Thursday, July 30, 2009

Baby Nursery - Black, Red and White!

black red baby nurseryStacy Pollert of Pollert Possibilities designed this nursery for her little guy. Isn't this such a unique, bold look? I love the colors! I used the same colors in my sons nursery 19 years ago. However, I wasn't as bold back then to paint an entire wall black - but, now I am!

What gave you the idea for the room? Anything special that inspired you?
"My inspiration for the room came from the London Red Telephone Booth. When I was pregnant with my first son, Collin, I was suppose to travel to London. Two days before my trip, the terrorist situation occurred and my trip was canceled. I have always loved to travel and have been fascinated to try and experience new things. My goal with my children/my family is to expose them to as much as the world as possible – for my son’s to be culturally diverse and to respect different cultures and to understand that everyone is different (embrace diversity). As soon as they are old enough, my husband and I are taking them to London. Therefore, I wanted a modern nursery with my soon to be son, Oliver. I have never been into pastels or nurseries that are only for babies. Nurseries to me should be a room that a child can grow into for years. I have always loved the red telephone booth of London – the symbolism. It is different and unique to the UK. So my inspiration came from the red telephone booth. At the time I did not know if I was having a girl or boy. I decided to buy the crib bedding and design the room around the sex of the baby once we found out. Crib bedding can be purchased here."

What are the paint colors? Any do-it-yourself projects?
"For Oliver’s room I wanted to use black, white, and red. These colors were chosen from the red telephone booth, and the colors in the bedding. For some reason, I have always wanted a black wall in my house. I was apprehensive and nervous about having a black wall in a nursery, but it was daring, something different than I have ever seen. So I went for it! To soften the black wall, I decided to have Oliver’s full name placed on the wall with a quote. I also wanted a quote over his crib but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a quote that I had to physically hang on the wall for fear it could possibly fall into the crib. I found the website Wall Words, www.wallwords.com . This website is great! You are able to choose anything you want (font, color, saying, size, etc.) for your decal. For Oliver’s name and quote, I chose white text in the New Yorker font. For the quote above his crib, I chose black lettering in the Black Jack font." Paint colors are French Bulldog Black, Colonial Beige, Flame (all eggshell finish) Valspar from Lowes.

"For the nursery I had two do-it-yourself projects. First was the center picture of the London phone booth. My boss’s son is currently in London for a summer internship. He knew about Oliver’s nursery and I asked him to take a close up picture of a phone booth, looking up. So he did and emailed me the picture specifically for Oliver. I took the picture and had it printed in an 8X10 size. I had three prints made: one in color for the center wall, one in black/white and one in sepia. Originally I was going to place all three prints side by side in their white frames on the center wall, but decided to have the focal point be the color print and place the two other prints by my telephone booth figures. The figures were bought at Target. They were a surprise find."

"The second project was the black/white vinyl frames above the changing table. I found these frames at Chiasso, www.chiasso.com . They are the Haute Frame Decals – Set of 8. They are “a set of 8 contemporary vinyl frames in 4 sizes and 5 styles you stick directly on your wall to allow you to change out favorite photos and drawings on a whim. I found pics of our family of three right now (myself, husband, and Collin), and had the pics printed in Black/White for the focal point of the wall. Once Oliver arrives, I will change some of the pics out to include him as well."


Please share any bedding, art, furniture finds? What's your favorite purchase? Is there something you had to have? Any interesting facts our readers would want to know?
"Most of Oliver’s room items were collected over the first 6 months of the pregnancy. The crib came from JCPenney. The armoire and dresser came from a local furniture store. The bedding for the queen size bed came from Target.

I always love having personalized items in rooms. This is always a must for my household. The red canvas buckets came from Pottery Barn Kids with his name and initials personalized on them. His name framed on the wall came from Personal Creations. This was a item I had noticed in their catalog 2 years ago, and thought it would be great in a nursery. It is a item that Oliver can always have from being a child to an adult. He will never outgrow it.
The London artwork on the wall came from Hobby Lobby – my favorite store."

"Overall my favorite purchase is the red telephone booths purchased at Target. I have never really noticed any figurines at Target before, but they happen to put up a new end stand that had a travel and theme and low and behold, 2 Red Telephone Booths were front and center. I think I ran across the aisle to grab them. The only thing I want to get to finish his room off, is a red telephone booth bank to collect his money. I am currently looking on line in UK stores for this find."
"The only item that I had to have was a authentic pic of a London red telephone booth. I didn’t want a picture out of a book or from a strangers page on the internet. I specifically wanted a pic that was taken specifically for Oliver’s room. I knew this was going to be hard, but I had to try. To me, this would put the “icing on the cake” so to speak. Once I heard about my boss’s son going to London, I instantly asked the favor and was so thankful he was willing to do it. To me, Oliver’s room is perfect and now it has a story behind the inspiration about a college boy taking a picture for a unborn child that he has never met while being half way across the world living his life. What more of a culturally diverse story can you get???"

What a fun and vibrant room. Thanks Stacy!