As I struggle to get everyone back to school and replace my crashed computer (don't ask) here's a guest post from my NYC sister. She had her first baby a few weeks ago who is now enjoying his new nursery. Here's how she and her husband did it.
Guest Room to Nursery
A few weeks ago my sister posted the very adorable quilt
that she made for the impending arrival of my son. I thought I would return the favor by sharing
a few pictures of how we made over our guest room/office into a nursery.
First here are some before pictures.
It’s a fairly long narrow space but gets a
lot of natural light even for a room that faces the air shaft between our
building and the one next door. We tried
to capitalize on that with bright white walls and then to make it as
comfortable as possible a space for guests (and our cat Clementine). A lot of the accessories are from places
we’ve traveled but you might recognize the bedding from Ikea or the bed from
Crate and Barrel. There’s nothing wrong
with mixing the mainstream chain stores with more unusual items. We also utilize shelves along one wall as an
office space.
(You can see some of our paint samples in this one.)
(What? Doesn’t
everyone hang their bike in front of the window?)
Though a lot of non-city dwellers may wonder how we deal
with such a small space, we’re actually really lucky to have a true 2 bedroom
in New York City. A lot of my friends
have had to find space in their one bedroom apartments or contemplate moving
out of the city when they have kids. Still
we had more stuff than we could keep. Our
first decision was to get a storage space for big items that we didn’t want to
get rid of like the bed and then to do some serious purging. We’ve made many trips to the Salvation Army
over the last couple of months.
Before we got started, my husband put together an
inspiration board from our ideas.
Then we moved everything out and got to work.
I don’t have any pictures of my husband hard at work
painting but you can see the results. At
8 months pregnant, I contributed more thought leadership than manual labor J.
And here is the room all put together.
(You might recognize the quilt and pillow by Gold Shoe Girl)
(The sweet customized blanket and burp cloth in this picture
are from my sister-in-law. Check out her
blog, Momtini @ www.momtini.blogspot.com)
It’s amazing how different the room looks and not just
because we’ve substituted a crib for a bed.
We love the dark blue. I love
dark colors in general, especially in smaller spaces, but
here it really sets off all the other colors, particularly the green rocking
chair. What you may not be able to tell
from the pictures is that the ceiling is actually a very pale shade of blue as
well. It draws the eye up just a little
to keep the dark walls from looking too narrow.
Like most people, we didn’t have an unlimited budget and had
the same space constraints as before. We
needed to be able to continue to use one wall as office space so there weren’t
many changes there though we did try to eliminate anything we didn’t absolutely
need. My mother-in-law generously gifted
us the crib which is both a classic style and fits perfectly on that wall.
The dresser is the same as in the before
pictures, a 15-year-old Ikea I got when I first graduated from college, with a
fresh coat of white paint. We splurged a
little on the chevron rug but saved a ton on the roman blinds- only $20 each
from JC Penney! We also saved on a copy
Eames rocker that has the benefit of being smaller scale than a more
traditional glider or rocker.
Overall we’re really pleased with the space. It works as a nursery for a little boy while
still feeling adult and not too masculine which was important to me. As much as we liked the guest room before,
now all the colors and elements work together to make it feel like a much more
deliberately thought out and finished room.
Info on the
sources:
All Paint: Benjamin Moore
Ceiling Paint: Sweet Bluette
Wall Paint: New York
State of Mind
Trim and Dresser:
Timid White
Dresser: Ikea (15-years-old)
Crib: Graco Lauren
Convertible
Rocker: Eames copy from Amazon
Painting with Colored Blocks: Hal Gumaer (my dad- it was from my childhood
bedroom)
Shelf and picture ledges:
Home Depot
Rug: Land of Nod
Roman Blinds: JC
Penney (Seriously, check them out for fabric and wooden blinds. I’ve
gotten both from them and they are always good quality and prices.)
I think it turned out great!!! You can also check out her other guest post on how to make a wine glass rack. Hopefully, things are calming down here this week so I can get back to a more regular posting schedule. I have a lot of things done that I can't wait to share with you all.
~ Gold Shoe Girl ~