Here’s A Tip: Vintage Nursery Design

So I was thinking that a recurring feature on the blog might be tips related to all sorts of vintage baby topics. Let’s call it ‘Here’s A Tip.’ For our first tip, I’m taking you to my daughter’s room for some first-hand experience designing a vintage nursery. Sound good? Here we go!

First things first: Don’t let the word ‘vintage’ intimidate you. Just because it’s not a theme available at Pottery Barn Kids or Babies ‘R Us, doesn’t mean it can’t be fabulous! The great thing about vintage nurseries? Just about anything goes. It’s a very eclectic style. There’s just a few key tips you may want to keep in mind…

1. Inspire me: You may have tons of vintage stuff that you’ve collected over the years or you may just be getting started. Either way, find a vintage or vintage-inspired object that you dearly love. Maybe it’s something you’ve held onto from your own childhood. Maybe it’s something you found at The Baby Gardner. It could even be an illustration from a vintage children’s book. Whatever ‘it’ is, let it be your inspiration for the room.

2. Color me crazy: I’m about to give you the holy grail secret of design. Ready for it? COLOR! Color is what will pull a room filled with all kinds of random, eclectic stuff into an awesome and unique design all your own. Choose 2 or 3 coordinating colors as your ‘color palette’ and stick with them when picking your wall color, window treatment and bedding. Those three things are usually the main color focus in a nursery. If their colors coordinate, everything else in the room is gravy. Fill it with all the vintage-y things you love and you can’t go wrong. Not sure what colors to pick? Pull them from your inspiration piece. If your inspiration piece doesn’t have a lot of color (like a silver rattle or such), find a favorite fabric pattern and pull your colors from there.

3. Show me the love: Give your inspiration item a place of prominence in the room. If you love it that much, you’ll want to show it off!

For my daughter Gracie’s nursery, my inspiration piece was a children’s book from the Victorian era. I also had an assortment of vintage-inspired items I had accumulated and adored. I placed them in a grouping on the wall and it really made them the focal point of the room. Adding scrapbook paper in the back of the shadowboxes was another fun and easy way to throw in color and add interest.

Thinking about designing a vintage nursery? I highly recommend it and here’s an added bonus… Vintage never goes out of style. Gracie is now 8 and she still loves her room and guess what? The room is still as perfect for her as it was when she was a baby — we just had to get a bigger bed!

Little boy nurseries (like my son, Aidan’s) can have a vintage flair too! I’ll show you photos from his nursery in a future post. Stay tuned!

Looking for a place to start on your quest for the perfect vintage nursery? The Baby Gardner is filled to the brim with vintage and vintage-inspired pieces for the nursery, for baby, for showers and more!