Nursery of the Week: Baby Blue for Two

The fabric on the drapery is adorable! I see elephants and airplanes and kites. Love classic blue and white.

Nursery of the Week: Monkey in the Middle

From Nursery Notations

Red, White and Blue Times Two!

"I'm sorry, what? I am having twins????!!!"

So when I first discovered that I would be having identical twins, naturally, (after freaking out for about a week and then being completely elated) my thoughts turned to their nursery. Where was I going to put these two?

What would it look like?

After I found out that the twins were boys, I started brain storming. I wanted something masculine, timeless, and unexpected. My entire jumping off point started with one fabric that I found while browsing around Denver.

It is this retro cowboy print.

When I first thought about doing a"cowboy" or "western" inspired room, I had to force myself to think outside the box, to do it in a way that was unexpected, tailored, and functional. Once I found the cowboy print, I began to find accent fabrics to incorporate into the design so that I could begin to sort out how to use each.

I came up with a traditional hounds tooth in an nontraditional color way and a blue Ikat to balance with the traditional pieces. Eventually, I decided to place the cowboys only on the windows and trim them with the hounds tooth. The ikat became accent pillows.

The treatment of the walls and ceiling opened a whole nother can of worms!

I used rough but pine boards with a semi transparent, grey stain on them to make the tray ceiling appear like an old barn. To balance with some clean lines, I added some traditional, custom wainscoting, but in a simple, modern pattern and shape to lighten the room and balance the wood.

Combined with traditional, wooden spindle cribs in a modern paint finish, with contemporary bedding and voila!

We decided to fill the space with two gliders since there would be two babies, complete with cowboy pillows knitted by the boys' great grandmother, and a vintage garden cart found at a local antique store for the changing table.

The beautiful horse paintings were commissioned by a local artist (who happens to be a close relative) I wanted the art to be simple, yet meaningful. These horses do just the trick.

Finished off with some wood accents, a cowhide rug and some good old Patriotic art and my boys' nursery was born!

Whew we made it!

Happy Tuesday!

Multiples Madness!

We were lucky enough to be asked to contribute once again to The Expectant Mother's Guide to Denver! Check out the article:
http://www.expectantmothersguide.com/library/denver/designing-nurseries-for-multiples.htm

Pop Totsx2

Holy Mole! Celebs have been baby C-R-A-Z-Y for the past couple of years and there have been a mind boggling number of twins born to these public peeps. Patrick Dempsey, Julie Bowen, Lisa Marie Presley, Molly Ringwald, Roger Federer, Jason Priestley, Ricky Martin, Marcia Cross, Rebecca Romijn, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Sara Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller, and Brad and Angie are all proud parents to twins.

Here is JLo and Marc Anthony's absurd and over the top nursery. The child safety expert would have a field day writing up the violations in this room.

Brooke Burke's nursery is for a boy and a girl.

These two crazies had twins. I won't even go there.

They have (had?) a cute nursery though.

Miss Marcia and her husband Tom are parents to two girls.

This lavender concoction is theirs.

These two just look like fun. Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell with twin girls Dolly and Charlie.

Couldn't find a picture of the actual nursery but here is the supermodel picking up some Dwell bedding at a children's store.

Ricky Martin and his two boys Valentino and Matteo

Martin's Masculine and Modern Nursery

And look! Jen Aniston is expecting twins. The woman should have like 172823 children by now according to the tabs, good for her.

Twice as Nice

Probably should have done this in reverse and posted this at the beginning of the week, oh well! If there is more than one babe on the way then figuring out the proper configuration can be daunting. Everyone says the first thing you should do is make space. Easier said then done in most cases. Here are some examples of well executed nurseries for twins. Notice that the furniture plans are varied because sometimes the room will dictate how it will be without consulting you with an oddly placed window or door, short walls and awkward angles, in the words of Stephanie Tanner "how rude!"

For the twinny twins:

Hudson Baby Design

image via here

image from here

Project Nursery

images from here

Bunkin' It

Bunk beds were the best when you were a kid. Of course there were always safety issues but the worst was when we arrived on site to discover that the kids rooms had stacked racks. That meant a mad dash to the room and tons of elbowing and shoving to jostle a sibling out the way to claim the best bunk. The result - soured feelings and a possible bruise or two.

As adults we think about functionality and bunks serve as good alternative to twin beds set side by side. Short on floor space? Build up!

These look pretty cozy, like cubbyholes to steal away to with pillows and blankets and books. Bunk beds have come a long way, most of these look way more sophisticated the the flimsy wood or metal structures I remember from camp and the dorms.

Notice all the amenities: lighting, clocks, art work, storage, ladders, nets, privacy curtains and tons of clearance for your head so that nothing goes bump in the night. Changing the sheets with bunks beds is a task that requires a little more time and effort than the average set up, so consider yourself warned.

Here is a wider shot that shows there are actually four beds in this arrangement. P-A-R-T-Y!

Doubling Up

For many twin beds conjure up images of the 1950's television shows and movies, like Leave it to Beaver and practically any Doris Day movie (that was probably more 1960's though) when married couples and their children were shown slumbering in the same room but, separately, of course. Those days it was used to "uphold moral standards" on television and film. Well guess what, the Jersey Shore cast mates are sleeping off hangovers in twin beds so I don't think that same moral message is holding true these days.

Anyway, twin beds have always been a popular choice for children's rooms so that siblings can share or for the ever exciting sleepover! Twins beds are also often used in guest rooms as a way to accommodate two people who might not want to bunk in the same bed. These days there seem to be a rise in well appointed rooms that feature twin beds. For your viewing pleasure, and no the beds from Jersey Shore did not make the cut.

Three Men and Lady