Rustic Vintage DIY Boy Nursery

Description

A boy’s nursery filled from floor to ceiling with vintage objects, DIY projects and a rustic gallery wall. We tried to balance what we love as adults with what will engage our son’s imagination and his feelings of belonging.

Whilst it is currently a nursery, it can easily be transformed into a toddler room by switching out the crib for a bed. One of these days I will be able to get rid of the feeding chair, but for now we still use it every morning.

Design Inspiration

The inspiration for this room is eclectic: maps, travel, flight, natural wood, cowboys, the Wild West (his name is Jesse, as in ‘Jesse James’), dragons (he is a year-of-the-dragon baby), vintage toys, play, imagination, wonder … and a passion to fill a child’s space with special items saturated with meaning, history, our stories and love.

Decorating Style

Eclectic, vintage, rustic, DIY. We tried to use clean, neutral basics and layer the room with texture, colour and pattern. The accents can be changed as our son grows and develops ownership over the space.

Project Details

Crib/cot: King Parrot, Daintree (discontinued, but similar to the Scout model)

Origami birds: DIY (YouTube has video tutorials on just about everything!)

Around the World airplane mobile: AM Living

White wicker rocking chair: eBay

Map: Originally from Stanfords, UK. Cut into a triptych and mounted on board. (They also have fab Wall Map wallpaper!).

Bird decals: michellechristina on etsy

Dragon decal: Hiccups http://www.hiccupsforkids.com.au/

Chest of drawers: MALM, IKEA

Shelves: LACK, IKEA

Turquoise leather ottoman: Table Tonic http://tabletonic.com.au/

Turquoise embroidered ottoman: bought locally

Beanbags, afghan blanket, frog soft toy and Raggedy Andy: made by my mum

Flag cushion covers: xinghuajiang on etsy

Wild West / Cowboy / Yee-haw cushion: Petite Bijou http://www.petitebijou.com.au/, local talent who also made us an amazing tepee for our playroom

Canvas words wall art: DIY. I loved the Almond Tree bus scroll canvases, but wanted to make something more personal

Wine crate for shelf: sourced for free

‘JESSE’ sign: DIY using Urban Outfitters letters

‘Jesse 12’ Route-66-inspired wooden sign, using his name and birth year: DIY made from cutting MDF board, painting, stenciling, distressing (with a hammer, and with a drill to create ‘bullet holes’, Wild West style), staining (I didn’t have a wood stain on hand so used black tea mixed with gloss varnish)

Bunting: from Carousel Belle on etsy

Map ‘J’: Urban Outfitters

Scrabble ‘J’ canvas: Typo http://shop.cottonon.com/shop/typo/

Vintage toys and letterpress letters spelling 'WILD': etsy sellers

Frames for gallery wall: raw frames from hardware store Bunnings, painted by me and filled with found objects: a vintage VW toy car glued to board and my scarf from the Pamplona Running of the Bulls (circa 2002)

Rocking horse: gift

Our collections scattered throughout the room: the snow domes collected while travelling, the world map, the Egyptian hieroglyph alphabet papyrus, my first oil painting painted when I was 6 years old, the hanging mouse and cat bought in Czech Republic, the hanging camels bought in Morocco, the tile-framed mirror bought in Mexico, the horseshoe from my great uncle’s farm in the Czech Republic (Europeans hang them U-down so that the luck runs pours out onto the family).

Favorite Items

This was a great opportunity to feed my ottoman obsession. And I’m also pleased with the DIY signs and the gallery wall. But my favourite thing in this room is the map. We bought it while living in London and began adding colour-coded stickers of our travels. It lived blue-tacked to walls in the UK and Australia until we had it sliced in three and mounted onto board. We are adding our children's travels as they adventure with us.