NURSERY INSPIRATION

June must be the month for having babies. I have had quite a few friends who just celebrated their babe's first birthday, and a handful more that are due later this month. If you know me well you know babies terrify me- I never grew up having baby siblings, and I have never changed a diaper in my life.  I think I am the only person in the world with babyphobia.  I used to teach kindergartners, I can handle toddlers and small children, its just something about the unpredictability of a little human that strikes fear in my heart. But I LOVE designing nurseries, and play rooms. I recently designed a nursery for a good friend who is having a little boy later this month, here is where I drew some of my inspiration. I'll share my design board with you a bit later in the week!

I love the gold crib and draperies in this nursery. What a great idea to have a larger bed in the nursery in case you need/want to be close to your little one. 

The simple owl print hung in an ornate frame above the crib really makes a statement in this space. 

The backdrop of this nursery is all neutral with touches of green and coral in the accessories.

The rug in this room really sets the stage for a "world traveler" look, the map doesn't hurt either. 

This green crib is perfect. 

The paint by numbers mural in this room was a huge inspiration for me. I hope this room has a tee pee.

I love orange and pink for little girls, this room is fresh, and fun I loved the roman shade and window seat.

I imagine this room in a cozy New York apartment, I love that little felt cloud. 

This neutral space is quite feminine, I really like how they incorporated texture to warm it up. 

I was kind of dying over the antique crib in this room, and the gingham bed skirt just hit it home for me. 

DIY HEADBOARD

Once the snow melted, about mid May for us, I decided I needed to finish this crazy DIY project that was hanging over my head, literally. I inherited this great solid wood door when my parents replaced the door to their shed. I knew I wanted to turn it into a headboard, but it was in rough shape. We started by scraping off all the loose paint, if you do this at home be sure to wear a mask in case you are dealing with lead paint.

Step two was cutting off the bottom of the door. It was about 4 inches longer than the rest of the frame, and once it was cut, it would be the perfect size for a king-sized bed. Keep in mind for a headboard you want about 2-4 inches larger than your actual mattress, a lot of it comes down to personal preference- but once your bedding is on you don't want the headboard to look like it shrunk. I ended up making mine 2" wider than the mattress.

Once the door was cut down to the proper size John left me alone to do the rest by myself. Apparently no one thought I could use the circular saw unsupervised... #blondegirlproblems.  I went to town filling the cracks and dents with wood filler. When it was dry I sanded it down with an electric circular sander. (Way too much work for a plain sanding block.) And then I refilled any holes that persisted, and repeated sanding.

Because I was dealing with raw wood I went ahead and used KILZ latex primer. I painted it on with a foam brush. But for efficiency's sake, and because I am the most impatient DIYer ever,  I sprayed on the second coat of primer, which, saved me about an hour of work time and an hour of drying time. I painted it with Benjamin Moore's Misted Green, it took two coats to cover the head board and the legs.

Once everything had cured I screwed on the legs with metal plates. (On the back I put 2 screws in the leg and 2 screws on the headboard) On the front I put one screw into the headboard, and 3 in the leg.

I made mine with 3 legs so the middle was well supported, and I made the legs 3" higher than the top of my mattress. I have 12' ceilings, so I had to make up for that with a tall headboard- but you can only tell that the headboard rises above the mattress when the pillows and bedding are removed. If you don't have any antique doors laying around, I'm sure with some careful mitering you could also make this style of headboard with a sheet of plywood and some 2x4s!

 If you like the fern botanicals above my headboard you can print them here. Have you tried to make your own headboards? I'd love to see.

ECO BED LINENS

Viva-terra, and not only is it environmentally friendly, it’s beautiful. A cooperative of 50 artisans in northwest India hand-prints the cotton by carving patterns into wood blocks, dipping them in natural color and then pressing them onto the fabric. Their website has a great video on the process. It's art for the bedroom, and I think so much more personal than choosing bedding from a big box store. I love it paired with that bed, remember this?

A RECLAIMED BED

After moving into a new apartment a few months ago, I have been on the lookout for a bed/headboard. I spent a few long nights on Pinterest looking up reclaimed headboards, but all I could come up with was image after image of wooden pallets cut up and pieced together. While I love me a good pallet furniture piece, I wanted something more high end. And one day out of the blue while searching for some eco-friendly linens I discovered this bed. (click images to view source) A few short weeks after that I stumbled upon another bed (below) with very similar qualities, but the best part is that both are made from reclaimed wood. I love the dark tones of the first bed, it is much more my style. I would pair it with some grey and white printed linens, and a simple pop of color on a throw pillow. The second bed would lend itself well to some vintage linens, I can see it with an antique quilt. Or how about some colorful bedding like the set below found here. Which one do you like better?