Name: Finn
Age: 4 months
Location: Ohio
This home office turned nursery is the perfect new home for new Finn who was born at the first of the year. Mother Kari aimed to assemble a science and technology inspired bedroom and we think the results are out of sight. It's cool, calming and boasts a hand-painted city skyline by Dad!
Transforming a home office into a new space for your child is no easy task. Somehow, it always seems like a larger effort to make it as "non-officey" as possible. This room started off right with a pretty paint treatment and the rest was history. There are all sorts of small touches in this room that really make it a comfortable place to grow up and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Ohdeedoh Survey:
Inspiration: “Industry, Science and Technology”. After seeing all of the amazing nursery tours on Ohdeedoh, I wanted to do a themed room. The color scheme (gray and orange) was picked as soon as we found out we were pregnant but once we knew it was a boy, we wanted something more masculine than birds and a tree. My husband came up with the city skyline idea and it evolved from there. (Yes, we are both engineers.)
Favorite Element: The city skyline. It turned out really well and the dark contrast makes it easy for Finn to see it. I named the room "Finn City". Finn’s favorite element is the robot poster above the rocker. My sister actually made the poster for Finn and he stares at it every night during his night-time bottle.
Biggest Challenge: Lighting. During the day, there is plenty of light but at night, it is so dark in that room since there is no overhead light. It took a combination of multiple lamps to get the different light settings that we wanted.
What Friends Say: “This is the coolest nursery;” and “The skyline looks so good. I can’t believe you did that by hand.”
Proudest DIY: Personally my favorite DIY is the recovered rocking chair from Craigslist. I ended up finishing it two weeks before I gave birth. My husband learned not to leave a pregnant woman alone with a staple gun in a closed room.
Everyone else loves the city skyline that my husband painted. He based it on a reference drawing I made and used painter’s tape to outline the shape of the buildings.
Biggest Indulgence: The crib bedding - especially since we aren’t using the crib bumpers right now. It matched so perfectly I just had to get it.
Best advice: Kids rooms let you have the freedom to be a little more over the top with the design. I found it helpful to pick a color scheme and use that to tie everything together. But most importantly is to have fun with it and let it evolve over time. Also, have plenty of room for storage. It is amazing how much stuff such a small baby has!
Dream source: Etsy.com, 2modern.com or the Seattle store Tottini
Resources:
Dresser, nightstand and white bookcase : had from when the nursery was a spare bedroom
Space Prints: Lunastrella series from John W Golden
Clock: Bicycle Clock from 1 by Liz
Science Print: Science is Awesome by Pam Wishbow
Robot Poster: Poster 18 by Lauren Deger
Crib: GULLIVER crib from IKEA
Crib Bedding: Dwell Studio Transportation Crib Bedding
Silver 3 tier lamp: from Target
White “bubble” lamp: FILLSTA from IKEA
Curtains: RIVTA from IKEA
Rocking Chair: craigslist and the fabric is MAJKEN from IKEA
Paper lamp: RUTBO from IKEA
Bookcase: BILLY from IKEA
(Thanks, Kari & Finn!)
Images: Degerkas via Flickr
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VERY COOL!
(I had the same orange and goldish Ikea bed pillow until I realized my terrier had gnawed it bare on the corner.)
very nice!
Love, love, love the room... We have the transportation print from dwell studio but in a weekender bag. My husband loved the design and wanted our daughter not to have everything super girly, a little nod to our former life in the city.
The skyline idea is genius! And I am quite surprised that the gray worked in a nursery.
The skyline looks awesome and I love it paired with the Dwell Studio print. Well done!
I LOVE the robot poster, and you say your sister made it. The Etsy link doesn't work. Does she have an Etsy store?
Great work with the paint job! And I love what you did with the rocker. I remember my mom had one of those when I was younger...wish she still did so I could do what you did!
Thanks everyone for the positive comments. We had a lot of fun with the room.
ellsie22: My sister was part of an etsy store but I can't seem to find it. Let me contact her and I will get you the link!
I love the skyline and the dwell bedding goes perfectly with it! It's a very fun, yet soothing room. Awesome job!
oh, that rocker! i like.
The skyline is just perfect!
Love it! My son is now 3.5 and has chosen superheroes as his "thing", so I am busy trying to think of a cute, but more sophisticated room so it's not too theme-y or cutesy. I am thinking the city skyline would make a great backdrop for his acquisitions so far ... I was going to paint anyway and now I'm super inspired! Thanks for sharing.
One more thing, ... where did you get those cool baskets, one is near the changing table? Love those and have been looking for them.
What a great room! I am most impressed by the combinations of furniture you put together. The Gulliver next to your traditional furniture that fab craigslist DIY spectacular rocker really works. And you surely didn't pay thousands for your furniture either. . But all your personalized details with the walls and the art make the space a true knockout ---- Definitely something to aspire to!
I love the bike clock. Very cool!
citizenaugust: I got the baskets at Pier 1. I looked everywhere for baskets that I liked and still fit the bookcase and on a random stop at Pier 1 I found them. Good luck with your son's room.
I LOOOVE the rocking chair! I actually recently bought one off craigslist myself that is very similiar! Did yours originally have a rattan backing? How did you go about attaching the fabric? Sorry for all the questions but I would love to do something like this to my rocker before our little one comes!
ellsie22: The link to my sister's poster should be working now. They were updating the esty store.
hirtzmarcia: Mine didn't start with the rattan backing. But I bet you can convert it really easy. Mine had a thin sheet of plywood in the oval shape which fit into a groove on the chair. If your chair has a groove that the rattan sits in, you can probably cut a oval plywood and use that as the base. Then get some thick foam (2-3in, I would use thicker foam 4-5in on the seat especially if you are going to use it while nursing) and cut it the same shape as the plywood. Round the top edge to give it a smoother seam. Then comes the fabric. I used a staple gun (strongly encourage you to use an electric one) to attach the fabric for the front and then I glued a sheet of fabric on the underside to hide the plywood and the staples. Then just put a bead of glue in the groove of the chair and push the piece it and you should be good to go! Good luck!
Love the city skyline, but, alas, my painting skills leave much to be desired! Any ideas for decals of a similar look?
wow - LOVE this room!!!! i love that the room will grow with finn and he'll love it for years.
@shenster: we have a city skyline too - not as abstract, more like transportation and buildings - they're wall decals from Boodalee. similar concept if you're not good at painting (like me!)...
I just wanted you to know that we did end up using your idea in our son's room and it came out very well! We did outlines of notable buildings from our "home" cities--Los Angeles and Austin, we'll see if our friends recognize them. I even got a similar bike clock and it really looks great. Thanks again for sharing your ideas ... it was such an inspiration!
great room!! we have the same bedding and are on our 4th "tester" of gray paint...ugh. was wondering if you have the names of the two paint colors you used. everything we've tried is too dark.
thanks for sharing!!
Hi I am expecting my first baby in July... I saw your rocker and fell in love with it. I just purchased a bentwood rocker from craigslist and I was going to tackle upholstering the seat and back... However I am stumped at how you did it.... Could you possibly tell me the best way to tackle this job???
I would also love to know what paint colors were used for the skyline... I absolutely adore this room and can't wait to do something similar with this inspiration for my two year old sons new big boy room when his little brother arrives in a few months... I think it will make the transition a lot more fun for him. Thanks :)