Baby Norman's Nursery Reveal

And only six months later, friends, we finally have a nursery! I have put so much thought and detail into this room that it’s taken just as long to design and construct this one room as it did our entire renovation of our house. Given I was pregnant and fatigued all the while definitely added into that length of time. But now it’s probably my favorite room in the house. There is a calmness about it, and holds a unique kind of warmth within it. I talked about keeping that specific vibe or aesthetic in the room as a goal in my blog post for the Nursery Design. And you betcha, it’s there.

It’s kind of silly that we renovated a whole room but didn’t actually do much to change the layout of it, other than getting rid of the old closet, if you could even call it that. The main purpose of the renovation was to update the insulation, electric, and add drywall, getting rid of the original plaster and lathe. This doesn’t always have to be the way to do things when you renovated an older home. We actually just applied drywall mud over our plaster walls in the living room, making it appear to be drywall, when in fact it’s still plaster and lathe under there. But considering that the nursery still had knob and tube in the walls (which can be fished out, and doesn’t have to be removed by tearing open whole walls), and the insulation could possibly have asbestos, AND this was to be the room of our tiny, brand new, little babe, we wanted to pursue a demolition path that ultimate would cost us more time and money, but would bring the room completely up to code. Thus, creating a healthy and safe space for the newest Norman. We kept the trim, window/door casing, and baseboards, but otherwise, everything got a nice, shiny update.

Considering we don’t know the gender of Baby Norman, I not only wanted this room to be filled with neutrals, like the rest of the house, but I also wanted something that they could grow into—a basic, general design for the room, if you will. Color is something that I’ve been leaning more into these days and wanted to add something more playful to the parts of our house that we haven’t renovated and/or designed yet. It needed that old, 84-year-old Tudor charm mixed with the mid-century modern aesthetic I live for, and is prominent throughout the design of our home. We just subtracted the white walls that I easily lean towards. After searching through many saved photos, and Pinterest boards, I fell in love with a cream and green color mix, with some kind of wall accent to separate the two colors.

The wall accent was debated over and over in my mind too. I went from bead and board, to shiplap, to some kind of wainscoting design. All of it was pricey and just never quite had the exact look I was wanting. So I pulled away from all that texture and went with a “less is more” approach, and just did a simple piece of trim to separate the two colors. And after a last minute switch by putting the green on the top and the cream on the bottom, the wall design was complete.

Then came the fun part—picking out furniture and decorating this space top to bottom. First things first, we needed some serious storage solutions as the “closet” that was originally in the room was now gone. And as bittersweet as it is to say, the PAX closet system at Ikea is an affordable favorite of mine. Bitter because, well,…I hate Ikea with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. They have BY FAR the worst customer service and online shopping experience I have ever encountered. They are a company that works wonders (to an extent) to those shopping in-store. But for those of us who don’t want to drive or can’t afford to drive 250 miles to the nearest location, it is a recipe for endless migraines. However, I put up with this nonsense because this PAX closet system is affordable and completely customizable. That’s how those Ikea anglers real in the suckers like me, and don’t I know it. Anyways, all this to say, we have a nice, humongous closet for the babe to grow into throughout the years, with many storage solutions inside of it for any and all clothes and accessories. Plus, we also purchased a dresser from an antique store that can be a great option for toys, bedding, blankets, what have you. And lastly, a rocker and crib for the room as well.

The final touches took a bit longer than anticipated as I got more and more pregnant, and I had to wait over a month to get the last bits of the closet system delivered. But the room is adorned with simple touches of innocence and whimsy. I didn’t want to do a theme in the room, but as you may know, I’m a big believer in designing with intention. I wanted this room to be nothing less, but it’s difficult to design a room for someone who you’ve never met, yet alone, hasn’t even been birthed into this world. Again, I desired a general palette for this babe without forced influence, but still held a comfortable familiarity to the family who created them. Therefore, I stuck with a couple things that reminded me of Ryne and I, and our family. My love for the outdoors, Ryne’s love of music, and our combined love of adventure, travel, art, and design. There isn’t a lot of these little trinkets in the room as I didn’t want to overwhelm that cozy vibe I still wanted for the space, but just enough to create that familiar comfort. I finished it off with a signature piece of Punch Needling Art I made myself that was originally going to go in the guest bedroom but looked much better in the nursery.

So she is entirely done, and that is one more room to check off the ole renovation list. We still have a number of projects on that list, obviously, including the guest/kids bathroom that we had to forgo this time around. But of course, I have some ideas already in the works. We are just very eager and excited to gift this special room to our little babe and hope they find solace over the years in this space that belongs completely to them.