Furnishing a nursery, Nancy Golden says, offers a perfect opportunity to break all the rules of decorating: the room doesn't have to match the rest of the house, so you can use just about any colors and be as fanciful as you wish. A good first step in nursery design is deciding on a theme. You may find a rug (figure A) or a print that you love and that inspires you, as the homeowners in this episode did; or you may want to go to your local library, bookstore or stationers. Inspiration abounds: you just have to know where -- and how -- to look for it. Once you've decided on a theme for the nursery, the next step is to choose a color scheme. Researchers say that babies actually see only three colors: black, white and red. Most people, however, prefer a more delicate palette for a baby's room. The homeowners wanted to create a nursery that would be suitable for this baby and any others they might have in the future and that also would work for an older child. To help achieve this goal, Golden chose a variety of fabrics that included toile, gingham and ticking. The walls were painted a soft green (figure B) taken from the colors in the rug. After allowing the base coat to dry thoroughly (at least 24 hours), Golden used painters tape to mark off 12" stripes. To achieve a subtle effect, she used a high-gloss version of the same color to paint every other stripe. The effect, however, wasn't what she had hoped for, so she repainted the stripes using a lighter version of the green (achieved by adding enough white to bring the color down two tints), again using a high-gloss finish to provide a textural variation. Behind a jutting wall in the room was a pleasant surprise: the chimney of the downstairs fireplace. Golden had the drywall removed from the wall, exposing the brick chimney. Had the room been intended for another purpose, such as a study, Golden would have left the brick its natural red color, but she decided to soften it to work better in the French-inspired nursery decor. A simple dry-brush technique using a 50-50 mixture of white latex paint and water lightened the brick while still allowing hints of the red to show through (figure C). The brick wall section ended about an inch from the floor, so to camouflage the gap, a new wider molding was constructed: two layers of 1" by 6" wood were sandwiched between the original molding and a larger base molding to increase the thickness. Behind these was added a wider molding for height, and the joint was hidden with a strip of crown molding. Finally, a narrow base shoe was added (figure D ). The result was of a thick, deep molding that looked as if it had been in place since the house was built. The Bare Facts: Green is a color that reminds us of nature, of bringing the outdoors in.
RESOURCES :
Treasures for Baby: Exquisite Nursery Decorations and Handmade Ribbon Keepsakes
Author: Ellie Joos
In the Tree Top
The producers of Bare Walls would like to thank In the TreeTop for supplying furniture and accessories for this room makeover.
In the Tree Top
Greenville, NC 27858
Phone: 252-355-1638
Fax: 252-321-8006
Email: sales@inthetreetop.com
Website: http://www.inthetreetop.com
| 
)
)
)
)
