Design Throwback: Little Boy Nursery 2010

Five years ago there was no Pinterest, I didn't know about the world of design blogs and I was expecting a little boy.  This is the story of creating his nursery.  

Now, I wasn't an interior design novice at the time.  In fact, it was my 10th year in the field, where I had mainly worked as an architectural detailer and space planner, so I had plenty of ideas....too many ideas really.  But I also had a very limited budget.  My go to source for nursery furniture inspiration was Pottery Barn Kids and Land of Nod.  The goal was to try and get that look, for less.

Below are some of the images of pulled from Pottery Barn Kids.  Side note, did you ever hear that if you want to make sure the name you are choosing for your child isn't too trendy, make sure it's not monogramed on something in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog. Ha!

Anyway, my jumping off point were these Disney prints I had purchased a few years before.  These images were used on postage stamps and I absolutely fell in love with them.  The quilt I got at TJMaxx, I loved the colors and stripes, and the crib sheet and bumpers were from Target.  In the end, the quilt (it was very large and perhaps too "girly") and the crib bumpers (potential safety hazard) didn't make it in the room, but the blue and yellow paint did.

The room itself is about 10' x 11', not too huge, and I needed to fit a crib, a rocker and some sort of storage in it.  Here is the space plan I put together.

I also knew I wanted to add some architectural detail.  That was my specialty, after all.  But since all I had ever done in the past was draw the details and had never actually installed them, I decided to keep it simple, using only 3 1/2" primed flat stock.  The plan was to drop a band, 18" from the ceiling and continue it around the room and also, case out the window.

Here's a look at the room as it was when we moved in, as well as the process of transforming the walls.  The "summer fun" wall paper boarder was the previous home owners choice.  A huge "THANK YOU" to my husband and brother for executing my plans perfectly.

Before:

Work in Progress:

And now, the finished product...

The crib is from JC Penney, the glider was from Target, and the small Disney prints are from WDW, matted by Michael's with of the shelf frames from Aaron Brothers.  And the large 101 Dalmatians print was on loan from my brother, while he looked for a house that had room for it.  Lucky us!

The black out shade is Justblinds.com, the cubby shelves are Target, as is the lamp.  The white blanket rail w/cubbies is a hand me down from my nieces and the Lego artwork is a project of mine from design school still waiting for its frame.

All in all, I am still very pleased with the end result.  If I were working on it today would I make a few changes, yes.  The glider is still not my first choice, though it was completely comfortable and definitely did the job.  I would have preferred something with a bit more style, but it just was not in the budget.    

My baby is going to be five soon, too soon, and has since moved across the hall to his "big boy" room (stay tuned for a future post about that).  But I still look at these pictures and remember this nursery fondly, as it was where we brought our little boy home.

Thanks for stopping by.  Now, I'm going to go get a tissue and you have a great day!

Jill