Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Bluebird Nursery

bird modern nurseryAmanda Barkey sent us these room photos of her son's baby nursery. Amanda describes the process, "My Blue Bird nursery idea was inspired largely by a beautiful quilt that my Aunt made for our baby boy Asher. I picked out the fabrics with her and then loosely based a 'theme' around some of them. Most of them are City Girl Blue Espresso Fabrics which I was totally drawn to because of their contemporary feel. I didn't want the room to be too 'themed' (like Disney or sports) because that’s just not my personal style and I am the one spending the most time in this room. I also wanted it to blend in with other decorating styles in the rest of the house but also have an innocent baby feeling.I added a natural touch with warm wood pieces, rattan pieces and birds used in the decals around the room, the mobile and small touches like bookends and statues.The paint color is Benjamin Moore's Cabot Trial. The wall decals featured around the room are from Urban Outfitters and add a nice pop of bright color. I featured them on all of the walls in the room because I wanted the room to feel like the birds were flying all around. They are also great because they can just peel off when we move or want to replace them.I got the white shelf as a gift but it had some pretty 'cutesy' pastel colored frames on the pegs so I spray painted them brown and then put swatches of quilt fabric in them to tie that element in and I just love it.The frame was a $3 Winners find by my Mom and I simply recovered the matte and added some ribbon and it’s totally transformed. "


modern bird nursery
"Most of my storage in the room is in the dresser.I love the bird bookends that I found at a cute little vintage shop on a shopping trip with my sister. They will be well used over the years I'm sure- I just love them! The hanging light fixture I found at Ikea in the 'as is' section for $5. I tied lots of swatches of left over fabric that I had onto it. I like it because its unique and gives off a nice soft light.Above the crib you can also see an assortment of 'swatch portraits' that I made for some wall art. They are pretty trendy right now and I like the fact that they look modern and tie in with the quilt. They aren't heavy so I don't have to worry about them falling onto the baby in the crib like a shelf or large piece of art might.They were relatively inexpensive to make, probably $10-15 for all of the hoops and then the cost of material...I don't know how much it cost for the material in each project but for all of the material that I used around the room for different projects I spent about $50. I left the hoops their natural wood because it went with other details in the room like the wicker baskets and the rattan pieces like the hamper. Above the crib you can see my favorite piece in the room, the 'birds of a feather' mobile that I bought online, my one big splurge and I just love the natural organicness of it...not a typical cutesy, bright mobile. the curtain tie backs that I made with fabric that coordinates with the baby bedding. They actually are fastened with Velcro and the button is just sewn on for show.I love the room and I am especially proud of the great finds that I found, how I made or remade things for the room and how it all came together and coordinated without being too matchy or cutesy. It was a lot of work and took about 3 months to pull together but it was SO much fun to do. My favorite part was seeing it all come together at the end, it even turned out better than I thought it would in my mind!"





contemporary bird nursery

Aren't you loving the hoops with the hanging bird nest? Thanks Amanda for sharing!