MY HOME TOUR PART 6: THE NURSERY

Perhaps you've been following my room-by-room house tour this past couple of weeks that I'm finally at liberty to share with you because the entire project was recently published on Domaine Home!  (Designers like to keep their projects under wraps hoping for the possibility that they'll be published, because publishers generally want original content that hasn't been seen before.)

My house tour wouldn't be complete without my son's nursery which was probably my biggest labor of love in the entire place.  So although this room is one that I've shared with you before (when it was originally written up by Apartment Therapy),  I've never done a post with all the photos and sources linked in one place, so just bear with me a sec while we re-visit it for those who are new to the blog :)

I've written up quite a few tutorials for all the many DIY projects I did in this space (the swivel rocking chair, the crib bedding, the elephant mural, the ottoman pouf, the fabric cubby boxes, and on and on.) I will link them all in the sources at the bottom of the post.  Enjoy!

SOURCES

-swivel rocking chair: DIY tutorial 

-globe mobile: Amazon.com

-ottoman pouf: DIY tutorial

-ticking stripe crib bedding: DIY tutorial

-fabric-covered cubby boxes: DIY tutorial 

-number and typewriter key fabrics: "Circa 1934" by Cosmo Cricket

-decoupage alphabet kleenex box: DIY tutorial

-re-furbished dresser/changing table: thrifted and re-painted dresser with a DIY wood topper

-navy and white labeled storage boxes: Ikea

-sofa: custom Rosa Beltran design

-elephant wall mural: DIY tutorial

-rug: Overstock.com

-window seat: Ikea Hemnes tv stand w/ legs sawn off and custom bench cushion

-all pillows: custom

-carved wood sailboat stool: Home Goods

-sheepskin: Ikea

-nautical ceiling light: Ikea with a DIY twist

-anchor art on door: Natural Curiosities

-hot air balloon decals: DIY (blew up stock photos and had printed on adhesive paper)

-red floor lamp: Ikea

-monogrammed pillow: DIY (cut felt letters and glued to pillow cover)

-"baby" letters on door: vintage from the Ferry Building in San Francisco

-brass porthole mirror: Ebay

-rocking horse: baby shower gift

-various wall prints: thrifted/vintage

-red toy trunk: thrifted/vintage

-burlap side table: Home Goods

-striped roman shades and pelmet box: DIY (I bought inexpensive roman shades on ebay and overlayed my own fabric on top of them using spray on fabric glue)

 

Awww ... well that was fun for me to spend a little time with that sweet space that we loved and enjoyed so much.  Especially now that he's pretty much outgrown his crib, I'm planning his "big boy" room, and my baby is starting pre-school next week!  How time flies, and what a great reminder to savor these moments together.

I hope you have a majorly fun and relaxing holiday weekend.  I'll be in San Francisco and Carmel for a couple of days with my honey ... hooray!  Keep your eye out for Friday's "Year of Change" Designer Challenge reveal :)

DIY CRIB BEDDING

Ever since Benicio's nursery was featured on Apartment Therapy, I've gotten requests for more info on some of the DIY nursery projects I did in there before my baby was born.

One of these was the custom crib bedding that I sort of adapted from a plain Ikea crib bumper.  I don't consider myself a particularly talented seamstress since I don't tackle anything much more complicated than simple straight lines.  So this was an easy one, I promise.

STEP 1: Start with any plain, inexpensive crib bumper (I used this one from Ikea for $14.99)    Sew your selected fabric (mine was this navy and white mattress ticking) right to the face of it, letting the fabric overhang the edges by an inch or two on both top and bottom.

STEP 2:
Fold over and iron two clean edges on a second piece of fabric, tall enough to overhang the bumper by a couple of inches.  Wrap it and sew it on like so...

I like that the rolled edge is kind of bulky and imperfect...like the rolled "mattress edges" on these pretty seat cushions...




STEP 3:  I used 2.25" wide navy grosgrain ribbon sewn on for the ties, and because grosgrain doesn't fray much I just cut the ends with a  festive double peak rather than hemming them and called it a day (told you I was no stellar seamstress.)

STEP 4:  The crib skirt required no sewing whatsoever, just ironing with this nifty fusible hem tape.  I made 4 separate panels, one for each side of the crib. I measured the width, length, and height I'd need the  skirt to be (measured with the crib mattress in it's uppermost  position because that will require a taller crib skirt), and cut my fabric to that size plus about 5" excess at the top to tuck up  beneath the crib mattress when it's in place.  Using fusible hem tape I "hemmed" all the edges without sewing a stitch.

STEP 5: I decided to include a spit at the center of the crib skirt for a classic tailored look.  Then I accentuated those flaps and the entire thing by ironing on this navy blue twill tape as trim.  No sewing needed!

The top edge of the skirt just tucks up under the crib mattress and I've found that it stays put just fine.  I can adjust the height of the skirt whenever I need to adjust the height of the crib mattress by just bunching more or less fabric under the edge of the crib mattress...the weight holds it in place pretty well.

 

So there you have a whole custom crib ensemble for under $50.  Not too bad and pretty cute too!

DIY FABRIC-COVERED CUBBY BOXES

I'll be doing a few nursery DIY posts here because my baby's nursery is being featured on Apartment Therapy soon!  I want to share all these DIY tutorials with you now, so that when you see the final room reveal you'll have the low-down on everything.

One of the many DIY projects I did in my son's nursery was 10 of these customized fabric-covered toy storage boxes for the Ikea Expedit bookshelf we already had.  

I came up with the idea because I just wasn't that into any of the store-bought options I found, and I loved the idea of being able to tie in the key prints, colors and fabrics that totally set the tone for his timeless and classic "Little Explorer" nursery.
Two of the fabrics I chose are quilting fabrics from this collection called Circa 1934 by Moda.  The collection has a bunch of vintage-inspired patterns and I absolutely loved the old typewriter keys and cool classic numbers...perfect for a kid's room where he'll eventually be learning to count and read, right? 







To break up all the pattern I decided to also use some simple burlap accented with this jute webbing.  It comes in various widths and colors and it's a great trim...





I LOVE how all these fabrics look together and set a classic vintage tone for the room!  Here's a glimpse of them with some of the other fabrics I knew I wanted to use....

For my project I used Ikea Prant wood boxes because the natural materials and the durability of the wood appealed to me (I try hard to keep plastic to a minimum in our lives).  Sadly they've apparently been discontinued (or at least I can't find them on the website), but I bet you could make it work with either this or this. 
MATERIALS
-Any smooth surface storage box that fits your shelving.
-Fabric
-Decoupage gel like Mod Podge or my trusty Liquitex Matte Gel 
-Scissors
-Iron STEP 1 
-Cut two pieces of fabric for each box.  
-One will be about two inches wider than the front face of the box, and taller than the box by about six inches so you have enough fabric to fold over the top and bottom edges like this:

-The other piece you cut will be long enough to cover the remaining 3 sides of the box, plus the same margins for wrapping that you left on the first piece.
STEP 2 
Fold over all edges about 1/2" and iron (you can also skip this step if you aren't concerned about about a super "clean" fabric edges...the decoupage gel once it dries does a pretty good job of sealing all edges and keeping it from fraying.)
STEP 3 
"Glue" the fabric to one end of the box by brushing the sticky gel on the box surface and smoothing the fabric onto it, wrapping all edges like so:  

STEP 4
"Glue" your second fabric panel to the other 3 sides and slightly overlap the first fabric panel on the box like so...you can just barely see here where the fabrics overlap here on either edge: 

STEP 5
Brush the entire thing with decoupage gel.  The gel dries completely clear and as it does the fabric will tighten up and harden a bit, creating a fairly impermeable, rip-proof, stain-proof surface.  It kind of feels like you laminated the fabric and made it super durable.  
Last, I added the jute webbing trim to the burlap boxes with some Magna Tac fabric glue.  I love that touch!

These cubby boxes have held up really well for us for the past year and a half!  Benicio is now at the age where he can pull them off the shelf and get into them all on his own...I love having this much storage to coral all his little things and keep them put away when need be, and that he also has easy such access to his toys when he wants them.

DIY NAUTICAL BRASS CEILING LIGHT

When I decorated my baby boy's nursery I went with a tiny gentleman/world traveler vibe, and it definitely has some nautical elements to it.  One of these is the "brass" ship light I hung in the center of the room.  It's actually this $30 Ikea light.  My favorite part of this 2-tone fixture was the exposed brass butterfly nuts.



Which got me thinking how much I would like this fixture if it were in a brass finish all over (as I do with most things, let's be honest), especially with the other brass elements I was using in his room like this adorable vintage truck I found while out antiquing...

ROSA BELTRAN DESIGN

So a bit of spray paint (I like either Rustoleum "Brass" or Montana brand gold spray paint) and an edison bulb later and this is what we had...

ROSA BELTRAN DESIGN

ROSA BELTRAN DESIGN

This light gives you the option of either hanging it semi-flush to the ceiling like I did (a good option for standard 8' ceilings.)

OR pendant-style with the long cord intact like this...

LOST & FAWNED

OR hanging it with a swagged cord like this look.  I especially like the jute twine wrapped around the black cord here.  This swag style would work well with slightly higher ceilings than I was working with...

THE LETTERED COTTAGE BLOG

Notice that they also frosted the glass bulb cover?  Check out the whole tutorial here.

And that's what you can do with a $30 light!  Not bad at all, I think. P.S.  In case you're curious, here is the tutorial for the giant elephant wall mural art, and here is the tutorial for the vintage arm chair turned nursery rocker.

OMBRE DRAWERS AND OTHER PAINTED DRESSERS

While I'm on the topic (in my previous post) of ombre sofas, let me tell you about how fun I think ombre-painted dressers are, especially for a child's room or any space you're looking to enliven with a little tongue-in-cheek fun.

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(By the way, there's another dipped chair, a trend I wrote about here.)

Talk about an easy and high-impact DIY!  You'd need so little of each color that you could totally get away with buying just the small paint sample jars rather than full quarts.  I think I like it best when it's done on drawers that stack right on top of one another with no spacing in between, like so...

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This is pretty cute with the nautical colors and rope pulls.  Little sailor's room, anyone?

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For a different nautical vibe, scalloped ombre waves...

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And the perfect pink counterparts.  I love these salmon-y pinks mixed with the kelly green...

PROJECT NURSERY

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Or you can get your ombre on in a more subtle way... 

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I can see any number of inexpensive Ikea dressers lending themselves perfectly to this project, not to mention the multitude of thrift store dressers in America just dying for an ombre paint job!

I definitely see an ombre dresser project in my future, probably in a nursery or little kid's room, which are some of my favorite spaces to design because you get to let your hair down and be a bit cheeky and irreverent.   

And because Pinterest is the bottomless rabbit hole that it is, one image leading to another, and another...here's a great kid's room I just came upon.  Love the herringbone pattern!

DESIGN SPONGE

My parting shot is this art deco green chevron chest with the rounded corners by Nick Olsen from the pages of House Beautiful.  I like it.  A lot.

NICK OLSEN / HOUSE BEAUTIFUL

NICK OLSEN / HOUSE BEAUTIFUL