Nursery Reveal: Grey and Colorful for this Baby Girl

Lindsay didn’t wait long to start decorating her daughter’s nursery. She waited until she got her gender results. “I spent the whole weekend after our ultrasound sewing the hot pink ruffle crib skirt while my husband painted the room.” Before it was her daughter’s room, it was an office and it was probably the least decorated room in the house, containing only a desk, computer, bookshelf and ironing board.

She loved the trendy combo or mustard yellow and grey, as well as aqua and grey. Her favorite color is hot pink so she knew she wanted some hot pink too.  “I tried all the colors together, and they just worked!  Then I found the fabric for her crib quilt and it tied all the colors together so I knew it would work!”

The beautiful grey wall color is Porcelain Shale by Valspar.  “I took a HUGE risk by painting a baby girl’s room such a dark shade of grey.  First of all, this room is pretty small.  Second of all, it has one small window in the corner, and third of all we live in Seattle where it is grey outside nine months out of the year…did I really want to sit inside a grey room too?  I was very hesitant, however I did not want any color to take over the room, I wanted all the colors to pop.  So I decided to go for it–worse case scenario we would have to repaint it–and use all the accessories, furniture, crown molding, window treatments to brighten up the dark room.”  Mission accomplished!

“I did the whole goo-goo-gaa-gaa baby blue room with my son and found myself wanting to change it by the time he was a year old because it was too baby-ish.  This time that was one thing I considered from the beginning.  I wanted something she could grow into that wasn’t too baby-ish.  I think it will be easy to convert it to a big girl room.”

Because the closet is the first thing you see, Lindsay wanted to use it to add some brightness and dimension to the room so she stenciled the metallic pink damask pattern on the far wall of the closet.  “I love seeing the dresser first also because it ties together all
the colors of the room and because of the mirror above the dresser you see the reflection of the chandelier and the 3-dimensional white wall flowers on the wall across the room.”

One of the first things you notice is the beautiful chandelier.  “It’s so fancy, bright and girly. On the crib you will notice lots of texture, from the hot pink ruffle crib skirt (that I spent 16 hours sewing) and the beautiful quilt with the hot pink satin binding and mustard yellow bumpy minky fabric on the back.  I love the dimension that the white wallflowers above the crib bring to the room.  The gallery frame wall has a variety of textures in the frames; however I tied them all together by spray painting them yellow.”

“I love the texture and brightness that the billowy white sheer curtains bring to the room.   It really brightens up the room.  The French provincial dresser/changing table is so intricate and detailed with the curves and I love the pattern on the changing pad cover.  The little dress hooks above the dresser are so precious and girly.  And the mirror above the three dress hooks is great because you see the wall directly behind you that is covered with the white wall flowers.  I love the detail of the stenciled wall in the closet.  I used a metallic pink paint and stenciled each design by hand.  It looks so trendy and fancy and just adds another pop of color.  It is one of the first things you notice when you first enter the room.”

Lindsay debated on painting the dresser hot pink or aqua.  “I didn’t want a nursery that was too pink, I just wanted accents of pink, plus I already had made the hot pink crib skirt so I decided on aqua after all.” The giant bookshelf takes up almost a whole wall of the room and she thought it would be awesome for the storage but also we could use it to brighten up the room since it was painted such a dark color.  “It accomplished exactly what I was hoping!”

The reason Lindsay chose a French provincial dresser is because she had the same set as a little girl, that was actually her mom and her sisters’ when they were little girls.  Since she no longer had her bedroom set, she searched Craigslist to find a matching set.  “My mom has my little wooden doll cradle from when I was a little girl and she is going to give it to me with my baby blanket at my baby shower, so I will add that in there from my childhood.  There is a doctor moose on the bookshelf that I made at Build-a-Bear when my husband got into medical school and the Nurse Nancy little golden book is a book that I remember from my childhood and now that I am a nurse I thought it would be fun to read to my baby girl.”

Getting up the courage to take risks was her biggest challenge in putting this nursery together!  “We took risks with the wall colors, as well as refinishing the furniture.  We had never refinished anything before and so it could have turned into a gigantic mess!”

Thanks Lindsay for sharing this beautiful room with us!

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