with your gut and do things how you know is best.
Go All In:  I was worried about the DIY wallpaper, but we couldn’t afford fancy wallpaper so we gave it a go and I am so glad we did.
Let them be Little:  Kids grow up too fast and someday they will want the more boring tones.  So what if in 15 years you are repainting those youthful colors for something more mature.  You will have to repaint by then anyways because your sweet ball of joy is going to get who knows what on those walls!

 

Tufted crib, antique white vintage furniture. Colors done in gold and teal with coral accents. Gold chandelier to set it off!

My husband and I are both movie lovers so when we found out that we were expecting our first baby, we started brainstorming right away! We are both big fans of Wes Anderson films and I have a passion for nautical decor with a mid-century modern twist, so The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was a natural choice. Even though we found out early on that we were having a son, I wanted it to be gender neutral.
We started with the big pieces, the crib, the glider, the dresser (which was a very lucky and well timed find on Craigslist!) and the bookcase, which came from my grandparents in Maryland. After we had the room set up, I started scouting online retailers, local stores and Etsy for the decor. My favorite pieces are the Zissou mobile that hangs above the crib, the ships wheel that my late grandfather gave to me, and the gallery wall of art above the bookcase. I am so happy that we were able to fill the bookcase with so many of my husband’s books from his own childhood in Ohio.
I loved designing and putting this room together so much and now I greatly enjoy spending time in it with our son. I hope that he too grows to love it as it grows with him over time!

Hi everyone. I’m Jessica Tran and I would like to share with you my daughter’s nursery.
It’s a work in progress. I started designing the nursery when I was about 5 months pregnant and I “finished” it while I was on maternity leave, but nothing is really ever finished. .
I’m going to keep this brief because I know that the best part of these shared stories are the pictures.
When I first was trying to think of a theme for my daughter’s nursery I didn’t know where to start. I wanted something pink, but I didn’t want the room drowning in pink. I didn’t want the room too bright either. I wanted something cute, but relaxed as well.
My insperation came from a baby mobile that I fell in love with, the Wendy Bellissimo Mix & Match Elephant Musical Mobile. It’s gray and white and features a couple of cute elephants and stars. After that, everything else just fell in place.
You may notice that my daughter’s crib is not actually in the nursery. I’m a huge advocate for baby staying with parents for at least the first few months of life. You just don’t know what can happen. When I gave birth to my daughter, I had her in less than 20 minutes. I pushed 4-5 times and she was out! So saying that, the doctor told us I didn’t  “squeeze her” enough during labor and she was left with a lot of amniotic fluid insider her. As a result, she would randomly choke and stop breathing. On top of that, she had acid reflux that she would also gag and choke on. Leaving her by herself was not an option.
I did buy a beautiful crib at first, but I wanted my daughter to be closer to me. So, I got the Halo Bassinest Premiere Series Swivel Sleeper in Silver Damask. It was a lifesaver. Literally. I had to rescue my daughter a few times while we were sleeping.
 

Aria May due April 6, 2016
Aria’s Bohemian Chic Nursery
Copper / Rose Gold, Pink, White, Gray, Beige, Neutral Nursery

We were living in a 600 square foot one bedroom apartment when we had our son.  I literally had 1/4 of a bedroom to make a nursery.  We decided to use a full crib instead of a bassinet and chose a Poang rocker for the small space (scored on Craigslist for $30).
My inspiration was the National Parks, but there was so much cute woodland-themed things to pick from, the room ended up with a lot of cute woodland items.
The quilt was the starting point of the room and, though many colors were used throughout the room, I focused on orange, teal, and gray for most of the decorations.
The picture above the dresser was one I took in Yosemite, one of our favorite vacations.  The dresser was in my own nursery!  The bookshelf was cheap from Target and I covered the back with fabric in the same line as the quilt.
I hung pictures of family members as babies above the crib as a lightweight decoration.
A friend sewed the bed skirt (wood grain pattern) from fabric I found at Jo-Ann’s.

Hunter Kelly is our son’s name, we wanted a kelly green and navy nursery highlighting golf (our favorite sport) and fun patterns with a rustic element to it.  My husband and father made the wood plank striped wall using cedar planks and staining them with a weathered grey color and then distressing them a bit.  We did one navy accent wall with the rest grey which looked great against the white baseboards, doors, etc.
The nursery is really golf themed, but I sprinkled in some elephants because they are so cute!

I’ve had this rainbow cake pinned for a long time, and decided it would be the perfect easy theme for our daughters first birthday. Being on maternity leave I found myself with plenty of time to go over the top, but this theme was actually very easy to plan and shop for, just buy everything in all the colors!

When converting our guest room into a nursery, we opted to keep the neutral wall color to save money on a painter.  I didn’t set out for a particular color scheme; I think the colors actually found me.  Over the course of 7 months I purchased pieces here and there at various stores (i.e., TJ’s, Kirkland’s, Ikea, Marshall’s, Home Goods, Tuesday Morning, etc.), then stored them in the room until we were ready to put the whole thing together.  When I finally looked at my purchases collectively, I realized I had selected a lot of pinks and blues.  I needed the whites and beiges to set the tone for a serene space, but the various shades of soft blues and pinks really helped to make it complete.  My oldest son’s baby armoire was given new life with some chalk paint and distressing, and suddenly it became the focal point of the room.  At the last minute I decided to purchase the mirror at Home Goods and create a ballet barre.  I anticipate it being a popular play spot one day.

Hats, boots, bandanas, horses and more. We were celebrating my nephews first birthday with a Cowboy Wild Western Party. It was so much fun to see his first steps with boots. Blue, red and cow prints everywhere. A lot of kids having fun ridding little horses.

Even before I knew I was pregnant, I had been thinking of nursery ideas.  I wanted to be ready to go the moment we found out whether Baby Parr was going to be a Jackson or an Emma.  The day we found out that we were expecting a boy, I triumphantly start reviewing all my ideas with my hubby.  He liked the theme but I could tell it wasn’t really speaking to him.  Together, we set out looking for a new idea.  It didn’t take long before we found a blog with a retro car themed nursery.  It was adorable but had some very modern colors and furniture styles.  The direction we took our room was different but that site gave us the ammunition we needed to get started.  In the end, I found tons inspiration on Pinterest and in local craft and antique stores.  I spent a lot of time trying to think through every detail so that the nursery was both cute and practical.  Now that it is completed, we couldn’t be happier with how Jackson’s room turned out and that sink is a LIFE SAVER!

My husbands love for all think Jurassic Park inspired this dinosaur nursery for our first baby.  Most of the artwork is handmade by me and my husband except for the Jurassic Park map we found on Etsy.  We had such a great time putting it all together and we’re hoping Baby C loves dinosaurs as much as we do!

For as long as we can remember, we’ve always loved nurseries, and the idea of making a space for a little one as playful, pleasing, serene and just plain spectacular as possible.  This being our first opportunity to decorate a nursery (and for my very own little one!) we shopped high and low for the perfect inspiration for Little C’s space.  That inspiration came in the form of this classic yellow and grey car nursery bedding set from Pottery Barn Kids.  We knew we wanted to do something bold on the walls, but still keeping it neutral, so we opted for the grey and white stripes with just a pop of yellow.  We chose furniture that could grow with C, and fit just as nicely in a toddler / big boy room as it does in his nursery.  Some sweet details from Etsy and the room was complete!

Not knowing if we were having a boy or girl, my husband and I chose a few must haves for this neutral nursery. We started with the leather animal bookends from Serena and Lily and the baby animal prints. Then we worked with the very talented designers at Steele Street Studios to create a peaceful room for our baby and we think it turned out beautifully.

I’m not a fan of things too boyish or too girly, so while designing the nursery for our first son Eric I tried to be as neutral as possible, but also to create a fun evironment where he can be creative and bring in his own personality later. It’s a simple design, no frills but made with lots of love (and color)!
Eric will grow up in a multi-cultural environment (dad is Slovak-Swiss, I’m Brazilian) and it was important to me that parts of our culture were embeded in the design too. I painted the cute illustrations above the crib myself, which represent characters from Brazilian mythology (the Yara, the Saci, the Cuca and the Curupira). The biligual alphabet by the armchair is also my creation which will hopefully come in handy when Eric learns how to write and read in German and Portuguese.
Finally, we managed to purchase many things second-hand and in very good condition, so I’m pleased to say that this project cost a whole lot less than one would think. :) A wonderfully rewarding project made with love.
 

My sparkly Cherry Blossom nursery was recently transformed into a big girl’s room.
Her mom did a beautiful job decorating. The tree is hand-painted and full of tiny crystals. The furniture is from Romina.

http://Www.muralsandmorebypatrice.com

 

This is Jackson’s nursery. I get so excited when I get to put together a space for my little ones. I find it important for my boys to have something that no one else does; something unique. And for that reason, I make about 90% of the things in my son’s rooms. For Jackson’s nursery, I wanted something that was kind of rustic and vintage looking but still sweet for a baby. It is kind of a hodgepodge of ideas and patterns but I feel it works. It is mainly themed with vintage bicycles but has some ABC’s mixed in. I loved creating it and I hope you enjoy it too.