Child's Name and Age: Cooper, 4 months
Location: Redwood City, CA
Cooper's parents wanted a modern, masculine room for their son. Using a graphic, colorful bedding set as a jumping off point, they looked to incorporate these colors as accents around the room. They also made some DIY decisions which enabled them to carry the theme throughout the room without breaking the bank.
What was your overall inspiration or goal for this space?
We wanted to make a simple/masculine room that would fit in with the modern/graphic decor of the rest of the house. We love the use of bold colors and decided to carry this through to the baby's room. We were also looking to make the room transition nicely into a little boy's room. All the effort up front, and little alterations will follow through the years.
What challenges did you come across while putting the room together?
We had the hardest time with wall space! Putting all of the furniture up against the wall was the biggest challenge. We created a map of how everything was to be laid out after we bought all of of the furniture. But when it came time to put it all together, it didn't fit as well as we had anticipated. We spent a few hours rearranging everything and it all worked out in the end! *phew*
What are your favorite elements or items in the room?
We fell in love with the Transportation bedding by Dwell Studio before I even got pregnant! The second we found out it was a boy, I rushed onto the computer to order the crib set! It was that fabric that inspired the entire room. The IKEA bookshelf is a great piece too! With the help of the brown fabric bins from Target, I was able to hide & organize all the baby stuff!
We scoured the internet for a modern yet inexpensive glider. Unfortunately not many exist! I took a chance and ordered our glider from the Dwell Studio line at Target.com and was extremely happy with the result. It is simple, comfortable and fits in with the lines & shapes of the nursery.
Do you have any great resources to recommend and share?
Of course Ohdeedoh was a HUGE inspiration for our nursery planning! It was really refreshing to find some modern spaces to help inspire! There were many bold/masculine nurseries that helped us feel confident in our color choices. I spent a lot of time on Flickr looking through people's nurseries and baby gear to figure out what to do. It proved to be a great resource!
What advice do you have for parents starting to put a baby's room together?
Once you decide on your color scheme, go to Home Depot and pick up paint chips that match all of the colors you are going to work with. Fashion them together with some tape to create your own little color swatch stick. Keep it in your wallet and whenever you are out looking at baby stuff, whip it out and see if it works in your room! This was a great tool for us because the colors of the pattern were REALLY specific!
Anything else you'd like to add?
We really wanted to buy the Dwell Studio curtains we saw online, but they were completely out of our budget. I bought the twin duvet set online to use as the fabric for our valance. With the help of my mother-in-law and husband, we were able to make a very affordable valance for the nursery. It really helps tie the room together! We were also able to take some of the graphics from the extra fabric and frame them!
It took me forever to figure out our mobile situation. I was looking for something that would match our room, but the colors were so specific that it made it hard to find. I bought a metallic photo clip holder and cut out a bunch of different sized circles to make exactly what I was looking for. Cost less than $10 and it fits perfectly in the room! Cooper seems to love it too!
Thank you Tracy for sharing Cooper's beautiful room with us. We can tell he's going to enjoy it for many years!
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
It's a nice room, but nothing all that special--we've seen this same room over and over, just with slightly different colors or bedding. Same Walmart furniture, same Expedit bookcase. I like the orange, but then I love orange.
However, that is an extremely cute baby. ;)
view Pencils's profile
ADORABLE baby. And I love the way the shelves look with the storage bins and color-coordinated toys and prints. Good job.
view LM's profile
Actually, pencils, I enjoy seeing what different people do with the same pieces. For example, I like the brown fabric boxes in the Expedit here, and the prints are nice on top of the book shelf!
The DIY mobile was a great solution, too.
Congratulations, Tracy!
view mere1975's profile
Love the mobile and adorable baby.
view Loki Parker's profile
Pencil, we have the same crib and changing table and it certainly did not come from Walmart. It's the Mercer from Million Dollar Baby, but we have the all-espresso color, not the white/espresso as seen here.
cute kid.
view ShadyMG's profile
nice, but would be cool to see more variety. Dwell transportation print is great, but mix it up!
view lab director's profile
I was going to agree with Pencil that it was Walmart furniture, but I googled Million Dollar Baby. This is interesting...
Walmart: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5983291&findingMethod=rr
Million Dollar Baby: http://www.babyearth.com/baby-miro-modo-modern-3-drawer-changer.html
I'm considering the Walmart dresser above with the Olivia crib: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8810319. Aside from the shape of the legs, do they coordinate/woods match?
view doublek's profile
Your son is beautiful!
I like the prints from Dwell and the furniture choices.
view racheloncegentry's profile
Wow..your son is soooo adorable!! I love his nursery. I am pregnant and if its a boy I have been set on that dwell bedding. So cute! Do you like the diaper pale? I just saw that in a boutique the other day and wondered how it is. Just checked out your blog and I love it as well. Your food is so beautiful. Congrats to you and your family.
view wadensmom's profile
I think the Dwell car stuff is a bit ubiquitous by now....and the room is a too matchy-matchy for my taste but most importantly...THAT BABY IS ADORABLE!!!!
view manhattangirl's profile
Doublek,
I have the Olivia crib which I love but I think the color of the wood is a bit more red than the dresser that you chose.
By the way, according to Baby Bargains (my bible!), BabyMod and Million Dollar Baby are made by the same company, but I found their prices to be about $100 different. At the end, besides being cheaper, I liked the colors of the baby mod ones better anyways. I was looking for a mostly white crib where the Million $ baby ones were mostly dark brown.
Cooper is a very cute and happy baby!
view benayse's profile
cute!
I was thinking about making one of those bird mobiles from spool, but I really love the mobile here! Plus, my room has a circle theme in it, so the mobile here would fit better.
Can you please tell me where you found that photo clip holder so that I can make one for myself? =)
view teerish's profile
Teerish- the photo mobile thing is available via baby gap at
http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=40267&pid=581034
view Sarah in Nola's profile
What a cute room and definitely a cute baby! :)
view ExperiencingMotherhood's profile
Thank you for your comments! Cooper is such a happy boy! We really lucked out!
Regarding the overuse of the graphic-
When I put the crib bedding in the crib, I was sad that I couldn't really see the graphic until I walked up to the crib. From the door of the nursery it just got lost in the bars. This is why I decided to put MORE of the Transportation graphic throughout the nursery. I am a sucker for continuity- what can I say??
Our dresser & crib is from Million Dollar Baby. We don't have a Walmart anywhere near our house, and I wasn't going to risk ordering something so crucial online without looking at it in person first. I wonder what the difference in quality is between the two sets. Anyone know?
Wadensmom- I love the Dekor diaper pail. It's really easy to use and we NEVER smell dirty diapers.
It does seem like everyone uses that same Expedit bookshelf- but COME ON! Where can you find such a practical, inexpensive storage system for a nursery? I love it and am totally happy with our choice!
view shutterbean's profile
your little guy is adorable!
....and so is this nursery! i like seeing things i can actually afford in a great looking room- its discouraging to only see awesome kids rooms... with huge price-tags!
the expedit has become an AT classic because its a great piece of furniture! we just bought 2 for the living room... now i gotta hit up target to check out those bins.
view erinpearce's profile
Hey, guys, I didn't mean to be nasty--the Walmart and the Million Dollar Baby furniture look extremely similar, and they are made by the same maker, who also makes DaVinci nursery furniture. I like them myself, I was planning on buying the Walmart crib until I was given the Nurseryworks Loom crib. And I own an Expedit shelf unit myself.
I would, however, still like to see something different on here, like how you can put together a modern-looking nursery or child's room with some other furniture. There are loads of styles of cribs and nursery furniture out there.
And I have the Diaper Dekor pail, and I think it's great. It doesn't smell, you just drop the diaper in the little door and it's gone, and it's really easy to get out the bag when it's full and start another one. It's as easy as having a trash can in the nursery for the diapers, without the smell. I'm so glad we went with this one--we almost bought one of the others, but when we were doing the registry in BRU another shopper told us how great the Diaper Dekor was and how we should switch. I wish I could thank her!
view Pencils's profile
Teerish,
I found two photo clip mobile options at Target:
http://tinyurl.com/dgt954
&
http://tinyurl.com/bbjpwa
view mere1975's profile
I love your nursery! We recently bought the Dwell Transportation bedding set for our son's 'big boy' room so it's great to see someone else with the same design. I love everything Dwell. Your nursery has given me a lot of fresh ideas for his toddler room actually. I am in love actually with your shag rug. Could you tell me where you bought it? Is it slate grey? I am stealing the DIY mobile idea for a corner of my son's room! Thank you!
view Noorah's profile
We did the same theme in my sons room but used the twin sheet sets from Dwell on his Argington bunkbed. Didn't know they did the pictures. Looks great!!
There are great shaggy Raggy rugs on shopbabybliss. We did the tangerine. Also a great look is mixing and matching Flor tiles with the bedding. We used them in our dauters room. Great benefit is you can throw them in the wash when they get dirty.
http://www.shopbabybliss.com/products.php?id=53
http://www.flor.com/service/flor/shop/rugs/mixed-and-matched.html
view Kent1's profile
love your baby's room - esp the orange! can i ask where you got the alphabet artwork?
view mrsjaney's profile
thank you!
we got the rug at cb2.com. It's a gray with a slight tint of blue in it.
i don't think they have the same color anymore-
this is the closest
http://www.cb2.com/family.aspx?c=170&f=5167
and the alphabet print we got off of etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5410394
view shutterbean's profile
your son is so adorable!
i have to admit that the last 5 boy's nursery rooms i've looked at have all been the same color scheme: brown, blue, orange and cream/white.
buuuuut you have all done it differently! and i LOVE that color scheme so i'm thrilled!
:)
kindly,
vintagedress
www.vintagedress.etsy.com
view vintagedress's profile