October 26, 2009

Eva’s Nursery

Sealy Designer Eva Healy is expecting her first baby in the next few weeks. We were so charmed by the way that Eva decorated her nursery, that I asked her to share her ideas with you.


Convinced I was having a girl, I had visions of a girly, flirty nursery complete with frills and accents of pink throughout. Much to my surprise and my husband’s shocked pleasure, the ultrasound revealed that a little boy was on the way!

I knew right away that I didn’t want to do the “typical” boy’s room with baby blue walls and the popular car or train theme. I scoured magazines and websites for inspiration and finally stumbled on a Benjamin Moore colour concept that I could visualize in a nursery. Since about 80% to 90% of the baby’s first months are spent sleeping or lying on their backs, I really wanted to make the ceiling a point of interest (not to mention that I wanted to accentuate the vaulted ceiling and height in the room). I used Benjamin Moore’s new Natura paint in 2146-40 Pale Avocado on the ceiling and OC-39 Timid White on the walls in a flat finish. I then painted thick 18” stripes of the same OC-39 Timid White, in a semi-gloss finish on the horizontal. Because of the sheen on the paint, the semi-gloss colour looks quite a bit lighter in the daytime and more subtle at night, creating quite an interesting effect. The room is also quite large so I hung a large oversized bubble light fixture hung on the vaulted ceiling to light up the whole room and add interest.

Next, I contacted a great lady named Ruth Wright of Nannycakes Designs
(nannycakesdesign.blogspot.com)
and met with her to choose some fresh and baby friendly fabrics for the bedding and drapery in the room. I wanted the nursery to be somewhat gender neutral, but also wanted to make it funky. I showed her an image of a great mobile I had found on Etsy.com(www.etsy.com), and our colour scheme was born.

Our main fabric, a cute polka dot consisting of blue, green and yellow dots in varying sizes would serve as the bumper pads and romans, and all other fabrics would either complement or contrast. I really wanted there to be a pop of colour in the room so we added the large orange bows and a band of orange in the bedskirt as well. A patchwork quilt of all fabrics used in the room (as well as a few other complementary solids and stripes) pull the scheme together. A simple sheer with an smaller embroidered dot finishes off the windows.

To finish off the room, I found a great tree mural with a whimsical monkey hanging off the branch and overlooking the crib.

Eva