Twin Girls Seaside Cottage

Description

The project was to turn the second bedroom which started with four coffee colored walls into my dream nursery for my twin girl miracles! This most likely will be the only nursery I design since it was so hard to have our babies that I really wanted to make sure I did it right and to my heart's content... my husband was great and let me just go and dream.

Design Inspiration

Early on in the pregnancy I knew I wanted to do some sort of seaside cottage theme... because just hearing "seaside cottage" I think of peace, relaxation, warm breezes, and charm. The previous summer my husband and I stayed in this stunnng cottage way up in maine on a little tiny island and I was blown away by the details in the cottage.

Decorating Style

I gravitate towards modern and preppy looks I would say. With a seaside cottage theme it was easy to incorporate that preppy look with some slightly bolder accents... the pink and green classic prep look.

Project Details

• The walls were first, my husband put up white bead board on all the walls about 2/3 up the walls. My sister then helped paint the walls a barely there pink called Sweet Nothing (Behr).
• The cribs were a great find and rated best basic buy from a safety review site, the IKEA GULLIVER crib in white, just $99!!!!http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20203332/
• Crib bedding was tough, I looked at hundreds of pictures but in the end my sister in law sent me a fabric swatch with primary colored whales on white background and I knew the room needed to be made around that. So I had custom bedding made from Cottage Belles on Etsy. I chose to make sheets in the whale and the bumper have whales because I can't use the bumper until they are a little bigger and I still wanted to have the whales in the room. but with the whale bumper I have an array of shades of pink sheets to go with it.  http://www.etsy.com/people/CottageBelles?ref=ls_profile
• The chair was custom made from Jordan's furtniture, the fabric was just what I wanted a bold and modern green graphic print. The chair swivels and glides!
• The dresser was also purchased from Jordan's furniture and I liked it for its simple details it looked like something that would be in a cottage. On top of the dresser I had plenty of space for all the changing table needs. ( I did have Cottage Belles on Etsy make a whale changing cover, in the event the girls whale sheets were in the wash I could still have whales in the room)  
• The art on the walls is a neat story, about 6 years ago I was up in Maine with my grandparents visiting and we went to a flea market and someone was selling boxes and boxes of vintage sheet music. I looked through it and picked out 5 of the pink/green ones, I think I paid $1.  I framed them in white Christmas tree store frames (5$ each). Who knew years later they would be the perfect addition to my cottage look. Someone also gave me two of the baby shower invitations framed in these gorgeous white shadow boxes that I put on the white shelves I had lying around the house for 8 years! On the other shelves I put these small vintage looking fairytale mirrors from potterybarn.
• I knew for lighting I wanted one of those large hanging shell capiz lights but it was hard to find a floor version, but with perserverance I found it at PBteen.  Then I found at Pottery barn kids the Pink Crystal seahorse and knew it was a impractical must have. The last light on the dresser is a simple white chabby chic candlestick looking light with a white shade that I hot glue guned on some pink gingham fabric.
• Other accessories that were must haves were the pottery barn kids pink paper seahorse mobiles. They really brought a whimsical touch to the room. The whale shaped chalkboard from etsy benfloeter, the chalk is the spout on the whale, http://www.etsy.com/shop/benfloeter?ref=pr_shop_more and the yellow whale tissue box cover from etsy shop gnomesweeeetgnome (the tissue comes out as the whale spout) http://www.etsy.com/people/gnomesweeeetgnome?ref=ls_profile I got the starfish hooks and fish robes from pottery barn kids. The actual starfish from an online seashell store. The buoy and boats sign from Jordan's furniture. The Whale wicker toy basket, giant pink octopus (we named her Taffy), and pink and white polka dotted pails are from pottery barn kids. My mother made me matching whale burpclothes which I love!!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/fudgieknits and I ordered carseat canopies with the whale fabric from etsy store babycreations123 http://www.etsy.com/shop/babycreations123?ref=ss_profile
• The closet was also important to me to match the room it was inspired by the container store http://www.containerstore.com/shop/elfa/bestSellingSolutions/closets?productId=10019091&N=68559&Nao=20 but I didn't have the money to do this exact one so my husband replicated with less expensive shelving and the polka dot storage. The curtains were made by a close family member.

Favorite Items

so hard... The white bead board set the cottage stage for sure... but I am in love with my green & white chair, the whale tissue box, whale shaped chalk board, pink starfish hooks, and of course the WHALE FABRIC... I love details and those ones really made it for me.

Advice

Start early so you can really take your time searching for pieces you want. I used powerpoint to mock up each wall in the room and I would save pictures of all the things I wanted and rearrange them. This was great because there were somethings I ended up not getting cause it would have maybe been too much... like an boat oar coat hook.. I saved it but I found the starfish hooks and fell in love with those more. So for me as a visual learner I needed to see it and play with before I bought it all. HAVE FUN!!!!!!!! A special thanks to Jill Serrano Photography for taking some gorgeous shots of the nursery! http://jillserranophotography.com/