Axel’s Clean & Cozy Nursery

Name: Axel (6 months)
Location: Denton, TX (about 30 miles north of Dallas)
Room Size: 13′ x 13′

Anna and Luis took every opportunity to be bold and playful in their choices for decorating their son’s nursery. From the wonky chevron wall to the handmade wall decor, everything they did works to create a masculine space that can grow with Axel.

Anna really utilized all her resources to create the room she envisioned for Axel. The dresser and rocker were thrifted, and she mixed high-end pieces like DwellStudio bedding with economy pieces, like the crib from Walmart. And Anna’s work as a fine artist allowed her to make beautiful wall art that’s both personal and sweet. In spite of being limited by budget, she and Luis managed to put together a stunning nursery for their new baby boy.

How would you describe the look and feel of this room?

It’s hard for me to pinpoint a specific style. It was important to me that it be an eclectic mix of vintage and modern, cozy but still masculine. I really wanted Axel’s room to stimulate his creativity and grow with him over time.

What is your favorite piece or element?

I think my husband and I would both agree that the chevron wall is our favorite element of the room. It was the first thing that we did, and both of us were a little stunned by just how bold it was. As we added each new piece to the room though, we grew to love it more and more. Now I can’t imagine ever changing it!

We also both love the heritage embroidery hoops that I made. It was 100% my husband’s idea, but I executed them. They represent Axel’s Mexican, Swedish, and Texas heritages. They were really easy to make using some left over canvas that I had laying around, embroidery hoops, and some paint.

What was the biggest challenge decorating this room?

I would definitely say that our budget, or lack there of, was the biggest challenge in the room. Thankfully, I was able to make a lot of the decorative elements myself, (the fox painting, bunting, embroidery hoop paintings, mobile, and yellow “axel” sign) and the rocker, dresser, and pendant light were all from thrift stores.

You got your rocker and dresser at thrift stores. What kind of work did you have to put into them to prepare them for the room?

The rocker came with a skirt on it that was simply stapled on, so I decided to remove it. It looks so much better without the skirt! The dresser was in pretty bad shape, but I loved the handles and the legs on it. So I refinished it by sanding it down and re-staining it.

We love your modified chevron wall, with it’s asymmetric style. What inspired you to design it this way? And how did you achieve it?

I had actually seen a post here, on Apartment Therapy, that had a very similar chevron wall. Mark did his chevron wall free hand, but I absolutely used tape, and lots of it!

First, we painted the wall flat gray. After it had dried, I took some tape and laid out one row of the chevron pattern. I played around with it for a while, but once I settled on a pattern, I penciled in vertical lines at each of the points in the chevron. The vertical lines became my guide for adding each additional chevron row. I used .75 inch painters tape, and spaced each row 5 inches apart. Once the wall had been completely taped off, and I had trimmed the tape at all the points with an xacto knife, I painted over the entire wall again in the gray. This was my attempt at reducing the amount of bleeding under the tape. Since our walls are pretty textured, there was still some bleeding when I painted the navy semi-gloss, but I could tell that it had been greatly reduced. After a few touch-ups the wall was complete!

If money were no object, what’s your dream source?

DwellStudio for sure. Their nursery furniture can’t be beat in my opinion. We got our crib sheets from there, but that’s about as much as we could afford!

Source List:
• Olivia 3-in-1 Baby Crib, Amber and White: Walmart
• Cosmose Blue Wool Rug: Overstock.com
• DwellStudio Chevron Crib Sheet: DwellStudio
• Quilt: handmade by Anna’s sister
• Swedish Moose Poster: Huset
• Rhino print: Encore Prints on Etsy
• Framed dinosaur notecard: Etsy
• Framed buffalo notecard: Banquet
• “I’m so glad you were born” poster project: Oh Happy Day
• Vate table lamp: IKEA
• Gray paint: Martha Stewart, Winter’s Day, Flat
7bull; Navy paint: Martha Stewart, Wrought Iron, Semi gloss

Thanks, Anna! For more about Axel’s room and Anna’s other projects, head over to her blog,Shelter and Shine.

(Images: Matt McElligott)

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