When I was thinking about my future life with baby, way before baby was a twinkle in our eye, I had visions of what that future nursery would look like.  I knew of course it would be neutral, a soothing oasis for both bebe and mama.  After all I reasoned Einstein, Mozart, Tesla, and a host of other prodigies surely did not have a cacophony of primary colors, patterns, plastic and flash cards in their nurseries, so I think I would be just fine not having them in mine.  I also had visions of maybe a more traditional look, classic pieces like the Jenny Lind crib and washed organic linen bedding. I didn’t even know that baby bumpers, baby quilts and pillows were an absolute no-no. Some states have even banned bumpers all together! Sigh.

My current reality is that we live in a 526 square foot apartment, a very modern industrial space and no matter how hard I tried to go against the design grain with the space it just wouldn’t work, the only thing to do is go with the flow (and space restrictions).  That means I am going modern, much more modern than I ever imagined I would (yes, think Eames Shell rocker modern).  I love clean lines, but this “nursery” (we gave up our bedroom and have divided the space into half nursery half studio + office for me) is taking me into territory that I feel a little precarious in.  I will post soon what we have purchased thus far as our base pieces and what I am hoping I will bring in to make the space feel less stark, I think texture will be key to soften all those sharp angles.  I do have some obstacles to work with like our 18ft high ceilings, which sounds amazing in theory but when it came to paint the space was a total nightmare.  I had to go with a bright white paint (so lucky the room was tiny, this paint is a fortune!)  for a couple reasons, one being the walls are textured (ick!) and with another color  it would be too obvious that they are orange peel-esque. If they were flat I may have gone with Benjamin Moore’s Gray Owl.  The other reason for the white is that there is no window in this room, for someone like me that lives for light it is another nightmare scenario and if I was going to be working through a Pacific Northwest winter in this space I wanted it to feel as bright and cheery as possible.  I understand the no windows could be perfect for a newborn and being able to get her to sleep, but don’t worry about ventilation, it’s a loft space so everything is pretty much open to everything else.  I wanted to change out the very ugly carpet in the room at the very least rip it up and paint the concrete white, but it’s a rental and we don’t have plans to stay here that long, if I wasn’t this pregnant I would definitely have thrown caution to the wind and ripped it up ages ago, but I wasn’t up to it before and now even if I wanted to bending is not an option for me and deck paint, well that’s not going to happen with baby on board! I am trying to think of some sort of solution, the room is not a perfect square or rectangle so using a rug has proven to be both awkward and futile.  Wish me luck, it is no easy feat trying to wrap up clients, projects and get ready for a baby all within the next few weeks (weeks?! Gah!).

And this nursery is just one of my all time faves, by the talented Susan, just beautiful!

images top left//top right//bottom