Nursery Take Two

The beauty of a new house is a blank slate for decorating. When it came to the boys' room, I wanted to use the same nursery decor that I'd used for my first son, but I knew that I'd need something more grown up in a year or two. And I really didn't want to repaint down the road!

So I tried to plan long-term as well as short-term. The original nursery was painted a much lighter teal. I wanted something bolder, more little boy-like, so I chose the darker teal. (See my paint sample journey here.) It still matched with my baby quilt, bumpers, and wall art, but I had a color palette in mind for the room's next look. We'll get to that. But first, the fabric parts of the boys' room:

I designed this quilt before my first baby was born. I loved the teal and mocha combination as a gender-neutral nursery. I wanted an animal theme, but I didn't want cutesy fabric. I created these animal appliques and chose Back Porch Bouquet from Bate & Taylor for Maywood Studio. I'll be sharing the pattern for this quilt here on the blog shortly...check back!

Besides the fact that I really liked all of my nursery stuff, check out these pieced stuffed animals--way too much time invested in this nursery to choose a different route the second time around! I love these animals--from Rumpled Quilt Skins patterns.

Wall art I'd made, to coordinate with the quilt and stuffed animals. So technically it's not yet up on the wall here, but I didn't want to wait for it to be hung to write this post! I bought blank canvases and acrylic paints at Michaels, cut the animal shapes out of fabric, and created wall art.

Hard to see the fabric here, but we replaced the accordion closet doors with fabric panels. The boys love to play in these curtains, and the light pin dot print (from the same collection) nicely breaks up the deep teal walls.

I love being able to use all of these elements again, but with a fresh feel because of the new paint color. And, I'm even more excited about my plans for a "big boy" bedroom after we're done with the crib and nursery look. I found this, from one of the Sherman Williams inspiration booklets.

What a great color scheme! I'm in love with it.
The boys' closet, though you can't see from the pictures (and believe me, with the mess in the closet right now, there's no way I'm taking a photo to share!), is actually a huge walk-in closet. We've transformed it into a bit of a toy room like what you see in the photo--little boys don't have a lot of hanging clothes. I'm going to paint it that butter yellow color, and then make matching quilts using the four colors shown here. I can't wait! I've already got some designs in mind... Think we should try the barn door too?

How many swatches does it take to paint a room?

By my count, at least 20!

I had a vision for what I wanted my boys' room to look like, and it involved a fairly dark wall color. I'm not afraid of wall color--the further away from white or cream it is, the happier I am! But choosing the right shade was tricky. If I was off just a little bit, the room would look like an 80s remake. And while those 80s styles are coming back in clothing, they're definitely not returning to popularity in home decor!
I was aiming for a dark teal. Every time I went to a home improvement store (often), I picked up more swatches. What looked perfect in the store was murky deep-sea green or super blue at home. Twice I thought I had the right swatch picked out and brought home a sample jar to try on the wall.

I wasn't kidding when I said I was all over the place on the right color--look how different these two are!
And, a quick side story. Getting the boys' room completely put together was absolutely first on my list (well, actually tied with removing the kitchen wallpaper).  The day the movers brought our things to the house, my best friend, who is an interior designer, was visiting to help corral the boys. She and I disappeared upstairs while my husband was immersed in kitchen boxes, trying to get our house in some semblance of working order. Meanwhile, she and I are merrily auditioning the first sample color on the wall, holding up fabrics for matching and looking from different angles to see how the light changed the color. I had an expert in the house--I wanted to take advantage of getting her opinion! Makes sense right?
About 20 minutes and several boxes later, he comes looking for us. Seven years of marriage means that he *knew* I hadn't disappeared to unpack boxes. His incredulous response: "You're painting? We have a houseful of boxes to put away and you're trying out paint colors?!" Yup. Clearly we had/have different priorities! :) And I'm so grateful that he's an incredibly efficient box unpacker. He had that kitchen whipped into shape before we went to bed!

The swatch that is X'ed out is the paint color I bought. Menard's mixed a primer for me that was the color of the swatch with the arrow. I put that up, thought it looked pretty good, and wondered how much darker the X'ed swatch would be. The answer: TOO dark. I went back the next day for a gallon of the arrow'ed color. And if anyone wants a gallon of a very dark (but beautiful) teal, let me know. I've got one to spare. Click here to see pictures of the finished room, the quilt(s), bumpers, closet curtain and wall art that go with it, and my future plans to convert it from nursery into toddler style.