Rock Shic

#503 Rockshic Baby Nursery – the Final Unveil!

Okay – so this is not exactly the final Project Nursery unveil… but it’s pretty darn close to the real thing!  We were a bit late in the game (but the Nuke was also late in coming on his part!!).  Like many first-time expectant mothers, I wanted everything JUST SO for my little peanut.  In the end, I had to make numerous (okay, some) concessions, but overall I’m very pleased with the result!

A note to all you eager-beaver mummies and daddies out there, your little bun changes so much, even within those first few months! So things do evolve.  We’ve already switched up our Stokke crib to accommodate his growing size, in addition to many other changes and updates.  I also learned a tremendous amount along the way via our travels to Florida and New Zealand (e.g., what works, and what doesn’t), which I happily applied towards our current living situation. 

 

Three key features of the nursery which we absolutely love and have gotten the most compliments on:

1)  Personalized artwork

2)  Baby decals

3)  Our Eames rocker, from Design within Reach (we also have the Monte Grano glider in white, not photographed, which we keep in the living room)

 

Three nursery items I couldn't do without:

1)  Baby nightlight:  This is particularly useful during those first few months when munchkin needed several middle-of-the-night feedings.  I started with this “I love you” night light from Etsy, but slowly gravitated towards the more sophisticated and high-tech Baby Projector from Duux.  It's unobtrusive, offers just the right amount of dimness, and is SUPER CUTE! 

2)  Crib mobile:  This piece I found to be an absolute gem!  More recently, we’ve upgraded from our Ferm Living moble (which I still adore btw) to something a bit more interactive (currently coveting the Skip Hop Treetop Friends Crib Mobile – it plays music, a feature munchkin absolutel adores, and also serves to distract him when he wakes up in the morning.  MONEY). 

3)  My diaper caddy (not pictured): The version I have is by Prince Lionheart (though there are many other varieties out there).  This was something I discovered while we wintered in Florida – but it is THE BEST (you can separate the diaper depot in halves for usage in multiple rooms)!!! We have four sets now for various locations, but it is so, so key in handling all of your essentials and keeping everything nice and tidy.  DO IT.

So there you have it my lovelies!!!  The key thing to bear in mind is flexibility.  Pretty soon, I’m going to have to DIY my way to a toddler’s room at the rate we’re going!

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Clearly I am drawn to the classic white + blue combo! See here on choosing a color palette for your nursery.  

Inspired by the artwork, see here for Rockshic's own sentimental Nursery wall-art.

Love this, and it also features the Stokke crib! Full feature here.

Happy Sunday!

Tomorrow is Veterans day, and I’m looking forward to spending an extra day with my adorable little family.

I know I’ve been a bit lax lately… but a visit from an old friend today totally propelled my desire to unveil our nursery in its finished state!

But first (yes first!), I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you some ideas and inspirations I’ve adopted along the way (all from images I had come across on-line).  Mostly, I re-discovered these photos tonight, as they’ve been buried deep within the archived files of my work laptop (the bulk of them dating back to May!!!).

So sit back and enjoy… I had fun putting these images together (sort of like my personal Pinterest Board for all things nursery-related).  I promise, after that I will feature our long, over-due, and final product!

Wall decal is my jam!  See full-length feature here.  We also have the Forest Friends Wall Decal by Evgie.  I can't tell you how many compliments we've received on our wall decal thus far!!!

Another wall decal I dig, also featured here.  This is the Seasons Tree Wall Decal from Wall Candy Arts.  We actually have the two side-by-side and the final result is amazing!!!

We got this Colors in the Woods Wall Decal back in June but have yet to use it.  I'm contemplating putting it up in our home in Naples, FL!

Adorable and lovely nurseries for little girls! Pity Nukie is a bloke :-)  Better luck next time!

Most of these inspirations I got from Houzz, a great resource for interior design.

LOVE this little nook! If only my own nursery was this organized!  We have both the Kangaroo & Dog Storage Bags by 3 Sprouts.  Love them!

LOVE this chair... as you can see I am definitely partial to white furnitures when it comes to Nursery-chic.

More wall decal fun! Love the infusion of actual book-shelves here.

I love the orange and white combo here, reminiscent of the nursery rug we chose!  In fact, I liked the so much, I chose the exact same colors for both our Diaper Pail and Changing Station!

Another great idea for wall decal... something to consider when little Nukie gets older! #readingcorner

I love the integrated shelving here! Great way to get organized.

This little rustic decor is not entirely my style... but I do love the quirky nature of the aesthetic -- and a BIG FAN of the planet mobile hanging to the right!

A bit too matchy matchy for my taste, but love the color mix!  Plus, how cute is that sail boat on the bottom? ;-)

Nursery decor from Ten June, whose blog actually inspired me to launch a Project Nursery series of my own!

Love this book-shelf display! Again, something for our snuggle-bug when he gets a bit older!

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#406 Project Nursery – Step #7: Fabulous Baby Decals

A little preview of the Forest Friends Wall Decal by Evgie!

As if on cue, we had a chance to put up some wall decals this weekend! By we, I mean more *I* this time… I suppose wall decals are just not hubby’s thing!  The thing with choosing the right nursery decal, is that you want to strike the right mix of fun, modern, and stylish.  It is going to be a kid’s room after all, so cutesy & happy is just fine with me as long as it’s personalized and not too over the top (when else am I going to be able to indulge my inner child?).  As far as I’m concerned, a baby’s nursery is the ideal place where you ca take some risks and be whimsical.    

The main decal we put up next to Nukie’s crib is courtesy of Evgie (you can also find them on Etsy, every artistan's favorite doman!).  In keeping with our Lion-King inspiration, we went with the Forest Friends Wall Decal (cute cute cute!).  There was actually a lot of components to it (for more info on decal set-up see here), so I spent the better part of my Sunday putting this up, though I must admit, I did quite enjoy the creative process. 

Next to the nursery entrance, we also put up the equally charming Seasons Tree Wall Decal by Wall Candy Arts.  It has a slightly different texture to Evgie, but also very lovely and you can reposition the leaves, birds, and branches however you wish!).  We’ve been using this space mostly as a parking space for our stroller (the Bugaboo Cameleon 3), but who knows, maybe we’ll figure out a better usage for the space later on. 

Note to self – as a general rule of thumb: when it comes to babies, you really can’t go wrong with the following visual themes: birch trees, birds, elephants, foxes, and giraffes (just to name a few).  Of course, the key is to customize... and try to exercise a light hand, nobody wants their nursery to be overly themed!

The best part about wall decals is that they are perfectly suited for the lifestyle of an apartment dweller living in New York City – since they can be super flexible, and you can DIY it however you wish based on your needs and space requirements later on! 

Seasons Tree Wall Decal, courtesy of  Wall Candy Arts

Perfect little parking spot for our stroller ;)

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#404 Project Nursery – Step #6: Sentimental Artwork

Being an artist’s daughter, I can be quite finicky when it comes to picking out artworks for display.  Even in college, I would almost always insist on bringing some of my dad’s original works with me to my dorm room – as sticking up random posters on the wall just seemed wrong somehow. 

The same can be said about picking out artwork for baby Nuke’s room.

In fact, just a few weeks ago, I was having brunch with some girlfriends (all expecting!) at the Mondrain Soho, when one of the ladies griped about how, of all things, her hubby seemed to be the most fixated on picking out art for the baby’s room. 

Sounds perfectly understandable, I thought. 

Though part of their dilemma, as it turned out, was that they didn’t want anything “too child-like,” whatever that means.  For me, decorating a nursery was always going to entail a “kiddy” theme.  Sure, I wanted some sophisticated accents here and there (A Calder-inspired mobile perhaps?  Or some Keith Haring stacking figures maybe), but as far as art goes, I was never going to put up some post-modernist Jasper Johns print or the like (as much as I’d still like to covet one for my living room) – somehow it just wouldn’t go with the theme of the nursery.  

… Which begs the question, what would go with the nursery?

In the end – I chose something far more sentimental.  You see, the summer when hubby and I started dating, we (okay more like me) had somehow decided that we really *really* wanted to watch the Lion King.  I think it had something to do with how much I loved the movie, and the fact that he had never seen it (gasp!).  Whatever the case, we ended up looking all over the city, and for some bizarre reason (no doubt attributed to Disney’s “vault-release” business strategy), the only version we could find was this ridiculously expensive collector’s gift set, which came complete with a stack of original portrait drawings by the animators themselves.

Feeling a little guilty that I’d just forced this poor guy to spend an exorbitant amount of money on a Lion King DVD set (something he clearly didn’t want), I touched his arm and said, “well, look at it this way – one day, we can use the original prints for our baby’s room.”  I think he might have faintly nodded, no doubt not taking me seriously at all.

Fast forward more than eight years later, and here we are!  And thus, what could be better than making this haphazard promise of mine a reality? I must admit, even I couldn’t have predicted or planned this arrangement better myself.  As it turned out, the small sketches, rendered in various mediums, fitted perfectly near the entrance of our baby's nursery.  I even bought a set of gallery frames from West Elm in different sizes (5x7, 6x8, and 9x11) and colors, and voila! We officially have ourselves some baby-ready art.

I must say – I’m quite pleased with the final results, and thematically they go perfectly with the nursery.  Plus, each time I look at these pictures, I can’t help but smile at the memories hubby and I shared years and years ago.  For me, that pretty much encapsulates the best gift that art has to offer.  

I read somewhere that babies really respond to black and white, hope this means that little Nukie will enjoy these lithographs!

 

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#403 Project Nursery – Step 5: Inspirations at ABC Carpet & Home

With less than two weeks ago, anything can happen at this point! 

That said, Project Nursery is coming along nicely (I swear!).  If baby Nuke were to arrive today, we’d be okay – even if not everything is set up exactly as I’d envisioned.

Though a part of me wonders whether I would ever feel completely ready (does anyone?!).  My doula assured me the other day that nobody ever does, so I’ll take some degree of comfort in that.

I must admit, ever since we started decorating the nursery, I’ve taken a stronger interest in all things interior-design.  As luck would have it, I stumbled upon ABC Carpet & Home (888 Broadway) last weekend, post brunch at ABC Cocina.

It was marvelous.

That’s the beauty of living in Manhattan – the entire city can be your spontaneous Pintrest board! As much I find great resources on-line, nothing beats seeing and feeling something up close and personal.  That day, I literally walked around the store like a little kid in a candy shop, touching and snapping away happily at all things nursery-related, as a harried hubby looked on, no doubt more than a little concerned about all of the inflated price tags.

In the end, even hubby admitted that ABC Carpet was a great source of inspiration for the nursery.  Now that’s saying something!   

For a more extensive list of nursery & kiddie furnishings – check out the New York Family’s directory here! It includes ABC Carpet & Home, and so much more… next on my list? DwellStudio in Soho (77 Wooster St), bring it on! 

Cute, cute, cute... I want it all!

Very Lion-King themed... read more on this see here!

Okay, so this is not from the kid section, but still so cute!

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#397 Project Nursery – Step 4: Rug Hunting

Baby nursery in its current state (we're still using our Stokke Crib as storage!)

Our ultimate rug of choice: the Cutouts Wool Rug by West Elm!

It’s been nearly a month since I’ve had a chance to update project nursery (thankfully it hasn’t been that long since we’ve actually worked on it!).  To be fair, I try to do a little bit each day (okay per week), but now that my due date is fast approaching (I’ve stopped counting the days, for now, so as to not pysch myself out).

Of the things that we’ve recently had to work on, was procuring the right rug for the nursery.  You’d think that’s a relatively easy task, but for some reason it took us a good week to achieve any results.  Namely, I think we wanted different things.  Hubby wanted something practical (e.g., durable, noise-canceling, good for moving furniture around w/o scratching the hard-wood floors, and soft enough for the baby to crawl on at a later stage). All good points!  I, of course, was approaching it from a more aesthetic angle (e.g., will the construction and the design of the rug fit the overall color-scheme of the nursery? And will the size be overpowering for our little second bedroom?).

In the end, we went with the West Elm Cutouts Rug (5x8).  It somehow fulfilled all of our criteria (miracle!), and was within budget (I didn’t see a whole lot of point in splurging big on a kid’s carpet, so somewhere like West Elm was a great fit!  Plus, I’ve always liked their style). 

My key takeaways from the overall carpet-finding experience:

1)      Always have a couple of ideas of what you’re looking for.   In our case, we (okay, I) knew that we were looking for something relatively modern, with some fun but neutral colors (think yellow, grey, with maybe a dash of orange) and designs infused (below are some final contenders I liked):

Alternative Option A: The Keys Rug (CB2)

Alternative Option B: The Lourdes Sanchez Swirl Wool Rug (West Elm)

2)      Having done your research on-line, it’s good to then streamline your options to say, one or two (or three and four). In our case, we nailed it down to our top three choices (the Cutouts, the Keys Rug, and the Swirl) and proceeded to execute the plan. 

3)      I highly recommend going to the store to take a look for yourself.  It’s super tempting to buy on-line (believe me I looked! Overstock, eBay, Amazon, Pottery Barn, you name it), particularly with a busy Manhattanite’s schedule.  That said, when we did go to West Elm in Chelsea (followed by CB2 in Soho), I quickly realized that what I thought I wanted (e.g., the Swirl Rug, funky as it looked in photos, see above), was just waaaay too busy in reality.  Same went for the Keys Rug from CB2, which had initially been a top-contender, but in real life was just a sheer disappointment (the yellow being too dominating and not quite right).  Trust me, the trip you make in person is well worth the hassle of returning and/or exchanging at a later date!

Real life staging of the Cutouts Rug at the West Elm in Chelsea, not as posh as the magazines, but you get a much better sense of what the rug actually looks like!

Hubby arrived at West Elm first, and sent this to me :)

4)      Photos, photos, photos – okay, so I have a tendencey to take this notion to the extreme because I blog and I tend to be pretty visual in general, but there it was invaluable for me to take photos of the nursery (in its rough form) and photos from the manufacturer’s own website (sometimes it’s worth visiting their social media sites too, as they tend to provide more up-to-date visuals there). 

The winner: the Cutouts Rug

5)      If you have the time, try and visit a couple of architecture/design blogs on-line (I personally liked the Decoist, Apartment Therapy, and House Beautiful).  Personally I found this approach to be both useful and inspirational for ideas, you never quite know what you'll find! (For instance, how fantastic is this Mr. Fox rug from the UK?) 

In the end – project rug, time consuming and all-encompassing as it was for a condensed period of time, was well worth the effort, and I couldn’t be happier with the results!  Hope the Nuke will dig it too.  

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That's our new Octopus Cushion (made by Danish Design Shop Ferm Living). I am kind of obsessed :)

With all of the money we’ve been spending lately on baby prep (crib and stroller being some big ticket items), I didn’t see the point, and couldn’t really justify getting brand new dressers and shelves for the nursery.  Quite frankly, the Ikea ones we’ve had since 2006 work just fine.  So why not keep them?

The only problem was the color. 

The ones we have were a muted, bamboo-beech color which went well with our old office decor, but not so much for Project Nursery.

The natural solution? DIY!!

In fact, it was easy once we had our primary color themes and crib picked out – I already knew that I wanted to go with white (though who knew that there would be so many shades of white to choose from?).

Thanks to the lovely folks at Sherwin-Williams (located on 21^st and 6^th ave), we were able to pick out the following (all zero-VOC of course!!!).

1)      One gallon of the multi-purpose zero VOC latex primer

2)     One gallon of the Emerald Interior paint line, semi-gloss (low VOC), color = extra white (SW 7006).  In fact, the Sherwin-Williams Emerald line of paints came highly recommended, as the paint meets the most stringent VOC regulations (key for preggy people and little munchkins).

Originally, hubby and I also contemplated using semi-gloss protective finish.  Though apparently the product is not available in zero-VOC, and it turned out we really didn’t need it after all!  (For those of you who are interested, we were told that if we truly had our hearts set on a protective finish, we could go with a Miniwax polycrylic, which is a water-based formula). 

Normally, we’re not really big on DIY projects.  That said – we were both quite pleased with the results!!! (Opening the door for future endeavors, perhaps?).

Take a look and see for yourself.  The entire effort took multiple weeks and several coatings – namely because it was hard for us (okay more like hubby) to find the time to paint during the week.   Though when all was said and done, the change in color truly transformed the nursery, taking us via leaps and bounds in terms of progress made!  

DIY: before and after... obviously we have quite a bit of clean-up to do!

Work in progress...

Now we just have to concentrate on assembling all of our baby stuff together!

 

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#380 Project Nursery – Step 2: Choosing a Color Palette

I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t really enjoy major decisions such as choosing colors and interior finishings for an apartment or house.  It can all be just too stress-inducing and overwhelming, particularly with all of the options out there these days!

Some could even say that we’ve been procrastinating on getting the nursery together, though at this rate – one can’t really afford to anymore!

To give ourselves some credit, hubby and I did kick things into high gear, about five weeks ago, after we got back from Barbados and before we took off for Boston.  Somewhere sandwiched in between, we managed to clear everything out of the second bedroom (aka “the office”), choose a wall color, and start painting.  Ok, so hubby did all of the painting.  I just stood there for what seemed like an interminable period of time choosing the right shade of blue.

Seriously, for such a limiting palette, why on earth are there so many options? 

Granted, choosing blue probably wasn’t the most imaginative leap that one could have taken.  But after spending hours on the internet and browsing through the likes of Houzz for ideas, I came to the inevitable realization that all I wanted was an understated and subtle shade of blue.  In the end, we went with what’s called “Eminence” in satin enamel by Behr (zero VOC of course!). 

In putting together the basic construct of a color scheme, I was primarily driven by two factors: (1) my appreciation for the lovely baby boy nursery per the blog Tenjune; and (2) my chance-encounter of the Design-Concept store Jnrl Str on 55 Clinton street, which seemed to evoke the perfect balance of blue… and white! 

So there you have it.  I decided that our primary colors for the nursery would be blue and white – blue for the walls, and white for the furniture (crib included!), with an occasional pop of color for accents!  Stay tuned for more.  

A flash of inspiration at Jnrl Str on 55 Clinton

A work in progress

The finished product! Weekend of my baby shower.

 

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The convertible Stokke System!

Every major endeavor begins with a small step (or if you're like me – you hibernate for a period of time, research like crazy, and then ATTACK!).  In a nutshell, that’s kind of how I feel about Project Nursery, aka what I’ve come to call our endeavor in preparation for our little Nuke. 

At the end of May, a good friend of mine was visiting from Sao Paulo, and was SHOCKED to note that we haven’t procured a crib yet (or even a stroller!).  I suppose she knows me too well.  In truth we had been looking and thinking for quite a few months, but just haven’t bitten the bullet (I personally consider the crib and the stroller to be the two big purchases for baby prep).

At any rate, we finally decided to go with the Stokke Sleepi Crib in white, and I couldn’t be happier with it! Hubby actually assembled it while I was in Chicago, but it was exactly as sleek and functional as I had envisioned.  Living in Manhattan, space is definitely always difficult to come by, and what I love the most about the Stokke is that it is adjustable, and it has wheels!  (Hardly any of the other cribs we went to see had wheels, and they were all so dominating!).  For now, I envision wheeling my child in between spaces, I don’t know why, but something about the mobility feature just grasped me from the very start.   In fact, I believe my exact words to a wavering hubby was, “I'd rather have him be mobile versus being tied down to one spot.”

Call it an early case of baby wanderlust? 

Mind you – the crib isn’t super cheap (roughly $1k for the convertible Sleepi system itself, and that’s not counting all of the paraphernalia such as mattresses for various stages, sheets, bumpers, etc. – which could all run pretty expensive).  In addition, you do get tied down to only Stokke-made bed products.  All of the above were chief concerns, particularly with hubby (though I would argue that the brand makes pretty nice things overall, so I wasn’t as concerned about being tied down to all things Stokke, there are worse things in life).  You could also find some pretty good promotions on-line, and these days it seems like Buy Buy Baby is always having a sale of some sort. 

At the end of the day, we weighed up the pros and cons (the ability to move our little Nukie around, for instance, was a principal win), and the Stokke triumphed!  Huzzah!

Our Stokke assembled! As you can see, the rest of the room still needs work!

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