Well, it’s been a while since you heard from me on the blog, and with that have come lots of big life changes! Most notably, Chris & I are expecting our first baby in a month, a little girl! While pregnancy has not been easy (I, unfortunately, ended up with Hyperemesis, a severe form of morning sickness that kept me out of the office for most of the first trimester and continues to give me bad days), the bright spot in it all has been planning an extra special nursery space! While I’ve been working on things behind the scenes out of necessity, as I’m due before the challenge is over, I’ve been saving all the juicy details to share on the blog during the challenge and am looking forward to telling you all about it!
Because we’ll be spending lots of time with our new babe in the Nursery, we chose the biggest & brightest room on our second floor to utilize as a nursery. When we moved in, we kept it simple by throwing up a fresh coat of paint on the walls & trim in simple neutrals as we didn’t know how the space would be used long-term. It first served as our guest bedroom (though it only ever hosted one guest!), and throughout the pandemic, it became our home office. Since we went back to the office full time, the space had become a bit of a catchall, and though we moved the bed back in – it was not fit for guests! Thankfully after a fit of nesting organization, I was able to get the space emptied and a blank slate to work with.
Now, designing the space presented a few challenges – the greatest, being my own client as a designer! For some reason, doing spaces for yourself always feels so much harder, but I had a few clear ideas & needs I knew I wanted to address:
- The room does not currently have a closet (#oldhouseproblems), so we needed lots of storage furniture with some kind of hanging space incorporated for her cute baby clothes! Someday, we might add a closet by stealing space from the adjacent hall closet, but that wouldn’t be happening prior to the baby’s arrival.
- The room, like all of ours on the second level, is a bit narrow, so it’s tough to lay out.
- Being as the nursery is on a different level from our bedroom, I wanted space for a daybed, or something one of us could sleep close by on for nights where sleep was a struggle so at least one of us could get some sleep downstairs.
- The wood floor is not in great condition, but since there is some reconfiguring we’d like to do upstairs long term at which point we will probably address the floors, we don’t want to do anything permanent with it, so a big area rug is a must
- We had a hand-me-down Jenny Lind style crib we planned to utilize, which I knew I wanted to flank with nightstands for symmetry
- My mom had a bentwood rocking chair in my nursery, and I wanted to incorporate one into our space as a nostalgic nod to my childhood memories.
- And most importantly, I knew I wanted to use a FABULOUS wallpaper and incorporate lots of girly pinks!
The first step in figuring this out was ironing out a layout. I knew I wanted the crib to be a focal point on the longest wall, and thinking about how the space will grow with her as she gets older, it’s also the only good wall for a bed, so it felt important to center the crib there, for an easy transition when a bed becomes a necessity. The next necessity was the rocker, which is quite deep, including the legs, so it made the most sense in the front corner of the room.
Unfortunately, there was no way to make a daybed AND a crib work with the narrowness of the room, so we had to get creative in that respect. Luckily, I was able to re-arrange Chris’s game room across the hall a bit, moving the loveseat in there downstairs and utilizing that space to put the bed from our guest room. It does make that room a lot tighter than I’d like, but for something we may only need for the first few months with baby, it seemed like a worthy sacrifice (plus, there was no way the queen bed was fitting up the attic access ladder for storage!)
With the remaining space, to the right of the door felt like the best spot for an armoire or storage piece to act as a closet (and bonus, it’s exactly where a closet door would go should we add one someday). Now, I just needed to figure out a changing table & space for the wicker trunk I already had & wanted to use as a toy or dress-up chest.
While I knew I would have the best luck sourcing the pair of nightstands new, I wanted to incorporate a vintage piece for the armoire & started my search on Facebook Marketplace when I happened upon the perfect thing that made me change my plans just a little…. And that is where I’ll leave you for this week! Stay tuned for more details on this space to follow soon & be sure to check out some of the other spaces being transformed on the One Room Challenge blog!
