Midcentury

Have you seen those amazingly made over playhouses on your screen lately?  You know, the ones that are nicer than your own home?  So have I, but not in my own backyard.  We purchased the playhouse almost two years ago for our daughters second birthday.  After much love and (A LOT) of labor, the house was put together with no extra frills or details and was placed in our backyard.   We had a great time playing and letting our imaginations take over.  Now almost two years later, the playhouse no longer looked loved.  The elements had gotten the best of it and the house was being overrun by the awful W’s.  Wasps and wolf spiders (eek!).  The house was just begging for a make over, and after all, I do love a good project.
After thoroughly cleaning the house, I was able to persuade my husband to help take it apart and move it inside.  Thankfully, after taking some measurements, it would fit in the playroom and so we moved it in there.   Because of it’s size, I chose to keep the colors light and bright.  I started with a good primer and brushed painted the entire house.  I then went to my go to white paint, Benjamin Moore Simply White, (this is my trim, door, and cabinet color in my house) and gave the house three good coats.  I chose a pretty blush pink for the door and top window shutters and spray painted the phone, phone holder, and planter boxes in black.  The play kitchen and food shelves fit perfectly on the back wall with two additional shelves installed above the kitchen for storage.  Since the playroom can sometimes be a little dark, I opted to keep the window areas bare and not reinstall the plastic windows that came with the house.
To complete the space I moved the art desk and it’s crayons and pencils to the opposite wall and painted the roof on the dollhouse in the blush pink to match the playhouse.  Everything else in the playroom was able to stay the same (sources all listed here).  The project took a full five days to complete and we are all enjoying having it inside.  After a much needed makeover the playhouse is now loved again!

As a first time mom not knowing the gender of my baby but wanting to be prepared as possible,  I  choosed neutral colors for our little Sunshine. I figured that by selecting the beautiful combinations of neutral colors such as yellow, gray and white, I didnt have to stress about the gender of the baby. My husband and I always sang “You are My Sunshine”  and “Twinkle Twinkle” to the baby while in the belly and we both knew that we wanted to make these songs part of our baby’s lullaby night routine. This idea helped us choose essential parts of the nursery such as the lamps, wall decals, courtains and pictures. Best advise to parents is to have fun with choosing colors instead of specific themes as this rule was essential in our decision making and made our dream nursery a fun and stress free project. (Nursery Pictures by Jose Diaz)

Simple midcentury modern nursery for a little girl. Simplicity and purity.

I am sharing this project as visual inspiration for those who may be interested in putting together a neutral nursery that can be customized for either gender with personal items. Also, to share with my family and friends who don’t have the opportunity to visit us personally but, want to see the finished product.
As our last planned child, and the last nursery I knew I’d be decorating, I wanted to make a serene and comfortable environment that wasn’t too childish and something that our daughter can grow with in years to come. I also knew I wanted to use a mostly monochromatic color palette that could be personalized with gender specific items and pops of brighter colors. For example, I custom dyed my crib sheets.
Everything has a light and airy, farmhouse feel, but the midcentury furniture keeps the look modern. This is, by far, my favorite room in my house, right now. I’m so excited for our little lady to move in!
P.S. In these photos there are still some power cords we need to conceal for safety reasons. The purpose of these photos is to display the overall aesthetic of the room itself.

Having the privilege to decorate a nursey was something I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to do. For my husband and I our journey to parenthood was a 3 year or so up hill battle. It took us 6 IUI cycles and 7 IVF cycles (including 2 early miscarriages) to finally get the love of our lives, little baby Sloane.
I didn’t really start planning the nursery until we were far enough along in the pregnancy. Although I will admit, once we got to the IVF point I thought it would work right away and did buy her rocker. Originally it sat in its box in her empty room, where eventually it got moved downstairs to either hopefully be used one day or sold if not. Thankfully a couple years later we got to bring it upstairs and it still suited the room well.
Even though I didn’t plan any of the décor early in advance I always knew I’d want neutrals of gray, white, black & gold along with a pop of color throughout, just like the rest of our home. I chose corals and peaches as the main pop of color. The nursery is overall a budget friendly project. I like to find higher end inspiration ideas and find a way to make a cheaper version. The “marble” shelving is actually Ikea plastic brackets spray painted gold and pine shelves covered in marble contact paper. The mid-century dresser, which is one of my favorite pieces in the room, was a Craigslist find that I refinished adding the white paint, staining the legs and underside darker and drilling holes for the new knobs. Another one of my favorite items would be the heart blanket my Mom crocheted. Most of everything else was purchased from Home Goods, Target, West Elm, Urban Outfitters and Pottery Barn Kids. I couldn’t love the outcome more and I think her room can easily grow with her as the years go by!

What once was a generic shared room for our daughters, is now a fun space for our youngest to call her own. When her big sister moved to her own bedroom, we wanted to create a space for our youngest that reflected her fun, spunky, and eclectic personality. The walls got a fresh coat of white paint, and we hand painted the black and white feature wall. We found some amazing pink and turquoise decor and accessories to finish off the space. I had been on the hunt for the perfect curtains for this room, and just couldn’t find what I was looking for. Until a quick Ikea trip, were I spotted a duvet cover that I fell in love with! I refashioned it into curtains, and they are perfect for the space! Not too busy, but just busy enough to add that pop of colour and fun to the room.
 

I had the amazing honor of designing a nursery for my sweet friend (turned client!) located in Miami.  She was keeping the gender a surprise and thus, we had to design the  nursery that was both a combination of her vision as well as mine, all the while making it perfectly sweet for a girl or boy.  My client errs more towards a minimalist, with pieces and decor that have significance in her – and her husbands – life.  They live in a beautiful high-rise building in Brickell so I was fortunate enough to have an incredible foundation to start with.  Perfect lighting (hello floor to ceiling windows!), gray cement floors and white walls were exactly what I needed!  My vision for the nursery was threefold:  incorporate textures to warm up the space, add in a bit of mint tones to offer color and dimension and last, ensure there was purpose in the design.  My inspiration came from all over to be honest.  I LOVE combining all sorts of brands and price points and I did that here – from IKEA to Target to Land of Nod to West Elm to Amazon, this truly is a space that many moms-to-be can create themselves, in their own set price range.  The first thing we did was decide on the key pieces of furniture and the marquee piece was for sure the West Elm dresser/changing table.  My client loved this (and so did I) as it’s functional, the geometric lines fit into the moodboards I created and the piece will last them forever.  Once the furniture was solved, the room really started to take shape.  I knew the space had to have a perfect rug and the mint Land of Nod against the gray cement floor was perfect.  Layering some faux sheepskin rugs on top really created the warmth I wanted.  The hero decor item of the space was the Bible verse wood art above the crib from House of Belonging.  I am pretty sure we both cried when we hung this up! We also really wanted cute animals as part of the design so the simple gallery wall paired with the most adorable lamb for the floor as well as stuffed animals did just that!  And the stars.  Wall decals are the EASIEST thing and such a cute resource to decorate your walls…the gray stars just brought it all together.  The room symbolizes new life…stars, animals, bible verses.  Warm, cozy, practical.

As soon as we found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to design a non-gender-specific nursery. I pinned beautiful images of calm, neutral nurseries with whites and greys and natural textures… And then I remembered my decor style is really more maximalist thrift-store colour explosion than dreamy sparse minimalism.
I chose a colour palette of coral, yellow, mint and navy – I wanted it bright and cheerful, and I wanted the crib to be a real stand out piece.
Being on a rather tight budget meant I had to get creative. Most of the pieces were sourced secondhand or DIY-ed by me. The crib I scored for $30 and painted a bright coral, the rocker was another secondhand find that I took apart, dyed and made a new cushion for to better suit the room (why are rockers so uuugly!?)
The light pendant was a DIY based on the tutorial from Petal + Ply, the curtain pulls from a Design*Sponge tutorial and the buntings were also made by me.
I finally put the finishing touches on the room 3 months after my son was born, and it’s by far my favourite (and the only finished) room in the house!