Baby Hazel’s Nursery

Join us while Janelle share’s her nursery journey for sweet baby Hazel

Hazel’s nursery, 9 months or rather 8 years in the making. For as much as we had planned to have a baby I hadn’t actually put a lot of thought into the nursery until we got pregnant.  Designing her nursery ended up being a welcome distraction for our anxious hearts. Our guestroom was the only room in the house that we hadn’t touched. The walls were still the same white as they were when we moved in 10 years ago and the carpet was the same stained carpet. Initially we had planned on just painting the walls, ripping up the carpet and possibly doing a wainscot to change it into the nursery.

However, while sitting on the bed talking about the space we were inspired by the shutters we had been storing. After leaning in the corner of the guest room for over a year we decided they would be perfect for the closet doors.

With the shutters being our inspiration, we knew we wanted the space to feel whimsical and light and to be a space that could grow with her. The next step was figuring out what type of flooring we wanted to go with in her room. Keeping the budget in mind, we decided to go with a pine wood floor that my husband laid in a herringbone pattern. We were comfortable with the fact that over the years the floor will show dents and dings and felt like it will just add to the overall “character” of the space. Confession time: the stain ended up not being the finish that we were expecting but being on a tight timeframe, a few weeks until her due date we had to just go with it. Nate sanded it to add some distressing to lighten it up a bit. Both of us were okay with the final finish and were ready to move on to furnishing the room.

A fun discovery in the space was exposing the brick on the chimney. It had originally been plastered over so we weren’t sure what we would uncover when we removed the plaster. Luckily for us it was brick that we wanted to expose and the plaster came off fairly easily.

We did a wainscot around the room and decided to paint the wainscot, door and window trim a soft green to highlight the woodwork. We floated out the walls above the wainscot and then painted them and the crown molding a creamy white to give it seamless feel. I felt like painting the crown green would be too distracting between the ceiling and walls.

When it came time to decorating and furnishing her room I approached it the same way as I do when decorating the rest of my home. I like it to have a bit of an eclectic feel and be able to incorporate what I love. I mixed old and new pieces along with golds, florals and plants. With it being a nursery I also wanted to have animals mixed in, so there are little animal planters, swans in the painting over her crib, a lama basket and her rocking horse. We wanted the furniture to be pieces that she could use for years to come and would go with whatever she happens to be into as she gets older. The brass crib (which is the star of the show) converts into a bed and will go with whatever her style ends up being. The changing table/dresser is a neutral greige color that can just be a dresser by removing the top. I really wanted the rocking chair to not only go with the style of the nursery but to be comfortable. I knew we would be spending lots of late nights rocking her to sleep. Overall the room feels so peaceful, except for when Hazel gets hungry.

-Janelle

See more of Janelle’s work here and meet her in her designer video