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Oh,
baby, baby, baby.
Forget
the cutesy teddy bears, and ditch the washed-out pinks
and barely blues. Nurseries are going chic.
Pervasive matchy-match newborn nursery themes are being
replaced with more modern and sophisticated motifs,
while traditional pastels have morphed into bold brights
and geometric patterns.
And
parents-to-be, once obsessed with making the space
perfect for a baby, are now opting to create a
longer-term décor, one that not only blends with the
rest of the house but also will be suitable as their
newborn grows into toddlerhood and beyond.
“Parents
are finally growing up when it comes to decorating for
baby,” says Angelo Surmelis, host of HGTV’s 24 Hour
Design. “They are looking down the road.”
“The
parents today were the generation that grew up with
pastel colors, baby murals and cutesy stuff,’’ he says.
“They are a generation that has spent time and money on
the rest of the house, and when it comes to the nursery,
they want it sophisticated and out of the box.”
Customize it.
Dennis House and
Kara Sundlun decorated the nursery in their home with
custom fabric and bedding for their daughter, Helena,
now two months old.
Sophisticated? Apparently so. Take a meander through
virtually any dedicated baby store or the baby aisles at
major retail outlets such as Target or Ikea. Peruse the
newest crop of “how-to” books on nursery design. The
look—it’s come a long way, baby.
“It’s
about finding a sense of style that is practical and
affordable and not traditional,” says Tina Barkley,
creator of a line of nursery products called Babylicious
that is carried at a variety of baby boutiques, online
and at Target. “Parents want to reflect their own sense
of style through their babies. And nurseries have become
part of that style.”
While
some necessities are must-haves for the nursery, such as
a crib and a changing table, even those are being
stepped up when it comes to style. Dual-purpose changing
tables with removable tops grow with babies, thanks to
features such as bookcases, drawers or cabinets that
become bedroom staples once the changing top is no
longer needed. Cribs that can be reconfigured into
toddler-sized beds, and storage units and shelves that
can hold baby powder and stuffed animals one year and
building blocks and books the next, turn baby’s room
into one that changes along with the size, the interests
and the needs of the child.
And then
there is the color: Bold raspberry, orange and lime
green are popular, as are modern earth tones with
splashes of red, vermillion or turquoise. Plaids,
stripes, polka dots and geometrics make yesterday’s
pastel teddy bear-covered patterns so yesterday.
“You can
have a hip nursery, one that is a lot of fun,’’ says
Barkley, who created her own retro-inspired patterns
that include Posie, Happy and Island, because she didn’t
find the pizazz she wanted for her own baby in more
traditional lines in stores. “The choices are endless
out there.”
“The
first thing we thought of is that we wanted something
that was not real babyish,” says Rebecca Stewart, a
weekend TV anchor in Hartford, Connecticut. Stewart and
her husband, Jamie Muro, a reporter with another
Hartford-area TV station, are expecting their first
child, a boy, any day now.
“At
first, we talked about a bunch of possibilities, maybe a
circus theme,’’ says Muro, about the upstairs bedroom
that ultimately was turned into a light-hearted
minijungle.
“The
only thing I knew I wanted was bead board,” Stewart
says. “From there it was a blank canvas.”
Bead
board was installed on the walls and ceiling of their
son’s bedroom in their Cape Cod-style house in
West Hartford. The soft yellow color provides the subtle backdrop for
all-about-the-jungle accessories, including a repurposed
wardrobe that Stewart updated by painting six-foot-tall
“Gerry Giraffe” on the front.
A
jungle-themed clothes-tree—home to a hanging stuffed
monkey—wood blinds on the window and a zebra-print area
rug share space with a dressing table. A
yet-to-be-purchased rocker or easy chair (which the
couple say will be done in some kind of animal print), a
felt jungle diorama on the back of some built-in
bookcases and a black crib complete the décor. The goal,
Stewart and Muro say, is a room that will be
inspirational to a newborn and growing baby, and just a
fun place to sleep for a toddler.
“Yeah,
there were some people who were like, ‘A black crib?
You’ve got to be kidding,’” says Stewart, who, with her
husband, did most of the painting and decorating. “But
it actually looks good, because there it’s not
overpowering and just works well with the jungle idea.”
At the
Hartford home of newscasters Dennis House and Kara
Sundlun, daughter Helena may be bunked in what sounds
like a traditional pink-and-white nursery, but it’s not
the kind of pink-and-white room of days gone by.
Bubblegum-pink custom bedding from Infants Interiors in
Newport, Rhode Island, featuring grosgrain ribbon,
awning stripes, plaids and polka dots, provides the
eye-catching, bold wash of color in this chic baby’s
room.
“My mom
is an interior designer, so we were looking to do
something special in terms of aesthetics,” Sundlun says.
The couple chose a seaside motif, soft turquoise walls
and, rather daringly, white wall-to-wall carpeting.
“The
carpet is really Scotchgarded well,” Sundlun says.
Because
they were married in
Newport
and love the ocean, Sundlun says it was natural that
their tastes carried into their daughter’s room.
A design
that includes starfish, flamingos and ducks outlined
with strands of dock line create the wall border. A
hot-pink princess phone, hot-pink model 1958 Buick
(House loves Buicks) and pink, white and turquoise
letters spelling out the baby’s name are just some of
the accessories in the room.
“I’m not
sure if we thought too much about longevity as far as
the color scheme and the theme, but we did want to make
it gender-neutral,’’ says Sundlun, who had her doctor
tell the baby-store owner the sex of the baby so he—but
not she and House—would know whether to order the
custom-made pink or blue bedding. “We wanted something
not too babyish.”
Decorating is a reflection of life, says Laura Forbes
Carlin, who, with her sister, Alison Forbes, wrote
The Peaceful Nursery. The book promotes the use of
feng shui, the Chinese art of placement, to create a
nursery that is practical, peaceful and safe.
Beiges,
dove whites and cream yellows provide a soothing palette
that Carlin says will set the stage for a healthy and
tranquil baby space.
And in
keeping with the trend to make a nursery an extension,
rather than the exception, to the feel of a house,
Carlin advocates keeping it clutter-free.
“I think
the trend is to declutter rooms, and that goes for the
nursery, too,’’ she says. “Keeping furniture and
accessories to a minimum, providing enough storage for
toys and things will ultimately mean a more efficient,
graceful and happy nursery.”
Hints
for parents-to-be preparing to create a baby space?
“Save
your time and money by having a plan and a realistic
budget, not your dream budget,’’ Surmelis advises.
“Figure out what you need and what is going to function.
If you want whimsy, do it with accessories that can be
changed out as the baby gets older, but look to
furniture and color that can grow with the child. You
can be sentimental, but in the long run, it saves you
from having to go backward and being forced to do the
room over again when the baby gets older.” |
