Stinkerpants

Charlie’s Pink and Orange Modern Nursery

July 30, 2010 in Parenthood & Life • Projects & Tips for Babies & Kids • Personal Projects • Home

Despite the fact that there are probably more pressing matters to discuss, I am really excited about this, so I’m just going to talk about it now!!

I finished Charlie’s nursery, at least for the most part.  I am SUPER thrilled with how it turned out, so I want to share it with you guys.  It’s the first room in our condo to actually be done, too, so that makes it even more exciting.  I’ll share the other rooms (with before and after photos) as we finish them.  To be honest, I'll probably share them with you as they're works in progress (rather than done) because I've gotten really picky about artwork recently and it's taking me awhile to visualize what I want for each room.  But I digress.

So here are a few photos.  The full set is on Flickr with more detailed photos, but here’s the gist!

First things first: the before photos.  When we bought this place, it was DISGUSTING.  Like, don’t-touch-anything-without-washing-your-hands-and-for-the-love-of-god-don’t-sit-on-the-toilet-seat DISGUSTING.  The guys who lived here were foul, foul people.  Notice in these pictures that the walls are dirty.

But it was the carpets that held the most evidence of their foulness.  We’re talking layers upon layers of stains.  For health reasons, we decided to have the carpets cleaned using a green carpet cleaning service rather than replacing them (did you know that new carpets out-gas for at least five years?  Scary stuff).  You should have seen what they took out of the flooring in Charlie’s room.  Gross.  Here’s the before (try not to barf):

And now, for the afters!

This is the view from the hallway (more on that wallpaper later!) and the entrance to her room.  Last year, I saw a nursery on Ohdeedoh with a FABULOUS art installation.  I stored it in the back of my brain, and it was the first thing I made for Charlie’s room (and I made it in December!).  You might recognize the lanterns from our wedding ceremony.  I love the idea of re-using items, and I think they’re much better executed here, haha.  The alphabet print is from my store, and the dresser & storage containers are all from Ikea.

On the left, a close-up of the changing area.  On the right, the glider area.  The night stand is from Ikea and matches the dresser (they're both "Hemnes").  The glider was $40 from Craigslist and came with a nasty blue cushion.  My fabulous mother made a new cushion (using fabric from Ikea), plus the pouf (using a pattern from Amy Butler) and pillow.  The Felix the Cat stuffed animal was a gift from my grandfather, Charles.  Charlie is named after him.

I am in love with the crib.  I really wanted something sleek and modern (and non-toxic), and the Argington Sahara crib really fit the bill.  The crib comes in several finishes, some of them retailing for over $1k.  We ain’t made of money, though, so we chose the Red Maple finish from allmodernbaby.com, which was half the price and on sale when we bought it.  The bumper and crib skirt were made by my mom, along with the beautiful circle quilt, which she made using a pattern from Bijou Lovely.

No nursery (well, room even) is complete without a little art!  You can see detail shots of these on Flickr, but in summary, there’s an awesome frame with three images from an old Chinese children’s book I found in my in-law’s basement, a custom drawing I did of Charlie with her animal friends, the Wish Tree from my shop, and two free downloads from tinydecorblog.com.  

Charlie’s bookshelf doubles as storage.  We reused the Ikea Expedit from our apartment bedroom (it was used as a room divider there) and filled it with books and knick-knacks.  Can you tell we're fans of Ikea?  I love it.  We now live 10 minutes from one, and it has allowed us to decorate on the cheap - and I think their stuff looks great!

So yeah, that's it!  I am really not into baby-ish nurseries.  I didn't want a bunch of frilly bows everywhere, and dolls & teddy bears kind of scare me.  Luckily I'm not the only one out there with the same feelings about nursery design, and there's a lot of inspiration on websites like Project Nursery and Ohdeedoh.  I hope you guys like it as much as I do!