Pepper Design Blog

Project Nursery: Prints, Patterns & More Fabric Fun

Since Liv is finally here and we now know that the little baby in the belly is a girl, it’s time to get back to the nursery to add the finishing feminine touches.

The room is pretty gender neutral, perhaps even erring on the side of more boy-ish with its rust red accents, dark wood furniture and animal wall art (painted by Kevin’s incredibly talented mom and aunt). I purposefully left several of the fabric additions – such as curtains, slip covers, bedding, pillows – until after Baby S was born so that we could use these details to help complete a little boys or little girls room.

Here’s the fabric inspiration board I’ve been mulling over since early December:

You can see that there are two distinct palettes I was leaning towards – turquoise with tan/brown/yellow/green accents if babe was a boy and coral with similar color accents if he/she was a girl.

All of these fabrics are from Thibaut, a fabric and wallpaper store I originally fell in love with after discovering their huge and beautiful selection of wallpaper (which I showcased a while back as part of the Favorite Fabric series). After perusing their website a bit, I fell for several of their prints in fabric form and I decided they were perfect for the nursery.

Now’s the hard part, which fabric to use where? Which final color palette to build off of? Which patterns compliment each other without being too distracting? (I love, love mixing prints – but it’s a thin line!) Can’t wait to check out the samples.

If you’re catching up on Project Nursery, here’s a link to the vintage wall art addition, changing table makeover, nursery wall striping tutorial, painted animal project, the initial inspiration board and the before picture posts.

Jazzing Up Ikea Curtains

When I was working on the inspiration board for our bedroom I had my heart pretty set on simple drop cloth white curtains. What could be a cheaper material and a more classic look than basic white canvas?

Ahhh if they only sold basic white canvas drop cloths. I checked five hardware stores (which sort of takes away from the low-cost mission) and came up with tan/natural options only. I even considered a) ordering online and paying to have the canvas shipped to me or b) purchasing canvas fabric from the local discount fabric shop and hemming them myself. Both seemed too time consuming for what was supposed to be a basic project…

Thankfully a recent trip to Ikea revealed white panels for $14.99/pair. Perfect! Drop cloth canvases from Lowes were roughly the same price for a similar amount of material.

Drop cloth curtains would require curtain clips, so I modified my Ikea panels to create a look slightly more jazzed up look by trimming each tab off of the top of the curtains.

Then up went the rods and bamboo roman shades!

I like to hang rods slightly higher than the window frame to add a little drama.

Each curtain panel received a set of curtain clips (you can find these at your local home improvement store or home decor store) and a very thorough ironing.

I wanted the curtains to pool a bit at the bottom so I didn’t bother hemming them (that’s not a pretty pool job above, but you get the idea…). A quick application of iron-on hem tape would take care of raising the length if need be.

And there they are! Not much to holler about but a clean, basic, affordable solution to what were empty and boring windows. It also has always bothered me that the window behind the bedframe was so much smaller than the actual headboard, now the curtains help to balance out the proportions.

One more project for the master bedroom down!

Project Nursery: Inspiration Board

Project Nursery is well underway – we have four weeks (if babe decides to come on his/her due date) to button up this space and I’m all too anxious to get it finished.

The gender-neutral color palette is tan, brown and red with splashes of aqua, yellow and other bright, cheery colors. We decided to work with darker furniture since we were planning on incorporating an already owned dresser (Craigslist find) and Expedit bookshelf (Ikea). Here’s a rough idea of what I envision:

Nursery breakdown:

1. We were gifted this very comfy Stork Glider and in order to save that nearly-white fabric (as well as add pattern to the space) I’m hoping to create slip covers in an aqua print. That way I can pull the covers off for a quick wash should spit up or other fun liquids find their way onto the cushions.

2. A fun, bright lamp like this one from Cape Cod Brass would be a great addition.

3. I’m loving these soft pastel prints by Thibaut, Dandi and Serena & Lily – they would look lovely as curtains, bedding, fabric book pouches or as a valence in the room.

4. Back in May I made over an everyday Expedit bookshelf from Ikea by adding fabric to the backdrop, it has now found a new home in the nursery!

5. Vintage accessories in the form of rocking horses, wood blocks and prints are timeless and full of character – I’d love to weave them into this space.

6. With so many recalls and warnings out there we chose our crib through careful consideration and after much research. This Babyletto is a 3-in-1 (grows with baby), is environmentally sound (sustainably harvested wood) and passes all safety standards (non-toxic finish, lead & phthate safe, JPMA certified and tip proof) plus it’s extra wallet-friendly (considering all of it’s features)!

7. While most of the furniture has a contemporary/clean lines look, I’d like to add this Jenny Lind changing table to mix things up. Maybe with a coat of paint?

8. The biggest dilemma of designing this room? The rug, actually. I really struggled with what pattern of rug to shop for – with our new striped wall a striped rug felt a bit over the top, and without knowing baby’s sex, patterned rugs screamed too feminine or too masculine. When I found this burnt orange/red rug on eBay by Pottery Barn, I fell in love. It was a solid, bright pop of color made of soft wool that was comfy enough to crawl around on and sturdy enough to last years. Then I was outbid of my budgeting range (and the rug is discontinued by PB) so I’m back to square one. Do let me know if you see something similar! We might have to find a more neutral option soon…

9. Animal decals on the walls would really liven up the space, Inke from the Netherlands has the neatest selection of vintage wallpaper options but I think this would be a fun DIY project too! (Thanks to Kelsey, a reader who emailed with the source!)

10. I love the idea of fabric storage bins to organize toys, blankets and even laundry. These animal-themed bins by 3 Sprouts over at Layla Grayce are adorable! If I can find a neat way to build my own out of canvas bags I just might take this on as a DIY project too…

And there’s the space! Let the shopping/assembling/crafting begin. Here’s a quick link to the other Project Nursery posts: Inspiring Rooms, Striping an Accent Wall and the Before Pictures.

PS Don’t forget to enter the Tiny Prints (for adorable Holiday cards and other invites/announcements) giveaway! Ends tonight!