Baby Lilian's Nursury

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  I just stumbled across your blog and love your thoughts! Thanks for sharing, and of course I have a room I need desperate help with. My daughter is 6 months old and we are currently renting, therefore her room is combined with the guest room, the walls cannot be painted, etc. It is now just a mish mash of small things I liked here and there crammed in the room with the guest bed. In a few months we are moving into a house where she will have her own room (finally!). I would like to use bright orange and pink but I don't want it to be obnoxious. I like the shabby chic style, but not sure that jives with hot pink and bright orange. The only thing I'm pretty sure I want to do is have a shelf all the way around the room at 3/4 height. Other than that, I'm not sure if I want to paint all the walls, one accent wall, just decorative paint or a mural...My main problem so far has been finding bedding. Crib bedding was impossible to find something I liked that incorporated the orange and pink but wasn't too "baby". So I ended up with the Lullaby Dreams set which is okay for now, but just that. I can sew and made her curtains in the current room. If I find great fabric, I can make a duvet cover for her twin bed, but I just can't find fabric or sheets that I love, let alone crib bedding.I do have a few items now that I wish to use in the new room (pink and orange suitcases, piggy bank, star tin, princess ballerina print, bow board) and will attach pictures of those. I would like to have all these things on the shelf at the 3/4 height as to keep away from the cluttered look. I love all things pink & orange, star shaped and paisley, and I I've just grabbed whatever matched any of those descriptions here and there and don't have a cohesive theme. I desperately want one though. I want it to look designer, but not "no touch". Her crib is cherry wood, sleigh style, with a changing table attached. As soon as she grows out of this it will be re-purposed in the guest room as the headboard and footboard (the only reason we chose cherry wood rather than white or cream), but for now it will be in her room along with the twin bed. The furniture for her new room is furniture my great-great-aunt purchased after her husband died. It will be painted, and given new pulls before being put in her room. My first thought is to paint it all hot pink, but I'm thinking a cream or white would be better. She currently has a plain white dresser and toy box that can either stay in her new room or go. Help please!!! As you can see, it's all just a mishmash of thoughts right now and not one cohesive theme. Pictures are located in an album here http://picasaweb.google.com/StaceyBrill/LilliansNewRoom?authkey=NXdJLQNDVFg.



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  Dear Stacey,

  I will try to break it down for you and answer your questions and concerns.

  • You would like to use bright pink and orange, but don't want it to be obnoxious. No problem- just tone it down in other areas, and keep bright orange and pink off the walls (except in small doses) . Your pink and orange items that you have right now are cute, and your nursery is going to look great!
  • You want to put a shelf all the way around the room, at 3/4 height. I am tempted to photograph my girl's room for you, but I am a perfectionist, and I don't have my paneling up, so it just looks too unfinished. However, let me tell you what I am doing, as I think it would work great in your nursery. I had a mural painted all the way around the room , only the top 2 feet of the room. It is darling. My plan (this part is not done)- is to add paneling to the rest of the wall. This would work great for you for a couple of reasons. First of all- your colors are too bright for the main part of the wall. Use white (or a shade of white) on the main wall, and only have your bright colors on the upper part. This same look can be accomplished with a wallpaper, or wall applique kit again just hung on the top part of the room. It would also look cool to have an enlarged version of your drapery fabric painted around the top part of the room.
  
  
  • If you are going to have a shelf around the room- you have to have crown moulding. This will separate the ceiling color from the wall color also. I would put your ceiling back in a white (the same as your main wall color). Add a fun chandelier, with something decorative around it. In my girls' new room, I have put little polk-a-dots around the chandelier. In the room I posted on this blog, I had a simple decorative fleur-de-lis painted around the chandelier. On this use the bright pink and orange.
  • Do not have a shelf around the entire room, and then treat only one wall differently (say with an accent color or mural). If you want to do this, only put a shelf on one wall (as in the child's room pictured on this post. In this room, I had wallpaper on three walls, with a shelf and bead board on one wall. Combining a shelf around all the walls, with one wall in an accent, is combining two looks, creating a split focal point. It will not look cohesive.
    

  

• You have a lot of furniture going into the room. I don't know the dimensions of the room, but unless it is quite large- I would reconsider that. It is going to be a challenge to fit everything in there, and leave no room for a little chair or play area of any kind. I am a big fan of closet organizers, which (in my opinion) eliminate the need for any dressers at all, leaving room for more decorate items like cute rugs and chairs. The rug below is from Pottery Barn Teen.

• You are going to paint your furniture but are wondering what color. I think orange or pink or blue or green would be fun. Especially if the lower part of your walls is a shade of white- it would be a great contrast. A fun quilt like the one below would be great with a bright pink bed! (Pottery Barn Teen again). I like the idea of incorporating more colors than just pink and orange, which will make your pink and orange be a great contrast, rather than overpowering. I always custom design my crib bedding. But- then again, I am a designer, that's what I do. You could find a piece like the one below, purchase one for your twin, and and another to have made into crib bedding. Or the one you already found would work fine.
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Is your room "shabby chic"? Sorry- not really. Don't worry about labels- just go with what you like. Let me know if you have any other questions! Your room is going to be so cute! Congratulations on your baby; 6 months is such a cute age- they learn something new everyday!

-Christine