For the Home: Charlie’s Animal and Circus Themed Nursery

Charlie’s Animal and Circus Themed Nursery

It’s a gender neutral, animal/circus themed nursery for your viewing pleasure (finally:)). Sometimes you pitch your baby’s bedroom for press and it ends up shot for a magazine, that then ends up folding soon after, and then it gets stuck in magazine limbo for 2 years. But it’s published now, in Parents Magazine, so I can finally blog about it! Charlie was 6 months old here and was a red-head, apparently. I miss that baby so much it hurts. If an anti-aging drug really existed I don’t know who I would want to have it more – him or me. My deepening crows feet can bum me out, but if I could just stop him from aging one more day I’d shove that pill down his little throat so fast (besides, his smile lines are looking a bit ‘four year old’ these days…).

When we bought the house I was 8 months pregnant and it was pretty disgusting (the house, not being pregnant). This room had been used as the ‘cat room’ by the previous owners meaning that it was where they put the litter box, and anyone who has ever had a cat knows that while we cat owners do our best to keep them neat and tidy, they rarely are. Not exactly a newborn haven.

Emily_Henderson_Charlie_Nursery_before — We stripped the carpet, put new flooring down, painted the brown painted beams white and primed the walls. It was all cosmetic and within a few weeks looked wildly better.

It’s a bit weird to document this almost 2 years later as I’m sure I’m forgetting so much, but here it goes: We wanted a gender neutral nursery that made us just as happy to hang out in as it did him. Every kid loves animals (we do, too) so we jumped on that theme pretty easily. Our color palette was a lot of white with big pops of almost any color. It was all inspired by that wallpaper that I had been dying to use for years and years. It is happiness-inducing paper – and I’m pleased to tell you that 2 years later I love it just as much.

That canopy over the crib came from Ikea but then we customized by changing out the hanging triangles on it (for the Sip ‘n See). We actually have two more of them that are in the office that I’m happy to give to a couple of people in LA who are willing to come pick them up as we don’t need three of them. It’s a cheap, easy crowd pleaser. Like jello shots.

Charlie’s room is one of the only rooms (if not the only room) that hasn’t changed since I designed it – probably because it was actually designed and not just thrown together. It’s amazing how that makes a difference. The shelving changed a bit because he doesn’t really play in here anymore (he plays in the family room). We read a ton in here so the bottom two shelves are all books now so he can pick them out himself. The globes are still there, the ship kite is hanging tight and all the bins and baskets are still there – just full of some older toys that we constantly forget about.

You know how in most magazines there are no diapers or ointments or diaper pails? Well there is in this one, which as a mom I LOVE seeing (as a stylist, less-so). Someday I’ll potty train that kid and not have to have that whole changing station (again … some day…). The changing table is a vintage dresser with a changing tray on top. We decided to do pretty much the same thing in the new nursery, too – and yes, those wood tops are strangely expensive (at least $80) so if you know someone handy in your life I suggest you start buttering them up to make you one.

Man, seeing him this old makes me want another baby sooo bad. Thank god I’m about to have one…next week ��

Nursery_Fit Pregnancy_Blue_White_minakani wallpaper_emily henderson15

Blue Storage Bench: Vintage | Dresser: Vintage | Wallpaper | Blue Rug | Bear Stuffed Animal | Pillow: Vintage

The whole tour was in the September issue of Parents Magazine. Thanks, for the feature guys. I saw it in the Doctors office every time I went, which is always VERY fun.