AO House Tour: Ana Claire's Nursery

Welcome to Ana Claire's nursery:

 Above photo by Crystal Downs

Ta-da! Above is the money shot because A) it wasn't taken by me and B) it shows 90% of the room's goods. We opted for a crib and twin bed combo and love how it turned out. I made a huge valance box to really highlight the Le Lac fabric and trimmed it out in the most adorable red ribbon. See how the painted dresser turned out? A yellow paint job with gold hardware was the way to go! You can also see a glimpse of the vintage headboard I bought and our Jenny Lind crib.

Sorry for the terrible photography, y'all. I just don't have that talent and I even borrowed a fancy camera! I probably should have shelled out some cash for professional photos but let's all use our imagination. This room is so dark - great for sleeping babies, bad for blog photography. 

Above might be the only shot of the light fixture - an awesome vintage pagoda-style situation that was originally yellow and got a coat of glossy red spraypaint.

Don't ask me why, but I always wanted a Jenny Lind crib in cherry. I'm glad I had already made that decision pre-baby because it was a great piece with which to start building the room. Once I actually went to purchase it, I was thrilled that it was one of few inexpensive choices on the baby crib market. 

After a weekend meltdown realizing that huge and pregnant, I wasn't going to be able to sew a crib and bed skirt in matching red fabric, I turned to the internets and found the perfect ruffled red crib skirt for $20. Hallelujah. But, I found that it wasn't quite long enough. Luckily I had bought several (thinking I might cobble them together for the twin bed) and just sewed two skirts together (one on top of the other) to get more length for the crib.

Looove the dresser. Took SO MANY coats of yellow paint, but so very worth it.

I got Matouk's Le Scallop coverlet with pink piping for the twin bed as well as a matching bolster pillow with AC's monogram. The scallop detail on the coverlet is so sweet. The shams are from Carleton Varney's line for HSN...had them for years and they finally found a home. The bed needs more zhushing - like a duvet and another pillow, but I ran out of creative juice and haven't seen anything I like yet.

 Above photo by Crystal Downs

One of my favorite items in the room is this pair of vintage ostrich bookends. Found them on Etsy and bought them before the room had really come together. Didn't realize how perfectly they would work! And I think I need red, pleated lamp shades for these pink lamps. I haven't found any yet but I'm on the hunt...

You can see this better in the first photo, but we opted for wood-toned blinds and they were a great decision. Really added some nice depth to the room as opposed to the crispness of white wood blinds. Obvi the valance box and curtains I made are the focal point of the room. I just could not be happier with this fabric choice and how it all turned out.

I framed two small watercolors by artist Jennifer Love to flank the window.

Ugh, bad photo. But you can see where the rocking chair ended up. Love how this one turned out (upholstered by my guy, Hakan)!  You can also see my vintage fretwork table with a glossy red paint job as well as a vintage mirror that belonged to Mama Jo, Ana Claire's great-grandmother. This chair needs an ottoman but I have yet to find one whose dimensions will match up correctly. To the left of this little vignette is Ana Claire's closet which we have yet to tackle, so no pictures :)

Zebra salt and pepper shakers from Furbish. Clearly made for a nursery.

This is the room's alcove, on the same side of the room as the twin bed. Made the perfect little area for our changing table in a Jenny Lind style that matches the crib. Those kimono prints are straight from Hong Kong! My friend Kat sent them and I about hyperventilated when I opened her sweet package that arrived from halfway around the world because they were PERFECT. I fretted forever about painting those sconce lampshades (which are glass) red, but then these little prints arrived and I didn't need to anymore. Thanks, Kat!

This little monkey sits atop a vintage chair that I bought not knowing where on earth I'd use it...but now it's found the perfect home at the foot of the twin bed. Great use of an impulse buy.

I really wish I had better photography and styling skills, but hey, keepin' it real folks. Trust me when I tell you that this room is just delightful in person. At least I think it is. It's sweet and girly and I can really see it growing with Ana Claire.

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SOURCES
Paint Color - SW 6437 Haven, by Sherwin-Williams
Small Watercolor Art - Jennifer Love
Curtain Fabric - Le Lac by Brunschwig & Fils
Curtain Trim - Red ribbon from this Etsy seller
Lamps - Arteriors, purchased via One Kings Lane
Dresser - Vintage purchased via Craigslist
Crib & Changing Table - Da Vinci Jenny Lind Collection in Cherry
Star mirror - HomeGoods
Book ends - Vintage purchased via Etsy
Headboard - Vintage purchased at a local shop
Crib skirt - American Baby Percale Dust Ruffle
Bed skirt - Patch Magic Red Dust Ruffle
Coverlet/embroidered sham - Schweitzer Linens
Pillow shams - Carleton Varney for HSN (no longer available)
Block Print Rug - World Market
Panda Rocker - Happy Trails via Amazon
Rocking Chair - Vintage, reupholstered by Simply Upholstery
Yellow pillow - Target
Fretwork table - Vintage, purchased at Lucketts
Zebra salt & pepper shakers - Furbish
Mirror - Vintage hand-me-down
Sconces - Hampton Bay Sadie Wall Sconce
Hamper Basket - Charming Basket from Land of Nod
Pagoda light fixture - Vintage, purchased at Lucketts

AO House Tour: Nursery Plans

I am thrilled to be talking about Ana Claire's nursery. It might be my favorite room in the house. It's one of those spaces that just came together. And if you remember this post, I was fretting over this room because my initial concept was a total #fail.

But I'm so glad I had to rethink the direction. Here's the design board which illustrates most pieces of the space:

I took the color palette from the star of the show, Brunschwig & Fils' Le Lac, which I used on the curtains:

Carter painted the walls the most PERFECT shade of jade green and then I used a combination of pink and red in her bedding and the rocking chair as well as red trim on the curtains.

If you recall my posts on this room, it is chock FULL of vintage pieces, all re-imagined for this space. Here's a parade of some of the items that got a makeover:

Many of these treasures I already had and just had not found the right spot for them. And some of these I picked up specifically for the nursery. I love that they all have a little history and Carter and I cleaned them up and made them super pretty for this space.

Tune in tomorrow for all of the "after" photos...

p.s. If you want to take a tour of nursery posts with more details on the planning, click here...

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Ana Claire

Y'all...she's here.

Ana Claire...goes by Ana Claire. She is utterly and completely scrumptious. The best accessory of my home and life.

AC joined us a little early (her due date was today!) She joined us on Thursday, December 13th, at 11:24 pm weighing a darling 7lbs 5oz and measuring 19".

Life is different and we are just humming along, loving every second of our new family. I was so eager to share the news with you!! This picture is from this morning...hot off the presses.

Hope you've been well and gearing up for Christmas if you celebrate. We are so excited that we'll get to celebrate Ana Claire's first Christmas together.

XOXO, D

Nursery Design Board

I know I've explained snippets of the nursery, but here is my design board that encompasses a lot of the look and feel of the space:

A disclaimer that not everything on this board is actually in the room...I chose some look-alike pieces to give you a good idea of how the whole space is shaping up. Here are links for pieces that I can actually point you to...if no link, then the item is vintage or a hand-me-down or I just don't have a resource for it...

Brunschwig & Fils Le Lac Fabric
Jenny Lind Crib & Changing Table
Pink and White Buffalo Check Fabric
Lilipop the Frog
Yellow Pillow
Block Print Rug
Paint Color: Haven by Sherwin-Williams
Laundry Basket
Etsy seller for watercolor art

The board makes it look a little busy/crazy...but as we put the finishing touches on the room it's turning out exactly how I had imagined. It's colorful, girly and full of Chinoiserie with traditional elements sprinkled throughout to make it feel classic.

I know you all want to see pictures...and I promise to deliver those at some point!

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Scalloped Bed Coverlet

Design by Amanda Nisbet (anyone know photog?)
Image via Pinterest, via Droolworthy Decor

Notice the white walls...they totally work here. The green hues of this room totally pop and become quite a design statement against the clean backdrop. This room would be stunning for two little girls to share...so crisp and sweet.

But what caught my eye is the scalloped coverlet on the beds...it's the same one I'm using on the twin bed in the nursery! It's Matouk's Le Scallop coverlet and I selected mine with pink trim. If I had that money tree in the yard I would have splashed it with a huge monogram, but alas...it is monogram free to save some cash. But I did get the matching neckroll sham and had that puppy monogrammed in bright red!

I love the coverlet's sweet simplicity and details and love how it's used in a double dose in this room.

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Sadie Sconce

I've mentioned a couple of times that I'm using sconces in the nursery. The room has a rather large alcove that fits our changing table perfectly but because of ceiling angles, it's quite a dark little nook.

I'm never one to pass up an opportunity to install decorative lighting so I sweetly asked Carter if he wouldn't mind installing some (hard-wired) wall sconces for me and he kindly obliged. And them my search started and of course everything I love costs eleventy billion dollars and now that we're in the home stretch of the room, my budget is essentially used up.

The look I wanted was similar to the Bryant Sconce from Circa Lighting:

The price point isn't outrageous, but still out of my budget. And then I saw this gorgeous bathroom from Lilly Bunn Weekes in Lonny and fell in love with the tailored look even more:

 Photo by Patrick Cline

Well my search for budget lighting had me hit up Home Depot online and I was thrilled to come across this adorable little sconce:

It's the Sadie sconce from Hampton Bay and at $30 it was a great fit. And I actually liked it a little more because while it's still very tailored, I think its slight curves and ball tip/finial give it a sweeter disposition - perfect for the nursery.

My only dilemma was the finish, but we've found that several coats of Rustoleum's Metallic Brass spray paint gives it a nice golden tone that I can live with for the cost savings.

Now my other wish is to make the shades red (and you might recall me asking you about it) and I'm still not sure what a good option is. The shades are frosted glass so a little trickier to paint than fabric shades. Carter says painting them is a bad idea and it'll be hard to replace them with a different shade because they have a custom shape that works with the sconce. And remember that these are budget sconces so I don't really have room for anything other than just changing the shade it comes with. For now we're leaving them white...

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Nursery Rocking Chair: Before and After

Remember the story of the old chair that we bought for the nursery?

I was so happy that circumstances put this chair in my path at just the right time and for a great price. I knew its scale, tufted back and the fact that it rocked would be perfect for the nursery...and it is.

Since the moment I got it, I envisioned redoing the chair in a pink buffalo check and I never abandoned the idea, even through a couple of design schemes. And I got very lucky that once I decided to pull the trigger I came across the perfect fabric for only $5/yard during our beach trip this summer.

Throw in some red fabric for piping and my favorite upholsterer Hakan and I have one fantastic little nursery chair on my hands!

The chair looks completely bomb in the nursery and it's super comfy. Hakan of Simply Upholstery might be one of my favorite people on earth because he makes my upholstery visions come true...and always better than I expected.

So one teensy regret? I didn't do the buttons on the back in red! DOH! I thought about it and decided not to for some crazy reason. Carter was a little skeptical about the red trim so maybe he scared me away from the buttons? Can I blame him for this? Totally not a big deal...the chair looks amazing...but the pop of little red buttons on the back would be killer.

Thanks to my sister-in-law Joanna for Andi!  And I picked up the cute pillow in the perfect shade of yellow at Target.

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Nursery Art & My Weekend

So recall that my inspiration for the nursery is Joe Nye's fantastic bedroom as seen in House Beautiful a while back...

Photos by Roger Davies for House Beautiful

I seriously can't get enough of this room. Today, I'm drawing your attention to that sliver of art seen on the right-hand side of the picture. I know there isn't much to see of it, but you can just make out the feeling of the abstract piece.

I love how it looks against the green paint. I also love its scale but our nursery has very little wall space due to the slanted ceilings, so I launched a search for something a bit more diminutive that might give me a similar feel. 

Etsy to the rescue - I found a set of original, abstract watercolors from artist Jennifer Love. I loved the various brushstrokes and the colors coordinate beautifully against the Le Lac curtains. 

The paintings are small at 5x5, but Jennifer matted them to 10x10 and I purchased a set of black bamboo frames from this ebay seller to display the art:

Not sure if I will keep the frames black or paint them gold, but I really love how they flank the main window in the room...

So, the weekend was filled with highs and lows. The high was definitely finishing the nursery dresser...painting it yellow was absolutely the right decision and it looks SO incredibly good. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. And the bonus was that completing the dresser meant I could wash all of baby's wee clothes, fold them and put them away. Which was such a nice little exercise.

The low point? The bed skirt adventure. I started working on the bed skirt for the twin bed in the room. I've been putting this project off for months, for good reason. I just wasn't up for it. But I made myself finally do it. Well, I couldn't crouch around measuring and cutting huge pieces of fabric so my incredibly sweet and patient Carter did that for me. I spent some quality time with my sewing machine Saturday, and all was going relatively well.

Then Sunday came and I went to actually construct the ruffled skirt on the bed, only to find that I had grossly underestimated the amount of fabric I needed to make a proper ruffle. This was quickly followed by me dissolving into tears completely overwhelmed by the project and Carter patiently talking me down from the ledge. And this was just the twin bed...I needed to repeat the whole thing to make the matching crib skirt.

It wasn't happening. Like Carter said, I'm not the same person I was 8 months ago and even in a non-pregnant state, tackling a ruffled bed skirt for the first time would be a challenging project for me. The point of my story is that my DIY failed :(

So I ordered some skirts for both bed and crib off Amazon and now I'm saying daily prayers that the reds match on both. I know they will not look as good as if I had done them myself (assuming I did a good job) but desperate times...

Hope any projects you tackled this weekend went more smoothly!

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Vintage Nursery Mirror

Even more vintage for the nursery! I recently scored this awesome vintage palm mirror from my friend Sarah's shop - Matters of Style Marketplace:

Isn't it grand?? I have a spot for a mirror next to our rocking chair and I'll be honest that budget had run out and I was planning to use something we already had. And I likely should have done that because I had some good FREE options to choose from.

But then I saw this mirror from Sarah and I had to have it...I became a woman obsessed. It's just so fun to look at and I think it will be such a great touch in this corner of the room. It's currently in the mail and I can't wait to get it!

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Nursery Closet Inspiration

Some images to give you an idea of what I have up my sleeve for the nursery closet...

Miles Redd

Source? via pink wallpaper

Source? via pinterest

 Photo by Tim Walker for Vogue Italia via this is glamorous

Polka Rounds Clutch

Polka dots of the black and white variety will take center stage! In my head, my plan looks awesome. We'll see once we execute...

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p.s. I hate posting images with no source so please fill me in if you know where some of those orphans are from...

Dresser Painting and a Nursery Peek

We attacked the nursery dresser painting this weekend and, for the most part, it went well. If you recall, the original dresser was painted black with silver hardware:

First, I discovered that the black was hiding some damage pretty well....damage that became pretty visible when painted yellow. Oh well...I paid $75 and I still like it more than something I would have bought new so I got over it. I guess I'll just never take any up-close pictures!

Second, apparently painting yellow over black is quite the chore. We [Carter] prepped the table by sanding the top just a tad and giving the whole piece a coat of primer. I was hoping this would lead to a fantastic finish but it took 3 coats of yellow paint to hide the black and to be honest, the piece could probably still use a 4th coat to really make it perfect...but we [I] ran out of steam.

Here is its current state:

You can catch a glimpse at the bottom of the 2nd picture of the hardware which we spraypainted brass. Our next step is to give the whole piece a coat of lacquer to give it some shine and protection.

I'm really happy with the color, but this is not the color we started out with. I initially chose Sherwin Williams' Bee (6683) because the paint chip was dead on. But, once we put it on the dresser it was a very lemony fluorescent yellow (cue the crying breakdown when I realized this...as if the world was coming to an end...geez louise). I think that might have had less to do with the color and more to do with the fact that the primer/black was very visible below it and the color would have gotten better with more coats.

Even so, I kinda knew that after 500 coats the color would still be a little off. So we went back and I picked up the color that was next on the paint chip - Brittlebush (6684). This yellow was much better as it had a deeper golden tone to it...not as fluorescent.

Which brings me to a lesson I learned (or better said, confirmed) during this painting adventure:

Go darker than you think. About three times now, I've chosen a paint chip only to realize that it's not as intense as I wanted it to be. ESPECIALLY when it comes to room painting - a color on a 2" square can seem pretty saturated, but once you spread it out across an entire room, it can wash out a good bit. I'm always scared to go too bold, but like I said, about three times now I've gone back for the "darker" color and the results have been great.

I also learned a lesson about the Sherwin Williams quart samples that I love so dearly...they are awesome for the price, but the quality isn't fantastic - especially if you are painting with a tricky color like yellow (ie. we've used them when painting black and they were great). The samples don't cover like their higher grade paints (that are not available in sample quarts, just "regular" quarts). If I was sure of the color I wanted I would have paid the money to get a quart in their Cashmere line and we probably would have been done painting in two coats with a much better finish. Using the sample just took longer and isn't quite as perfect, but we did save some cash.

For reading this far, I shall now treat you to a peek of the window treatments that are all done...

BAM! Awesome, right? Y'all, they totally make the room. This is the big focal point window in the center of the room and we also have a much smaller window in an alcove that only has the pelmet box and blinds (no curtains). I couldn't be happier with the arrangement...it's all looking quite fetching. I see the end in sight...the nursery might actually be done before December! Go Team Shuffler!

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Friday Crush

Image via One Kings Lane

I have been toying with painting the vintage dresser in the nursery yellow, but I hesitate. I love all colors but yellow is truly one that I don't use in my house. And Le Lac has SO many colors to choose from it's making the decision quite difficult. But something keeps bringing me back to yellow and when I came across the above dresser this week, it seemed to be fate giving me the thumbs up.

I'm hoping we tackle the dresser painting this weekend. [Expletive that starts with an "s"] is getting real around here, so this nursery needs to wrap up so I can move on to other pre-baby tasks in the coming weeks...you hear me nursery?

Happy weekend...see you Monday!

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Nursery Block Print Rug

I want to thank the Internet for our nursery rug. I'm not good with rugs. I usually leave them for last and since they are usually so pricey they stress me out when it comes to budgeting for a room. And I love living right on hardwoods so I'm usually not in a rush to get a rug.

All to say that the nursery rug was no different and I kind of gave up before I even started on finding a good rug. And then the Internet helped me out one day when I came across this block print rug from World Market (can't remember where):

I had no idea what I wanted to do with the floor of the nursery. The room is a good size, so I either had to get a sizeable rug or just get a small area rug to accent the one open spot of floor in the center of the room. Either way, it was one of those "I'll know it when I see it" situations.

And I knew it when I saw this cute red/ivory block print option from World Market. It's small at 4x6, but it will just cover the empty spot created between the crib, dresser and bed right in the center of the room. I think the small-scale pattern works great with my huge-scale Le Lac fabric and the reddish brown tones blend into the room really well. And the price of $70 was great (even though it's now $50 - even better).

World Market is not somewhere I often go for my home, but when I rediscover it every once in a while it has some great options. Here are some other rugs I really liked:

4x6 Ivory Block Print - $50

4x6 Green Dotted Serengeti Rug - $50

4x6 Purple and Silver Block Print - $60 (Available in Stores)

And a gorgeous 5x8 Moroccan Shag Rug (ie. the look of the Beni Ourain rugs we're seeing everywhere) - $240 (Available in Stores)

The smaller rugs, including the one for our nursery, would look great layered over a large natural rug...may still consider that but I'm happy to have serendipitously crossed this item off of my list.

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