Nursery: All Starts With a Dresser

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Two years ago when I had an extreme case of baby fever, I was reading ohdeedoh like crazy and told myself I would easily know how to design and pull together a gorgeous, modern, bright and cheerful nursery.

So it's not a surprise that in my second month of pregnancy, before we had uttered a word of the baby to anyone but our midwife's office, I had purchased a dresser for the nursery. I happened across an Etsy store called Mint Home, who refinish furniture with a bright, modern aesthetic. Oh, and did I mention they are located in Chicago? Meant to be.

I fell in love with their work. And with a dresser on their site. Knowing that with one-of-a-kind pieces you snooze, you lose, I contacted them about dimensions on the piece. Unfortunately, it just wouldn't work well as a changing table. But, they let me know, they love to do custom pieces. Just give them desired dimensions and a budget, and they would see what they'd find.

So I did just that. I mean, it could take months, right? Wrong. Within two days, they sent me a picture of a dresser they found that they thought would be perfect. It was less than inspiring - a drab old dresser. But I trusted their eye, and the piece would be within our budget and the dimensions were great. I gave the ok, and shared my goal of a mustard yellow dresser as a focal point for the nursery.

A couple of weeks later, the lovely ladies of Mint Home delivered this beautiful piece of furniture to our condo:


Love! It's perfect in every way and ended up being cheaper than any dresser we might buy in a store (with the exception of a basic IKEA dresser).

But, after the fun of finding a dresser, I haven't been quite as sure of myself that I could create an amazing nursery...what I thought would be an easy task has easily become overwhelming.

The next project has been fabric! Who knew fabric could be so intimidating? We've been trying to do a grey, yellow and blue (turquoise? aqua?) color scheme. I've looked at three million different fabrics trying to figure out what shade of blue would work. I finally found an amazing Canadian fabric web site: Tonic Living. There are probably many similar sites in the U.S., but once I found this one I knew I was in a good place. All of the fabric is modern and fun, and there isn't too much on the site to make it overwhelming.

I ordered a bunch of samples and quickly settled on Jessica Jones' Frond. The yellow in real life isn't as gold as pictured, and background is a nice charcoal grey. But where's the blue, you ask? It was next to impossible for me to find a pattern that included a shade of blue that I loved. But...


...I found this fabulous Robert Kaufman cotton in Glacier. While I'd thought I wanted more of an aqua or lighter blue, this fabric is a nice, rich color and works perfectly with the pattern. I like the idea of just pulling in little accents of this blue.


Whew! Seeing it all start to come together (at least in my mind) has become a great relief. I wanted to get the big picture items figured out before I start deciding what little details we'll include in the room and what sewing projects I'll try and tackle.

8 comments:

Megan said...

Love the dresser and the fabric you chose! I've actually had my eye on that line for quite a while -- have you seen the Tulip design in Dusk? It has the same yellow and gray, but also a shade of blue! http://www.tonicliving.com/productsDetails.asp?categoryid=26&productid=2259&currentpage=1&onsale=0 You've probably seen it (maybe it's not the right shade of blue?), but just thought I'd mention it in case!

Laura said...

Megan: yes, we have a sample of the Tulip at home too :) LOVE it in person! If we end up having a boy, we weren't sure if the tulips were too girly (they're probably the least girly flowers I've seen in fabric, though).

Sugar said...

Love that dresser!! And the fabric.

I am pretty much in love with this line of fabric, which again, I am sure you have seen:http://www.fabricworm.com/jadestforbif.html

Charlene @ Sweetchic said...

Love it! And thanks for linking Mint Home... their stuff is lovely and so affordable! Definitely bookmarked for future reference ;)

Wailin said...

I'm a long-time lurker (from your Stiletto days) and first-time commenter. I love your color scheme and the dresser! And thanks for introducing me to Mint. I went on their Etsy page and instantly fell in love with a chair there. Great find!

serena said...

Yay! Can't wait to see the finished product! :)

Anonymous said...

laura! if you wanna see that fabric or an assortment of ONLY awesome fabric in person, definitely check out the needle shop in bucktown. youll be in heaven, i promise.

The Casual Observer said...

You have such vision! I'm so jealous that you're able to confidently make a purchase like this dresser. It's going to be fabulous!!! Love the fabric too.

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