Violet’s Small, Sloped, Splendid Space
Name: Violet Kathlene
Age: 2 Weeks, 2 Days
Location: Central Pennsylvania
Room size: 12′ x 7′
How to create a cohesive, beautiful nursery in a small room with sloped ceilings? Planning. Violet’s mom, Lauren, gathered inspiration, made a plan and recruited family to pull off some terrific DIY projects. The result is this fresh, dreamy space filled with light and soft touches. It melds modern and classic pieces into a contemporary space that feels timeless at the same time.
Lauren shares with us how Violet’s room came together:
What was the inspiration for Violet’s room?
The owl and fox purchased for Violet on Etsy by her aunt as well as the curtains from Urban Outfitters.
What is your favorite element in her room?
The cozy window seat overlooking the front yard.
What was the biggest challenge decorating this room?
Its size and angled walls made it difficult to find furniture and art for the room.
What do your friends say when they see the room?
They usually comment on how well we made use of such a small space.
Can you tell us about some of the great DIY projects?
My husband installed new hardwood flooring from Lumber Liquidators as well as beadboard. We have a tutorial on the beadboard installation on our blog.
Because the main walls in the space are angled, I was unable to buy traditional artwork to hang in the room. Instead I decided to paint a tree mural to fill the blank space. I first drew the tree in with chalk. This made it easy to erase any mistakes. I then painted over the drawing with white latex paint. In the future I’d probably start with primer, as it took three coats to cover the darker blue-gray paint. Instead of painting the leaves, I decided to use fabric to add a little texture to the room. I purchased gray suit fabric at a local fabric store, cut out leaf shapes, and used cornstarch to apply them to the wall. It was incredibly easy and inexpensive and adds so much depth and interest to the room. I blogged about this project here.
Our dresser was a hand-me-down from my sister-in-law. The all oak look just wasn’t meshing with our white crib, so I decided to tweak it a bit. I sanded, primed, and painted the top and sides of the piece white. We then removed the oak colored knobs and bought metal/white knobs for $3 each from a local hardware store. It really updated the dresser and tied it in with the rest of our furniture.
Another issue we ran into was the fact that the hand-me-down dresser that we had refurbished was the perfect size for the space, but too small for a standard changing pad. We tried to find a changing station to sit on top of the crib instead. We loved this piece by Oeuf but didn’t have $230 to spend on a changing station (especially considering we only spent $103 on the crib). My father-in-law created a very similar changing station for us for a lot less money. We gave him the changing pad, and he used this and the crib measurements to create what is essentially a box to sit on top of the crib. An inset piece on the bottom of the box sits inside the crib rails, ensuring that the changing station is stable and can’t come off the crib without lifting the entire piece up. A cut out in the front makes for easy access for changing. We’ve used this constantly since we brought our baby home and it works like a dream.
What was your biggest indulgence?
Our biggest indulgence was probably the crib bedding. I couldn’t find anything I really liked off the shelf, so I turned to Etsy and had the bumper custom-made. It ended up being $99 – almost as much as the crib, but I think it was worth it. We then purchased solid white crib sheets and skirt to complete the crib.
Do you have any advice for parents or parents-to-be starting this process?
I would definitely say the three most important things would be an inspiration piece, a plan, and a budget. This will really help to focus your search and keep things cohesive. Here are a couple of posts I did on this topic (http://www.withtwocats.com/2010/01/how-to-decorate-on-budget.html) (http://www.withtwocats.com/2010/01/how-to-decorate-on-budget-part-ii.html)
If money were no object, what would be your dream source?
Etsy is definitely my favorite source. There are so many talented artists and craftspeople on this site – you can find almost anything imaginable.
Resources:
• Hardwood floors: Lumber Liquidators
• Custom bumper: RockyTop Designs
• Custom Window Seat Cushion: RockyTop Designs
• ‘V’ wall letter: Anthropologie
• Crib: Delta Jenny Lind from Babies R Us
• Hamper: It’s a Girly World
• Curtains: Urban Outfitters (sold out)
• Floor lamp: Antifoni lamp, Ikea
• Play gym: Leka, Ikea
• Rug: Overstock.com (sold out)
• ‘Love’ print: Made by Girl
• Crocheted monster: kdericks on Etsy
• Wall color: Behr Prelude
What are the benefits of creating a digital idea board and how did you create yours?
I mostly use a program on my Mac called Pages for my idea boards. It’s much more user-friendly than Photoshop, although I also occasionally use Photoshop for items that can’t be easily cropped in Pages.
I think the benefit of an idea board is that you get to see all of the elements of your potential space together before purchasing them. It really helps me to focus my ideas and create a much more cohesive space. Also, choosing all of your items before purchasing them is a big help when it comes to sticking with a budget. If you buy things piecemeal, the budget can get away from you really quickly. Lastly, it helps me to share my ideas with my husband. We’re both really visual people, and he is probably just as interested in decor as I am, so he is very opinionated when it comes to choosing items to decorate a space.
(Thanks, Lauren and Violet! Readers, you can visit Lauren at her fine blog, with two cats.)
Images: Lauren Hufnagl