Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Room and Board

I tend to get stuck when designing rooms in our house because while I LOVE all things traditional, I tend to have a touch of modern in me. However, I also tend to talk myself out of the a-touch-modern look because it seems so scary and beyond my reach; especially when trying to work with what we've already got. So I relegate myself to looking at other people's pretty, modern spaces and deem myself unworthy of ever achieving something that melds both traditional and modern together in a cool, sophisticated yet whimsical way.

But, now we have a blank slate to work with. The nursery. No previously owned furniture brought from apartments we had years ago or handed down from the family. Nope, while we may end up getting pieces that are used, because who are we kidding here, it just makes sense to do so, we have the advantage of figuring out what we want first and then trying to find pieces to fit the bill.

While this may seem incredibly exciting, I have actually found it a bit overwhelming. Until now.

One secret I like to give to my clients when I meet with them is to picture their events and come up with an inspiration board to help them define their event to anyone who lives outside their brain. I find it really helps people to focus on the overall aesthetic and feel that they want their event to achieve. This makes it much easier for me to design something that achieves the same vision and is able to evoke the right emotional response from the whoever receives the invitation.

So I figured maybe I would start my own inspiration board for the nursery and I am proud to say that it worked! Without any further ado...here is the inspiration for our nursery:




The room in the background is actually the room we are using for the nursery and it has been painted in a light espresso color. We have already purchased a dresser in dark espresso and hope to find a used crib in dark espresso as well.

I found the crib bedding set at Land of Nod but didn't like the skirt so I will switch it out with one I found on sale at Restoration Hardware Baby and Child...which is also where I found the Roman Shade and the light fixture.

The carpeting is really fun. A few months ago I saw a special on the Martha Stewart show where they were talking about FLOR, the carpet tiles that adhere to themselves and are completely customizable. I LOVED the color palate and it turns out that all the carpeting in Martha's collection is on sale. I plan on making the rug cream in the middle with a border of small squares of the other colors.

So there you go. By making an inspiration board, I was able to mix and match and edit what did and did not fit my aesthetic and in the end, I think I have come up with something that really does mix modern and traditional pretty cohesively. And the best part is that none of it looks overwhelmingly 'baby' but rather whimsical and inspiring.

7 comments:

  1. Lovely! I love that it's simple and gender neutral (then again, I never liked ascribing pink to girls and blue to boys). It has a lovely nautical feel, and I love the dark wood of the crib.

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  2. Love the look! And actually, you have a bit of a luxury in starting from scratch.... Our little one will be stuck in what would have been an office, so the existing color scheme will have to work for her as well. Luckily blue(s), lime, and white aren't impossible children's colors. (And I don't like "baby pink" anyway!)

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  3. I love what you've come up with! Very soothing/not too babyish. And I had no idea that Restoration Hardware had a baby and child line.... fortunately I'm not preggers or I'd spend all my money there REAL fast :-)

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  4. That's a great idea! We've started doing some research, tearing things out from magazines and bookmarking gazillions of websites and getting overwhelmed... what I need to do is like what you did- start an inspiration board and putting these elements together. BTW I think we're gonna do the FLOR too :)

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  5. LOVE your wall color! Would you mind sharing the name of it and who makes it? Thanks!

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  6. You know...that's a good question, Linda.

    We actually painted that room the same color as our living room. That color was predetermined by the previous owners, but they did leave a paint can behind with the color 'code' on it.

    We used a low VOC paint by Benjamin Moore when we did the nursery so I will have to go check what it was...

    ...BRB...

    Ok...I'm back

    We only have the paint can lid because we apparently used the whole can of paint...which means I REALLY don't know what kind it was other than Benjamin Moore

    Here's what the lid says:

    Benjamin Moore
    HC-172 Revere Pewter
    N319
    OY - 1x - 4.0
    3K - 21.0
    0G - 11.0
    Gal 1B

    Hope that helps!

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