Real Nursery Reveal: A Librarby of Books for This Baby Girl

Kara wanted her daughter Kalia’s nursery to be bright and cheery, but not too baby.  In looking through nursery room designs for inspiration, she found that she loved nursery rooms that were full, but not too busy.  “The ones that appealed to me the most were the ones that had the walls filled with interesting details.  I also wanted to do as much of the nursery diy style as possible.  I took each wall individually and stared and thought and searched until I came up with ideas that I loved.” After coming across an image on Benjamin Moore’s paint website, Kara found everything she loved in terms of color. She wanted a dark pink accent color, and what she found fit what she imagined perfectly in their color Moonshine.

Once Kara found out she was expecting a girl, the nursery design began. “We had to completely gut the room and start over, so it was a ton of work–replacing the window, the fan, removing the carpet, redoing the flooring.  I wanted everything to be done prior to her arrival, which we did.”

Kara wanted a picture display here of both her and her husband’s baby pictures to be able to compare with Kalia’s baby pictures, but she wanted to incorporate color as well on the wall. She came up with creating her own large picture frames with clothes pin and using fabric as a backing.  “I love using mirrors across from windows to make a room brighter, so I repurposed an old mirror that my grandparents had given me to match the dresser and the room.  After that, I added a few pictures of my husband and I, which I’ll eventually change into baby pictures of Kalia, to make everything even and symmetric.”  The total cost for this wall was only $10.

“I wanted a unique way to display our maternity pictures above her crib, but one that didn’t look exactly the same as the gallery wall.  I took a piece of left over plywood, drew out my K, had my husband help me cut it out,. I spray painted it black and decoupaged  my maternity pictures to the K and added fabric flowers.”  That entire project only cost $5.

Because the crib is one of her favorite parts of her room, Kara decided she wanted it to be the main thing you saw when you walked into the room. “I love how unique the crib is. The bookshelves helped decide the majority of the layout of the rest of the room.  Once I decided which wall those were going on, the dresser and glider only made sense in their current spots.”

The most eye-catching area of the room is the bookshelves. After seeing a nursery room design by Elizabeth Sullivan that incorporated a library wall of books, Kara knew she had to have that in Kalia’s nursery. “I love to read, and this was true from a very young age.  I wanted a way to incorporate my love of reading, which is something special I know I’ll share with Kalia, in a unique way. The shelves combine practicality and function in an eye-appeasing way. ” It cost Kara $40 to build all of those bookshelves.

A year prior, Kara made the daybed with the intention of using it for her ‘someday kids’ rooms.  “I love the idea that we have more than just the glider for seating in there.  It’s great to have Daddy, Mommy, and Kalia all sitting down in the bed and reading books together, and she’s only one month old.  It was important to me that both my husband and I could share together in bedtime readings, and the daybed easily makes this possible. I already love the moments the three of us share reading books together, so I’m sure this wall of books will have a special place in my heart for years to come.” Thanks Kara for sharing Kalia’s special reading nursery with us!

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