Inspiration Board: Harrison's Traveler's Nursery • Designing Dawn

20 Dec 2012

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Inspiration Board: Harrison’s Traveler’s Nursery

By Dawn Sailors In Just Dawn

Karsen has been one of my BFF’s for years, and is one of the most fashionable people I know. So I have to admit I was kind of surprised when she asked me to help her with a mood board for her son, Harrison’s nursery, but in a good way. I guess even creative people can get stuck, especially when you have been starting at the same thing for months. And I love inspiration boards and a good challenge, so I happily agreed to give it a go. :)

Here’s are the pictures K sent me of what the room looks like now:

072

073

The bed has to stay in the room. And because it’s a family set, the dresser and crib can’t be altered. Everything else was up for grabs. Karsen likes the deep blue and I know she has a love of vintage, but she said she was open to ideas. Here’s what I came up with:

Harrison Room

I also love the deep blue. Paired with the trunk in the photo I immediately thought of a vintage travel theme. I think the celestial maps above really tie in the black trunk with the blue walls. Don’t you just think of a huge explorers ship sailing through the night guided by the stars? Love it. Such a whimsical theme full of possibilities for a kid’s imagination. And something little H can grow into. Here are a couple (very quickly thrown together) room-plan images of how I envision things fitting into the room as it is:

Hroom2

Hroom1

In the before photos, I felt like the navy and the lime were fighting for attention in the room, making it hard to add in any accessories without feeling overwhelming. It’s that ‘if everyone’s shouting, no one is heard’ dilemma. By toning down the green, the blue becomes the focal point, and leaves room for fun colorful accessories.

Karsen already had purchased burlap and navy chevron fabrics, so I worked those in too, and they fit perfectly. I think a burlap curtain would be a great solution. I’d also paint the rest of the walls a rich taupe color to really make the blue pop and the trim and bedding stand out.

Speaking of bedding, the bed doesn’t currently have a headboard. As a solution to that, I would hang the three oversized chalk posters (sources all listed below, btw) together on the blue wall in rustic wood frames centered over the bed. That way you’re creating a strong focal point that can act as a headboard and anchor the bed on that wall. The black in the prints also ties in the black of the trunk, tricking the eye into associating the two, almost like a headboard and footboard.

One last recommendation would be to build some vertical storage for the space in the form of open shelving. I suggested to Karsen to possibly use the existing dresser as a changing table (allowing her to get rid of one extra piece of furniture in the room), and the open shelving as storage for diapers and other necessities. All hid away in pretty baskets of course. If you’re wondering how to accomplish this, we built some open shelving like this in our home office recently and it was so easy! Seriously anyone can do it. You can read about how we did it here.

So one more look at the before and the room plan I created for this room:

harrison

So that’s my vintage traveler’s nursery for Harrison. K, I hope you love it. Here is a list of all the sources for the room, in case you see anything you’d like to take home too! (Disclaimer- I make no claim that anything shown above is actually to scale-and I’d be shocked if it is, so please measure before you buy.)