The Princess Suite

For this weeks metamorphosis Monday I thought I would dig back into my portfolio to a project I had a lot of fun working on.  I was called to the home of a couple who had sadly hired an interior designer that was making a big mess of things.  At the end of this post I will share three before pictures that will demonstrate what a big mess they had on their hands.  For now I will just share what I did to fix it!  The sign on the nursery door below fit so well by the time the project was done the sign had the perfect home as entrance to a room truly fit for a princess.

One requirement the client had was to keep the double sized bed they had already purchased for the room.  This did present a challenge since the room itself was not overly large.  But I had some ideas.  Here is the bed dressed in all the fabrics we chose for the room.  Pink toile, a lovely green rose print, pink gignham and the gorgeous embroidered silk....oops did I say silk?  No only faux silk here as 100% silk would not have been very practical in a nursery!  I loaded the bed with pillows one even monogrammed of course on top of a white matelasse coverlet.

Here is a larger view.  Luckily the client had already chosen the babies name so we had fun finding the letters to hang by ribbons on the wall.

We found a beautiful crib that was just perfect for this room.  Although you can't see it in the picture each end of the crib has beautiful caning and a raised carved roses.  The bedding is a mix of all the fabrics.  To cover the expanse of wall I had a coronet or "princess canopy" placed there.

Here is where the creative thinking had to come into play.  To make the room for the double bed to stay and still have all the needed elements in a nursery I had to figure out a way to incorporate a changing table, dresser storage as well as shelving so that the client could display her bear collection that she had been storing for the day she had a "baby girl".  I love design have I ever mentioned that?  In fact sometimes instead of Interior design I wish I had taken the leap and done architectural home design.  That said the wheels were spinning and I designed a built in wall of drawers, shelves and a changing table.  In order for this to work there were a few things that client had to agree to for safety reasons.  Since the changing table would be going up against a window I needed to have plantation shutters installed in the room with a split rail (the top shutters slats could open independently from the bottom) so that the bottom half could remain shut at all times making a barrier from the window.  She loved the idea and we moved forward.  The changing table part can later be removed and by doing that will create a window seat.  For safety reasons I designed drawers under this part instead of a lift up toy chest.  I also left the client with the lovely window seat pad ready to use with bolster pillows when they are ready to remove the changing table.  Under the changing table we placed baskets to keep diapers, and all the other goodies one needs handy when changing and dressing a baby.

Here is another view.  Some other things that I did was have bead board put around the room and we also added pink glass knobs to the drawers in the built ins.  In this picture you can see the lovely ends on the crib.

I had a rocker and ottomon custom made in the toile and green rose fabrics.  Every mother needs a comfy place to rock her baby!

Some close-ups of the crib bedding.

Custom changing pad in the changing built in.

I decided on balloon shades and incorporated the main two fabrics in them.

We added crown molding around the room as well.

A better look at the pink glass knobs and handles we added to the built ins.

As promised here are a couple of the before pictures I snapped before starting the project.  As you can see the former designer had started painting the room.  One wall was a vibrant hot pink and the other was a lavendar.  Woo was it bright! 

They had taken this paint around the room in a four square.  One wall lavendar the other hot pink and so on and so forth.  Here is the wall before I started and before I designed and had the built ins installed on it.  The fabric laying at the foot of the bed was the fabric the other designer had chosen for the nursery that never came to be.  The pink I chose for the walls was actually a blush of a pink color.  In my pictures the color looks bright but it isn't.  I admit these pictures are not the best.  This was one of the last projects I worked on before moving across the country.  Sadly I did not get to come in and stage the room and take completed pictures but thought I would share what I did have of this transformation.

I hope you enjoyed this little nursery journey!  Please visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch by clicking here to see more fabulous Metamorphosis journeys!