What happens when an apparel designer at Anthropologie and a graphic designer for Urban Outfitters have a baby? They create one ridiculously cool nursery (and a beautiful baby girl named Charley Mae). From the custom mobile to refurbished vintage finds, Amanda and Dan Gneiding tell us how they put it all together.

How did you choose the room’s color palette?
We decided to wait until the birth to find out the sex of the baby, so we wanted to use a somewhat unexpected neutral color palette for the nursery. We thought that it would look nice to have pale walls with pops of bright furniture. My husband calls this color combo “pencil yellow and chalk.”

The crib looks antique. Where did you get it?
We got this at the Golden Nugget flea market in Lambertville, New Jersey--great for vintage furniture finds and little tchotchkes. We painted the crib, and my mom made all of the bed linens with fabrics from Mood and IKEA. [Note: New standards recommend a two-inch slat width and there is a risk of lead paint--we tested this for lead paint with an easy at-home kit we got at the hardware store.]

We love the custom mural! How did you come up with the concept, Dan?
Voila! Trompe l'oeil for baby! We are going to encourage her to color it in as she grows.

The nursery looks like it was very well thought out. How far in advance of Charley’s arrival did you start decorating?
 We started decorating about six months into our pregnancy, but I began collecting this and that along the way. We collected almost everything from flea markets, eBay, and websites. Amazingly, it was ready in time for her arrival, even though she decided to arrive a month early!


Tell us about Charley’s bird mobile.
The mobile was handmade for Charley by my friends and coworkers in the Anthropologie design department; each one is so much like the personality of the person who made it. It makes me smile every time I see it....

I know we’re going to get questions about the zebra rug. Where is it from?
This was by far my best find. I saw one at Jonathan Adler but couldn’t afford it, so I scoured the Internet for something similar and found this one at Target for $60! Who doesn’t want to learn to walk on faux zebra!

Does the Modest Mouse poster have any special significance?
This was our soundtrack the year my husband and I fell in love.

The white couch is gorgeous. Can you tell us about it?
For our outdoor garden wedding three years ago, my mom and I recovered and refurbished some vintage chairs and settees for the guests to lounge in at the reception, this one was a favorite that we kept after the event. It has an all-over bee jacquard pattern and honeycomb texture.

Where did you find the adorable night light?
Online at 2modern.com. There are lots of options, but this one looks like her aunt Caitlin’s dashund puppy, Yocco.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about the room?

It was a really fun project for my husband and I to do together; it’s a romantic indoor date to share some inspiration, a paint can, and a pizza...

Thanks for sharing Charley's nursery, Amanda and Dan!

[Photos by Alison Harbaugh at Frecklephotography.com]

Check this out: a one-stop shopping source for an entirely eco-friendly pre-fab home, plus all the furnishings, lighting, textiles, and accessories you could ever want. HOM - Escape In Style, created by the California-based design team KAA Design Group, is a comprehensive product line that combines modern design, affordability, convenience, and sustainability. They offer three different home plans, ranging from 1,000 to 3,600 square feet, which are delivered (in one, two, or three pieces) within 10 weeks from the time of purchase.

Because they are 90 percent factory-built, the HOM dwellings produce less material waste than site-built construction, and the one-time delivery dramatically cuts down on carbon emissions from workers' daily commutes to the site. And the list goes on: solar power panels, a zinc-coated roof, sealed cork-tile flooring, corian countertops, low-flow shower heads and toilets, tankless water heaters, Energy Star-rated appliances, and compact fluorescent and LED lighting make these houses incredibly green. We think it's pretty genius! See the entire line of products here.

One of our favorite places in New York is Kiosk, a store that features rotating collections of classic and quirky items from other countries, including Japan, Sweden, and Mexico. Well, this month, they've brought home pieces from Provence, and they're amazing! Our favorites:

A water willow and juniper seed baby rattle. (Isn't it beautiful?)

Mikado pick-up-sticks.

Vintage French postcards with basket makers, fish, and cobblestone streets.

Dried lavender.

Lavender soap, made with local lavender in small batches.
 
P.S. Feeling wanderlust-y? Read through our travel stories, including fantastical castles and tree-house resorts.

-- Joanna Goddard, Cup of Jo

We love mobiles (and how babies fall under their spell), and we're especially into this hot-air balloon number that costs under $10. Technically, they're greeting cards, but string them from a lamp, and no one will know the difference!

P.S. A gorgeous home with a fish mobile, and a house with a Scandinavian hot-air balloon mobile ...

-- Joanna Goddard, Cup of Jo

Impressed by designer Ulla Koskinen's sophisticated take on a bean-bag chair. Roo (the large size) and My (the kid-perfect size) were recently honored at the IMM Cologne Furnishing Fair and have a removable cover made from an eco-friendly combination of paper yarn and cotton. We think they're absolutely gorgeous. Sold through Suite NY, contact them for buying information--they will ship all over the world.

There's a reason kids don't always behave for their school portraits. They're boring--powder blue background, outfit courtesy of Mom, and forced smile. Stomping Ground is on a mission to change all of that. The Brooklyn-based company, run by rock-and-roll photographer Dennis Kleiman and his wife, Kelsey, will come to your school and shoot multiple frames of your kids doing whatever they want while wearing whatever they want to try to capture their true personalities.

See some of their real-life portraits below. Too cute!



Not in New York City? Drop them an e-mail ... as a new company, there's a good chance they'd be willing to travel.

So in love with these new prints on wood from Petit Collage. (Just $15 each!) Our favorites are Camera Girl and Elephant with Calf. Which are yours? See them all here.

If you haven't been over to our sister blog Daily Find recently (where our editors share one of their favorite products each day), check it out this week for their favorite baby cards. We're showing you "witty" (above) and "irreverent" (below). Head over there to see where to buy these and the rest of the week's picks.

I was in Los Angeles for a few photo shoots for Cookie home stories recently, and I snapped some pictures while at a few of my favorite haunts.

Distant
This store has so many really covetable towels and linens that I usually have to buy something there, even if it’s tiny. I rifled through the sale bin and found a hand towel I can’t wait to use. But I always salivate looking at the Suzani throws and Turkish towels.


Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
I stopped in to see a show called “Your Bright Future.” The piece in the Grand Entrance (which you don't have to pay to see) impressed me the most. It was an installation by Choi Jeong-Hwa called HappyHappy and consisted of numerous “chains” of strung plastic colanders and other containers hanging in a grid. It was like a forest grown in a 99-cent store. It was really arresting, and the kids in the courtyard were having a great time wandering through it.

Truck Tracks
Standing at the staircase of the Broad gallery at LACMA, I looked at the construction site for their new building and thought the tire tracks from some kind of truck were quite beautiful. Sort of like an urban filigree.

Mercado
I wish this store had a better website (they say it’s coming) because I always find things here that I don’t see in New York. They have such a good eye for everything from jewelry to soap to toys to gift cards to ceramics. It’s really gorgeous, and I purchased some things I couldn’t resist, like a birthday card for my sister and one to hang on the wall.

Mural on Franklin Avenue
I kept driving by this mural near that great store Lost and Found (on Yucca Street). I guess it’s pointing the way to some storage facility? I don’t really know--I was never there except in passing. So nice, though.

Now here's a product that made us look: Lolaloo provides all stressed parents with a patented rocking aid. It has two velcro fasteners with which it can be attached conveniently to the handle of your stroller and then noiselessly rocks your stroller with sideways movements. The degree of movement can be adjusted easily. The integrated rechargeable battery means that the Lolaloo can turn your stroller into a cradle anywhere--at home, in the park, or on the playground. Yes, please!