Another Designer's Challenge: New Baby's Room

[lmintzer]

Hi. I enjoyed reading the thread and all the good advice given to Tammy and Lauren re: their dining room (beautiful home, BTW, Tammy!).

I am in the process of beginning a room for my new baby boy, e.d.d., Dec. 15. The room we have available for him is pretty small--roughly 10 X 11 to 10 X 12. It has nice natural light--one window and one door (to what could be an outside roof deck).

The carpet, which we just had cleaned today to make sure it was fresh and new, is a neutral (light to medium beige). The walls are currently neutral, though I am up for changing this.

I am thinking of the Pottery Barn Kids Velour Jungle Animals bedding--white with cute little jungle animals in dark-pastel colors (blue, green, red, and yellow). The dressers we ordered are by Ragazzi (Shaker Country Charms--natural with cherry tops and knobs). The crib (which ds #1 is currently still using) is by Pali--the "Paula"--which is a more modern sleight styled crib. I just love this piece and went (mostly) natural again with the furniture to match it.

My questions: how can I paint/decorate this room so it isn't too cutesy? I am okay with a nursery with a sweet quality, but I don't want it to be over-the-top cutesy. I would like to put together a room that will last for a while. I don't mind redecorating it eventually, but I don't really want to re-do it for preschool and then school-age, etc. I know there are some more sophisticated jungle bedding patterns out there, but I really do like the PB Kids bumper, quilt, bedskirt, and little area rug. Here is the link:

http://ww1.potterybarnkids.com/cat/pip.cfm?src=schi1%7Cp1%7Ct3%7CwVelour&pkey=sa1s0velour&gids=pk461

The Ragazzi dressers look like this (picture compliments of one of our bb posters):

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=6&topic_id=5489&mesg_id=5490&page=

I'd love to hear any ideas and suggestions.

Thanks much,

Lisa
& Jack, 4/20/01 (who has a PB Kids "stars and moon" room)
& Little brother-to-be, e.d.d., 12/15/03

[etwahl]

someone else (i think lisa-nigele) had really cute animals painted right on the wall. i loved that idea and look. if you could find a local artist, maybe they could design something you'd like and paint something fun on the walls (like a scene) which would complement your bedding and any other accessories you choose?!

good luck :) the bedding's really cute.

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[mom2kandj]

PAINT, PAINT, PAINT!

We did a "paint by numbers" mural on DS's room. His room is based on Dr. Seuss's "There's a Wocket in my Pocket." I bought a projector from a craft store($30 at Michaels) and using the projector and the book, I threw the image up on the wall. So that the image wouldn't be too big, we painted the bottom half of the wall in aqua(hides finger prints and crayon marks better! :) ), sponged a border and then did the murals on the upper half. For the murals, you need to room to be as dark as possible so that your can see your projected image. Then, you use acrylic paint (craft store again - about $1 per bottle/color) to block in the colors. Don't worry about perfection as you will be outlining the colors to finish your mural! Worried about the outlining! Use a black PAINT PEN! This is an incredibly fun project to do and doesn't cost a lot! His furniture is natural and his bedlinens are not character printed! We figure that his room will need updating around age 5, but that doesn't bother us as the cost was so little! HTH!


Rose
mom 2 katie (33 months)
& Jack (16 months)

[lizajane]

two friends have that bedding- it looks great with yellow walls and white light blue walls. if you just paint the walls and then hang pictures, a clock, art... then you won't have to change the room if you want to change the bedding.

if you want to be dramatic, paint the room like a jungle! paint green jungle plants on the walls, hanging down from the ceiling, with a blue sky above and maybe even a monkey hanging from a vine...

[heidi_timms]

My local library had some nice designing baby room books. Your library might have some of these too, just for ideas!

I love striped walls. I've seen this on a few "designer's challenge" type shows. I also love the look of white paneling halfway up the walls and then the upper half of the wall painted a color.

Have fun!

~Heidi
Mom to Kailey Ashlin
4/27/03