Week 16 - Nesting
I’ve been dreaming about and planning the nursery for a long time now. And my dreams have come to fruition!
I’m a bit of a home decor nerd, and love looking at inspiration photos in magazines and online. I can easily fall into an Instagram rabbit hole for a couple of hours. My iPhone photo library is chock-full of screen captures of things that inspire me: paint colours, furniture, complete rooms, lighting, decor items… you name it, and I’ve probably Googled it!
So you can imagine the excitement I felt when it came time to start planning the perfect nursery for my little boy! Soooo many options… where to start?!
The Space
Fun fact - I bought my family home several years ago, and will be raising my son in the same house that I grew up in! In fact, the room that will be his nursery is the same room that I had as a child. It was eventually turned into a guest room that has been used very infrequently over the past few years:
I’m not exactly sure how I’d describe my design aesthetic. I’m draw to more modern style designs, and love mid-century modern furniture. I tend to be drawn to images of light, bright, neutral colour spaces when I’m exploring online. Yet somehow, the spaces I’ve created in my home so far have embraced more colour than I planned. And the colour makes me happy!
I’ve been itching to try wallpaper somewhere in my house, and for the nursery I’ve been daydreaming of navy blue.
In true “me” style, I came across some unexpected wallpaper options that definitely did not fit the bill of light, bright and neutral. But I LOVED them! I immediately screen capped my faves and sent them off to my Bestie who is also a home décor nerdling… “What do you think?” I asked her.
Wallpaper Options
She was Team Origami Dinosaurs, with Jellyfish being her number 2 fave. That’s all the validation I needed. Jellyfish was by far my number 1 pick! It just seems so happy and vibrant, perhaps with a hint of MCM influence in the colour palette?
It didn’t take long for me to be calculating how much wallpaper I’d need using this handy online tool.
And then confirming my order with the Spoonflower Shop on Etsy!
Adding Another Design Element
The wallpaper arrived very quickly, and it was just as gorgeous in real life as it was on the screen. After daydreaming about it for a while though, I was starting to worry that a) an entire room of this wallpaper would be too dark; and b) an entire room of this wallpaper might be a little bit over-the-top and busy.
And so I was back to Googling and plotting about how I could showcase this beautiful wallpaper while also introducing some lightness.
I landed on the idea of mixing white board and batten walls with wallpaper on top. The inspo pics I could find looked clean and bright… and seemed to do a good job of toning down bold wallpaper just enough. I was sure this would work! (But is board and batten a little too “farm-housey” for me?)
I decided I would try it, and set to finding some tutorials on how to DIY board and batten. There’s lots of online blogs, videos and tutorials on the subject, but I found this one by Angela Marie Made to be very helpful.
Next step… recruit some helpers! As a single woman, I pride myself in being independent, and am comfortable tackling a lot of home projects on my own. But for this project I knew I’d need some help, and couldn’t think of anything sweeter than asking a few close friends to come help create the baby’s room. A group of non-professional, loving hands creating a safe space for my son to grow and thrive in… what a special gift! We’ve schedule a weekend in March to make the magic happen and turn my vision into reality. I can’t wait!
