Of all the rooms in our East Hampton house, this is one is my absolute favorite. When I began planning the nursery, our entire world seemed chaotic. We were at the beginning of the pandemic. Joe and I had just demo-ed our kitchen, we were working from home, and trying to decide if we needed to cancel our baby shower. My prenatal care changed drastically and it was uncertain how labor & delivery would unfold.
As I envisioned bringing a sweet baby girl into the world, I wanted her first experiences to be beautiful & peaceful. I didn’t want her to sense the uncertainty of the world. Rather, I wanted her room to be a tranquil place that we would love to be in and where she would feel safe.
Once I knew how I wanted the room to feel, I got to work on designing the room. I’d never designed a nursery before and I learned quickly what was important to me and what was actually functional.
my top 5 tips for nursery design:
*note— baby never sleeps with stuffed animals in the crib. Please be sure to review the AAP’s safe sleep recommendations while preparing your nursery.
It does not need to be childish.
As I researched nursery design, I read somewhere that the primary caregiver will be the one who spends the most time in the room—so make was important to make it a place you actually want to spend time in! Homes always change and evolve as families grow, and a nursery is no exception.
I set out to make this space beautiful— for both myself & my daughter. I wanted it to feel a part of the rest of the home. Our house has a lot of characteristics of the classic Hamptons style— bright whites, natural wood tones, hues of blue and clean coastal decor. If you love the very dainty or child-centric decor, by all means, make your nursery that way. But I knew after a few weeks of looking at bunny rabbits or zoo animals, I would be bored with it before the baby was even born.
So while the room still is a nursery, I didn’t look at traditional “baby” themes and decor. I love the pieces I found and as baby grows and the room changes, I will happily move some items elsewhere in my home.
High quality, meaningful decor
I’ll never forget, I had a very small framed picture of Monet’s Lily Pond in my childhood room. I was so interested in him as a painter and that has carried through to my adult life. It was always my dream to go to Paris and see his home in Giverny.
As fate would have it, Joe and I planned a trip abroad to France, not knowing it would be our last before babies. On our second night there, I got that double-lined, positive pregnancy test. Wandering Monet’s gardens & home— two dreams fulfilled at once— I knew I had to incorporate his art into our baby’s nursery somehow. We saw so much of his work at the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay. I love the colors in this print of “The Cliffs at Etretat” and knew it would be the perfect focal point of the room.
Joe and I are both passionate about the arts and one of our greatest hopes for our baby is that they will appreciate and hopefully participate in them in some way. I love that instead of a generic animal print, there is a gorgeous print of one of the great impressionists. And to make sure music was readily accessible, we hung one of Joe’s ukelele’s in the room for spontaneous songs & serenading.
Conducive to Sleep
Getting sleep for mom, dad and baby has been at the top of my priority list since before I even knew I was pregnant. I took a class, read books, and wanted to make sure the nursery was a perfect spot for great sleep.
First and foremost, safety is important. The AAP recommends no loose blankets, no pillows, no toys or stuffed animals, no bumpers in the crib. Only a fitted sheet on a firm mattress. So if all you can splurge on is a fitted sheet, make it a pretty one. I got ours from Serena & Lily— They are beautiful, soft and safe. While baby never sleeps with blankets, we use muslin blankets all the time so I purchased a decorative ladder to display and store them.
Next up, I decided to hang our sea-critter mobile above the change table and not the crib. Here’s the thing— mobiles are fun, interesting and a great decor item. When your baby is trying to fall asleep, we don’t want them staring up at this super interesting, fun toy because guess what? They won’t go to sleep! It’s too stimulating. But during diaper changes— distractions, play & fun are more than welcome.
And finally, a dark & quiet room. As of right now, our baby is doing great without black out curtains. She sleeps the same either in pitch black or in a dim room, so I’ve opted for bamboo shades. We have them in all the bedrooms and I love that the brown tone warms up the bright white. If at some point the light becomes an issue, I will likely swap them out or add black out curtains. She also sleeps with a sound machine which helps block out noise from the kitchen & living room.
Accessibility to Books
One of my biggest pet peeves while pouring over pictures of nurseries on Pinterest and Instagram was seeing well meaning parents hang book selves at a height where only an adult can reach the books! You might not know this about me, but I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education.
It is SO important for kids to be exposed to and be able to get their hands on books at a young age. And by young I mean, right away! We even read to Aurora while I was pregnant.
We want our kids to see books, touch books, & hear books being read to them all the time. Infants are primed for learning and if we expose them to books, they are learning to love them at an early age while also developing their language skills like vocabulary and the rhythms of speech.
So from a design perspective, we want those books to be easily accessible and visible! If they’re doing tummy time, they see their library. Once they start to crawl, they can scoot over and touch the books. And as they get older, they will be able to pick out books on their own, look at them, touch them and bring them to you to read.
While floating shelves are a great design item, save them for another room in the house or use them for displaying decorative items only.
Take your time
I know how strong that urge to nest can be. You want everything to look perfect weeks (maybe months) before your little one gets here. I was the same way. COVID, however, had other plans. I was forced to slow down. Shipping times were delayed by weeks on essential items like the change table and the crib. I couldn’t go shopping in person but was stuck trying to design the perfect room with google as my only ally. I couldn’t have my baby shower, so I couldn’t really anticipate what I still needed or when anything would arrive.
Did I get the room done on time? Absolutely not—and I even had extra time because Aurora was 2 weeks late! It’s still not finished. And you know what? Everything is ok. Our baby is 4 months now. She’s sleeping in our room in the bassinet and just took her first nap in her crib in the nursery this morning. I hardly use the nursing station I set up…I feed her & pump in the living room all day. We use the nursery for the change table (approximately 100 times a day) and we play & read in there. At the end of the day, babies really don’t need that much. Try to relax and not stress about getting it perfect before baby. They need you and a safe place to sleep. End of story :)
