Nursery Reveal: Ava’s Amy Butler Fabric Color Space

Even though this room was done on a budget, when it comes to your baby, nothing is too good or too much. When it came to decorating daughter Ava’s nursery, Jamie was not above shipping fabric in from Europe. “I fell in love with Amy Butler’s ‘Bright Buds’ fabric in ivory, aqua, and tangerine and decided to base the nursery around it. The trouble came when I tried to purchase the fabric and found it was discontinued. I searched long and hard for a couple yards, and finally found a shop in England that had enough. It was a bit extravagant to ship a couple yards of fabric across the ocean, but worth it.”

The efforts completely paid off as Jamie knew those colors were perfect for Ava’s nursery. “I’m not a huge fan of pastels and wanted something bright and cheerful for Ava’s room. I threw in the green because it’s my favorite color, plus I wanted to make it somewhat gender neutral in case we have a boy sometime down the road.”

Completed on a $1,000 budget, Craigslist, Ikea and Target played a role in finishing this space. The Pali crib an ddresser as well as the Dutailier glider came off Craigslist. The futon frame was given to Jamie by a friend and they painted it white to match the rest of the furniture. “Painting the futon white was a HUGE project. We thought it could be done in a day or so, but we didn’t consider all of the small pieces and the sanding and painting coat after coat that it would take.” The drapes, changing pad cover, trash can, lamp, crib skirt, bookshelf, and hamper are all from Target. Jamie’s mother made the crib bumper and the sheets are from Giggle. “I already had two crib sheets which I had made in coordinating Amy Butler fabric, but when I saw the sheets at Giggle I fell in love with them. Everything else in the room was a pretty good bargain, but I splurged on these sheets.”

When Jamie purchased the rocking chair from Craigslist, the cushions were an ugly denim. She gave them a makeover using Trina Turk outdoor fabric that her mother had left over to recover the cushions. For the curtains we purchased some plain blue ones at Target and sewed the wide band of orange ric rac down each side. We also bought a café curtain of the same color and made the bed skirt out of it. The little bookshelf I purchased did not have a back so I got a thin piece of board from a craft store, cut it down to the correct size, modge podged pieces of green and white scrapbook paper to it, and then nailed it to the back. I also made a mobile by printing off some black and white designs I found online at Made By Joel.

“There is a large radiator on one wall of the room. Since we couldn’t put any furniture there, I put a display shelf above it. I took some old shelving brackets I had from Anthropologie and painted a board white to use as the shelf. On it I have the blocks made for me by my friends, a piggy bank ducky given to me at my shower, and a picture of Ava in a frame made by another friend. At the other end of that wall there was a very empty corner. I wanted to put some artwork up but didn’t have a large budget for it. So my brother-in-law designed me a family tree using the colors from the room and I found a cheap frame at Ikea for it. The other piece of art is a watercolor I found a few years ago in Italy.”

The clock is an Ashton Sutton clock, purchased from Ideeli.com. “I originally planned on painting it a color to match the room, but laziness got the better of me and I just put it up as is. It turned out to be a great decision because Ava loves watching the bird swing back and forth while I change her diaper. The bold black and white colors are easy for her to see.”

“You can do a really cute nursery on a budget,” Jamie said. “I started searching on Craigslist for furniture months before the baby was due. It took a bit of patience, but in the end we found the perfect furniture for a really great price. And get creative. A little embellishing can go a long way.” That’s great advice Jamie! Thanks for sharing Ava’s pretty nursery with us!