A Pink, Red and Grey Wonderland Nursery

Description

A small, light, adorable nursery with touches of "Alice in Wonderland" and personal accents.

Design Inspiration

I knew from the very beginning that I wanted my baby girl's nursery to feature vintage prints from my favorite children's book, Alice in Wonderland (back when she wore a pink dress, not blue).  I fell in love with the colorful chandelier in an IKEA showroom the minute I saw it, so it became the design inspiration for the rest of the nursery.  I decided to design the room with a color scheme (pink, red, white and grey) rather than a "theme" so that I could combine the colors of the Alice prints and the colors of the chandelier into one cohesive look.

Decorating Style

My style is a combination of classic and modern and I tried to balance both as much as possible.  A modern IKEA crib combined with classic baby-pink ruffles, a classic design glider reupholstered in modern grey microfiber.  An important element of my decorating style is personal touches - my grandmother's vintage baby dress, the snow globe given to me as a child, the framed fortune cookie slips. I don't do "cookie-cutter" rooms; my rooms are personal.

Project Details

*Changing closet: Our space was just too small to fit the changing table in the room without it looking very crowded, so we simply put it in the closet!  I love that we can block out all the diapers, wipes, blankets and storage bins by just simply closing the closet doors.

* Glider: we found a used glider on Craigslist for $35. It was originally brown with horribly chipped paint and hideous fabric. My husband refinished and painted the wood while I made grey microfiber slipcovers. I happily discovered the little storage ottoman in the exact same color at Target.

* DIY Butterfly Mobile: Handmade by me following this tutorial.

* The baby dress in the frame belonged to my grandmother.

* The snow globe was a childhood gift from my mom.

*The Alice canvases and the "Child of God" canvas were all made by me using prints found online and Modpodge.

* I hand painted the wood letters from Joann's and added red ribbon.

* The crib pillows and quilt were handmade by me using fabric from Joann's.

* Crib, wardrobe, chandelier, mosquito net, table (no longer available), lamp (no longer available), changing table, flower light (no longer available) and closet storage were all found at IKEA.

*  Ruffle Curtain: Urban Outfitters (I cut two rows off the bottom to create the dust ruffle for the crib)

* Alice in Wonderland Books: Amazon

* Free Initial Artwork Print: Ontobaby.com

Favorite Items

My favorite items in the room are the chandelier, the ruffle curtain and the crib pillows.

The chandelier was the inspiration for the whole room because I just thought it was so adorable (and only $20!!).

I fell in love with the gorgeous ruffle curtain thanks to a pin on Pinterest, but it was out of our budget. A kind friend then bought it for us as a shower gift - and I was in love, despite the fact that it was far too long for our window and turned out to completely clash with the lamp that we originally had on the table.  But it was just too pretty to return, so we replaced the lamp and turned the extra length into a crib skirt!

The crib pillows were the very last projects that I added to the room, and they were exactly what was missing for it to be complete. They rounded out all the colors in the room so perfectly, and a friend of mine loved them so much that she requested I make some for her nursery as well!

Advice

If you have a theme in mind (like Alice in Wonderland), try to focus more on a specific color scheme that you like and then use the "theme" for accent pieces, so that the room is not overwhelmed by one specific thing. I could have overrun the room with white rabbits, Chesire cats and teacups, but then the room would have been about Alice, not Kennedy. You can make a room personal, even while using a traditional theme, by simply adding some personal touches and thinking outside the box.