So, as I may have mentioned before, our family is about to expand by two. Yep, my sister Renee is pregnant with twin girls and due any minute! Her baby nursery has been quite a project; we had to transform a spare bedroom which was spongepainted in orange hues and redesign it to become a stunning baby nursery befitting two princesses! I'm attaching one picture here (which Renee will probably kill me for - she's 35 weeks here), but, you can check out the whole baby nursery by visiting our Facebook page.
Designing a nursery for two is definitely a bit more involved than designing a singleton's bedroom. For starters, there is the obvious: the dreaded budget! One thing I love about Renee's baby nursery is that she proved you truly don't have to break the bank to design the baby nursery of your dreams. Renee had her heart set on two key features:
Bratt Decor Casablanca Cribs in Pewter and
Caden Lane Ashlyn Crib Bedding. So, she purchased those two luxury items, and then found creative ways to economize the rest of the nursery decor without compromising style. I think you'll agree the result is one stunning baby nursery!
Our Starting Ground
As I noted, Renee had her heart set on the
Bratt Decor Casablanca Crib in Pewter and
Caden Lane's Ashlyn Crib Bedding. So, we used the babies' crib layettes as our starting ground. Choosing a base color for the walls was simple; we simply matched a paint swatch to a hue in the crib bedding set, and voila, we were on our way! So, lesson number one when you're planning your baby's nursery: choose your "must have" items and then work the rest of your budget around that!
Design & Installation
One of the most eye-catching details in Renee's baby nursery is a handpainted wall border which was crafted by Monica, Renee's uber-talented mother-in-law. Monica used the crib bumpers in Renee's bedding set as a template and handpainted the border around the bedroom herself. This is a great money saving tip - paint almost always costs less than wallpaper, and, you don't have to worry about removing it down the road.
Another fabulous money-saving element to Renee's baby nursery is a black chandelier wall decal. It adds the perfect amount of punch to the babies' nursery, and, it only cost $12.00 at A.C. Moore!
As Renee's baby nursery has bare wood floors, Renee wanted to warm the room up with a gorgeous nursery rug. Unfortunately, most of the nursery rugs we found exceeded her budget - after the purchase of the cribs and bedding we had to economize! So, if you can believe it, Renee found her gorgeous pink nursery rug in brand new condition on E-Bay!
Instead of purchasing costly window treatments, Renee purchased
Caden Lane's Luxe Pink Fabric by the Yard to design her own custom window treatments. This is a great, affordable option for designing the perfect window treatment in the design of your choice!
Finally, there are the other furnishings in the babies' nursery. Since Renee's Bratt Decor cribs were the real focal points of the nursery, she was able to purchase a less expensive bare white dresser/changer and nightstand. She then used some of the remaining paint from her wall border to accent the white furnishings she purchased, and voila - she had a complete baby nursery that did not break the bank despite the purchase of two luxury cribs and luxury crib bedding sets!
