My introduction to Valerie Lecoeur came through the brilliant kids' glassware she imports from her native France. Made of superstrong tempered glass, it's really hard to break (check out this video to see for yourselves) and is thus perfect for a lot of little people I know. A visit to her website, zoe b organics, reveals all sorts of baby products that are as easy on the eye as they are on the earth.

I fell in love instantly and was even more smitten when she sent me photographs of the beautiful North Carolina home she shares with her husband, John Brockenbrough, and their three children, Zoe (7), Lucas (5), and Sophie (22 months). True fans of the modern aesthetic, they opened up the back of the 1924 colonial-style home to create an airy and spacious great room, where the family does most of its living. However, the original flavor has not been completely irradicated--tradition lives on happily beside the more contemporary touches.

So you really did a major renovation to the back of the house. Would you say that you have a specific design philosophy or credo that you follow?

Well, we are definitely more modern in our taste than most of the people around here, but we really love the juxtaposition of a traditional-feeling structure with more modern furnishings. When we did the renovation, we thought of it more as creating a blank slate rather than making a contemporary addition. The trees and the light are so beautiful, so we wanted to take advantage of that. Now we have wonderful light in here all day long.

That huge wooden table is fabulous ... and are those the famed dishes?

Ha! Yes, those are the Duralex kidishes. We really do use them every day! I love the table as well--it is wonderful to have the space to put it in. I first fell in love with one very similar to it in a store window in New York, but it was much too expensive. Crate & Barrel did this great knockoff, and voila! We have the perfect dining table. It also looks great with the high chair that my mother brought us back from France. You can't find anything like that here ... I don't know why. I much prefer wooden furniture and toys to the plastic things you see everywhere.

  Speaking of cool wooden furniture, tell me about this step stool you have in the kitchen!

Oh, that is called the learning tower, and it is really great stuff! We've had it for 6 years now, and all of my kids have used it. It has a wide base so they cannot fall, and the bottom is adjustable so that they can be counter height and see what you are doing. I can't say enough good things about it!

So you've managed to find a practical and attractive kitchen stool for the kids, and here it looks like you've come up with a great solution for displaying their art.

Yeah, you know, we have so much artwork by the kids, and we are always trying to figure out how to display it. I thought it would be nice to put it in a frame, so I searched around for one that I liked, put cork board in it, and now we use it for drawings and photos--it suddenly puts them into a nice context and makes the work feel more special.

 Usually you see a bench in the mud room/entry area, but you've got these great wooden seats....

They are from an old movie theater. We found them in an antique shop and fell in love with them the instant we saw them. Do you know how sometimes you buy a piece and when you get it home it's like it was always meant to be in that space? These chairs are like that. We'll probably leave them here when we move.

And now to the more formal part of the house.... We've just spent all of this time in the bright white of the great room and then suddenly you have a rich chocolate brown living room and a dining room that is vibrant orange.

I've always felt that color is better when an old house has nice architectural details, moldings, etc. Otherwise, all of those features get washed out. We even wanted to use more color in the great room, but there were so many angles and planes that it didn't make sense. We did paint one wall (behind the TV) but we chose to leave the rest white and use color in the accents. The coffee table is really unusual. Everybody that comes into the house comments on that! It's actually an old workbench that my husband found in Vermont and used to have in his studio. We took the legs off and put it on two blocks of wood. It helps the room feel less formal.

  Now we head upstairs past a series of black-and-white portraits of ... sock monkeys?

I think sock monkeys are amazing--I have always loved them. These photographs come from a coffee-table book that I bought at Calypso in New York. The book is wonderful. We just picked out a few of the images and framed them. My youngest daughter, Sophie, loves to look at them as she climbs up the stairs.

 Speaking of Sophie, let's head into her room next. I love the bright pink dresser.

That is from IKEA. We bought it and then painted it that color. Poor Sophie has gotten the short end of the decorating. She was a bit of a surprise and was born right as my business was taking off, so her room definitely needs work. She's still a baby, though, so she hasn't started complaining yet!

 Hey I recognize that slide--I think I used to have it when I was a kid!

Isn't it great? This is definitely something that I want to keep for my grandchildren--it's a classic. It's so simple and yet it has so much more style than what is out there today. In this house, we are lucky enough to have a playroom--a place dedicated to our kids and their mess! This way they can keep their things in their own area, and we can keep our things in our area. We used those flower Flor tiles, which I think work perfectly.

Now on to Lucas's room. That might be the largest portrait of an Uglydoll ever produced!

One thing I feel very strongly about is not filling the kids' rooms up with cutesy made-for-kids stuff. The space can still be kidlike without being silly. My husband was doing a project at work where they made huge prints of interesting objects and this was one of them. It was actually Lucas's doll, so we took it home when they were done with it. I worried that it might give him nightmares, but he's fine with it.

 The bookshelf adds a fun splash of color. And tell me about the koala bear--is that a chalk board?

The bookcase is from Design Within Reach and is great because you can change the configuration so it can grow and change as we do. I just started importing the Koala sticker from France. It is chalkboard, but it's made from potato starch so it is completely biodegradable. When you are done with it, you can just throw it in the compost and it will completely decompose.

And lastly onto Zoe's room, which looks enormous!

All of the bedrooms are quite large, which actually makes them more difficult to decorate. I like to be somewhat minimal, but in a room this size, minimal just looks empty. So you have to find a happy medium. That's why we all have such big beds. It kind of fills up the room a bit and makes everything seem less lost. We might have gone a little overboard with the pink for Zoe. I would love to get away from it at some point.

 I like her little animal collection. Tell me about the panels that hang above her posse.

Oh, those are fabric bulletin boards, actually. She uses them to pin up pictures, art, whatever. And they look good empty or full, which is a bonus!

Well, it may be predominately pink, but it does feel like a great place to hang out, as does your entire home. Thanks for giving us permission to throw the old and the new into the same pot and delight in the juxtaposition.

Find out more about those tempered glass dishes and lots of other cool products on Valerie's website, and check out all of our house tours.

And see more from Nesting contributor Brooke Williams at her blog, this is authentic. 

Stefanie, a government psychologist, and Ryan, a Biotech manager, from Rockville, Maryland, sent us photos of their 4-year-old daughter Hayley's bedroom makeover. We love how their small tweaks made huge differences. Check out these before and after shots.

What was the color palette you were working with?
Her favorite colors are blue and pink, and I also love contrast, so I tried to introduce brown and white to tie in her bedframe and all of the white accessories. The floral curtain fabric really helped. It's a Michael Miller fabric called Flower Crystals from the Corduroy line.

Were you going for an Asian vibe—the bed, the tree decal, the lamp—or any theme in general?
Yes, I try to have some Asian-inspired pieces throughout the house, because my husband is from India. Also, my best girlfriend is from China, and I'm definitely drawn to that kind of decor. We bought the West Elm bed because of its Asian vibe. But I actually bought the cherry-blossom decal from ShaNickers on Etsy, because we live in the D.C. area, and I love the cherry blossoms we have here, so it was a nod to that. And I got the lamp because I thought it went well with the Michael Miller fabric. But, in general, I did want it to have a sort of Asian feel, because Hayley is half Indian, and that's a part of who she is.

What tricks did you use to save space?
I put her dresser in her closet to have more floor space. I hung a shoe organizer behind her door to organize all of her small items, like stuffed animals and costume jewelry that seem to clutter the floor. There are storage bins under her bed, where she puts her special stuff, like her drawings, animals, and doll blankets, which I do not touch when cleaning or purging the room. I put 3M hooks on the back of her closet doors to hang dress-up clothes, and on the side of the bookcase closest to the door to hang play necklaces. There are two pillows on her bed that I added pockets to (only one is complete in the photo). I thought since I was adding pillows for decorative purposes, I wanted them to be useful as well. Hayley loves to use them as stuffed-animal beds or doll beds, or to carry toys throughout the house. So now they have more of a play purpose too. I'm still working on a big pocket pillow for the bed.

Are there any furniture pieces that were difficult to tie in?
There are some things she made me keep in the room: the rose-petal play cottage and the Sleeping Beauty vanity. I tried to tie all of her interests together and somehow make the cottage and Disney stuff work too.

Are there any items in the room that are a product of a DIY?
I painted the bookcase white before I really knew how to paint furniture, but I like it because it fits the canvas totes I got from Lowe's.


How did you settle on these prints from Etsy?
They remind me of my daughter, who has dark brown hair and likes animals, butterflies, princesses, fairies, and dancing.

Every image in the room is hung on the wall except the one on the shelf. What is that one of?
The framed photo is of her pet goldfish that died just before I redid the room. We are on to Goldy #2 now.

Do you have any tips for saving money while decorating a room?
I love to buy prints, but I hate spending a lot of money on frames, especially odd-size frames. So I buy framed artwork at Goodwill, and I recycle the print and paint the frame. Half the frames on the art wall were frames from Goodwill that I painted white, the rest I had on hand. Also, I found that a lot of craft stores have cheap unfinished frames that can be painted or stained. I did not have anything custom matted. If I could not buy a cheap ready-made mat, then I used scrapbook paper or fabric as the background. Last, I have a lot of stuff that I never use, and I've just committed myself to finding a use for it.

Give me a rundown of your Etsy finds.

Over the bed
"Love" poster = Made by girl
drawings of little girls = Belle and Boo

Top row
"Ashland tree of peace" = Creative Thursday
"Dancing Fairies" = original painting from JMC designs
butterfly = daughter's drawing
elephants = scanned from book
"Morning Swing" = Tummy Mountain
Make a Wish (edition 2) = yumi yumi

Second row
"You're beautiful / It's true" = made up by me in Photoshop
Peacock Girl = Lindsay Brackeen
une duex trios = postcard from Blue bonbon
Fairy School Portrait of Ophelia = High On Craft
In Bloom = original watercolor from Orange Studio by Helen Dardik
"Animal ballroom" = watercolor done by me in high school

Third row
"Do not go" = original postcard from yaelfran
"Spring bunny" = original AECO painting from Ashley White Jacobsen
Baldwin = Tim's sally

Thanks, Stefanie! Check out more of our favorite kids' rooms and send us a shot of your own!

Thanks to Nesting reader Jackie Kersh for sending us a picture of her son's bedroom. Love how graphic that flock of birds is in the corner--and the gorgeous color of the dresser! Do you have a room in your home you want to share? E-mail us your photos!

Liz Stanley, author of the popular blog Say Yes to Hoboken and shopkeeper at Baby Hank Vintage, just moved her family from a good-size standalone house in Salt Lake City to a smallish apartment in San Francisco. They moved in only a few weeks ago, but she already has her apartment looking stylish and put together. (Is this proof of the advantages of a small space? Or the talent and seemingly endless energy of Liz herself?) We're delighted to get a peek at her tricks for downsizing.



The space looks so calm. What great light! Tell us about that amazing, gigantic mirror.

It belonged to my sweet grandmother before she passed away two years ago. Surprisingly, no one else laid claim on it, so I got it. Score! I've always loved how over-the-top ornate it is, and I think it looks great against our modernish style. A lot of white may seem boring at first thought, but I don't think I will ever get sick of it. It's a very peaceful place. Plus, it's fun to swap out small punches of color here and there.
 





Those tiny chalkboards are adorable. So smart to have them at kid-eye level. Are they vintage? What's your favorite source for cool finds like that? And what about the sweet little banner?

The chalkboards are vintage, bought from a shop on Etsy called moxie thrift. Etsy is such an amazing place to find not only handmade items but vintage ones as well. It's fun to have others do the hunting for you, plus prices are always so affordable. The banner I made, it seriously took 15 minutes. It was made with felt and ribbon and cost about $4 in supplies.



This looks like such a pleasant work space. How hard was it to transition from a full, stand alone house to a small city apartment? Was it tricky to carve out this project space?

Surprisingly, the transition from a five-bedroom home to a two-bedroom apartment was easier than I anticipated. We had a huge garage sale and donated literally a truckload of stuff to the local thrift store. It felt really good to purge and keep only what we really loved and needed. When we moved into our new space, it look a lot of creative thinking to make things work. For example, my son's closet (one of only two in the apartment) is now the linen, tools, and storage closet. We had to think of really creative ways to store clutter and toys.

This workspace was the last to come together, and I did sit on it for a few weeks, trying to figure out where and how I could compress an entire craft room into a single corner. I ended up finding a really great storage cabinet-turn desk on Craigslist (which is incredible here in San Francisco) and everything just fell right in place. It zips up nicely and cleanly.
 


The punches of color here are perfect. We can't get enough reds and yellows. Did you consciously pick this color scheme, or did it just come together? And is that original art on the wall?

It all started with the couch we bought a few years ago from Crate and Barrel. Then I made some pillows to add punches of color, then I found the red Barcelona chair, and recently bought the zigzag rug. It's a multifunctional room--living room, dining room, and office. Plus, it's a play area for my toddler, Hank. Toys are stored in those large baskets under the bench in the corner, which he promptly empties out each morning. The artwork is from my very talented brother-in-law, Paul Ferney. It was a Valentine's present this year from my nice husband.



Everything about this shot is delightful: the perfect map, the owl lamp, the adorable stuffed creatures. Tell us about it all, please.

I love maps in children's rooms and found this one at a secondhand store for $28. Framed! I immediately snatched it up and reworked his whole room to make it fit. Last year when Hank was a newborn, I was really getting my crafting on--so I wouldn't go completely insane--and made a bunch of stuffed-sock animals. He sleeps with the white lamb, Linus every night (I admit, with some gentle product placement at first). There are quite a few things in his room, like the fish mobile above his bed, that I made as well, and they make me proud when I see them, even if it was just a simple 15-minute pennant-banner project.



That chalkboard! It looks like the perfect size. Is it magnetic? Very cool. Is it a find or a make?

Yes, I made this from an old mirror I found at a thrift store for $7. I painted the frame white and then added coats of magnetic and chalkboard paint. It's fun to decorate and I like the contrast against the modern chairs.

Thanks for the peek, Liz! Congratulations on your successful move.

See more from Nesting contributor Gabrielle Blair at her blog, Design Mom.

Kim Ludy, owner of the vintage shop Trampoline, has pitch-perfect taste. But her 6-year-old son loves sports posters and superheroes. So when it came to decorating his bedroom, she decided to loosen the reins. “I started out with a vision,” she says, “but in the end, I listened to him, instead of copying some magazine picture.” The result is a playful bedroom featuring a giant map and folk-art pillows--then topped off with a trapdoor! “I’m really thrilled with it,” says Kim, “and happily, he is, too.” Let’s take a look....

You live in in Framington, Massachusetts. What's it like to raise a child there? We like the mix of city versus country: We have local farms and hiking trails, but also cultural diversity--we love getting Brazilian food downtown. We’re only fifteen miles west of Boston, so we can buzz into the city for the day.

How did you begin decorating your son’s bedroom? We have three bedrooms, and we originally fixed up the third bedroom for him, since it’s much bigger. But for a little boy, it was just too big. He was scared at night--too many nooks and cubbies--and he was ending up in our bed. After a while, we said, that’s it! Back to the original bedroom, which had been his small, cozy nursery.

Where did you find the wooden bed? IKEA--it’s supersturdy, simple and stylish. We got a double so it can grow with him. It’s the most comfortable bed in the house! And I love the knotty pine with the blue walls--it reminds me of a camp cabin.

And the bedding? The quilt was a yard-sale find; a few pillows are from IKEA, and one was a vintage folk dish towel that I sewed up. I’m into folk-inspired textiles; I was a textile major in college.

Are those glow-in-the-dark stars behind his bed? Nowadays there are even more! Even for a parent, when the lights are turned off during storytime, it feels magical. It really is like sleeping under the stars.

How did you decide on the wall color? (It’s fabulous, by the way.) My son had wanted bright purple--he loves exciting, saturated colors--but I nixed that and offered him lavender. At first, he agreed, but then came home from school and said, "You know what, Mommy? It needs to look like a boy's room." (It’s funny how even at such a young age, they already have notions of colors and gender.) So I gave him my color wheel, honed in on the blues and gave him five choices. He picked the polished slate. I’m a color-phobe when it comes to living with dark colors on the walls, but now I love it.

The fire truck is a 1970s vintage; the wooden reindeer is vintage Danish. The teepee art is vintage from Etsy, and the lamp was bought on eBay.

What a great map. It adds a sense of adventure. When our son was 3, one of his favorite games at bedtime was for us to call out a country and have him find it on the map. His dad would lift him to reach the highest parts. I'd love to bring back that game. The chair is an Eames look-alike, which I picked up at the flea market for a song. It most likely won't stay in the room, though--he's been asking for a beanbag … one that looks like a baseball.

You have a talent for finding flea-market treasures. No wonder you have a vintage shop. Almost everything here was bought secondhand, including the dresser. It’s perfect for a little boy--it even has space for hanging clothes.

Oh, my goodness! A trapdoor! The room has a small walk-in closet, so we added a surprise trapdoor. You push through and go into a four-foot play area in our slanted-ceiling attic. Funnily enough, the trapdoor is actually a dog door, and my husband added a peep-hole. Knock, knock, knock, no girls allowed. Our son really flipped when it was done.

How did your son react when he saw the finished room? He nixed a couple of things I had in the room (nope, out with it!), and now he's really loving it. He has also put up science posters and sports memorabilia.

Chalkboard paint; similar paint available at Hudson Paint.

So, moving forward, you're giving him creative freedom? At 6, he already has a real aesthetic, which can go against my grain as a design freak. Sometimes I secretly want to rip down his posters, but, really, it's his stuff, and I'd be offended if someone came into my dining room and tore stuff down.

What a great parental design philosophy. Kids have so much clutter, but I'm not going to tell him to live without his favorite superhero figures because they don't fit a trend. He has this one room, where he sleeps and plays and lives. Plus, his taste will change--it changes every six months. So, I might just have to take a deep breath and put my hands over my eyes when I walk by the door!

P.S. See more photos of Kim's house, and visit her Etsy shop Trampoline. And browse through all our Cookie house tours...

Once upon a time, a photo director turned photo agent named Stacie McCormick lived happily with her boyfriend, film location manager Collin Smith, in a two bedroom duplex in Brooklyn, New York. They took extensive exotic trips to places like Buenos Aires, Warsaw, and Paris, collecting fantastic experiences, objects, and memories, which they spirited back to their Brooklyn HQ for safekeeping. Just under two years ago, the couple's adventures became even more profound with the birth of their adorable daughter, Tessa. They now find themselves collecting vintage children's books and handcrafted toys, along with their habitual art and furnishings, creating an oasis where the life and belongings of a toddler fit in seamlessly with that of her parents.

Let's start in the dining room. I love how Tessa's high chair fits right in with the table and chairs!

Ha! It does, doesn't it? That chair was a gift from the photo dept at Domino--[Stacie was the photo director at that fine magazine until, sigh, it folded] although Tessa has started refusing to sit in it anymore. I think she's over being a baby! We found the dining set at a store on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. It's midcentury Danish. The light comes from this great shop in Boston called Abodeon. They have such treasures there and at really great prices! The painting I bought on eBay as a birthday gift for Collin.

The light in your entryway has a midcentury feel as well.... Would you say you have a particular decorating style?

Hmm.... I really don't think I have a specific style, though I am definitely a shopper and a collector of vintage stuff, if that counts for anything. Generally I just see something, love it, and then buy it without much thought about where it's going to fit in. But it almost always does! In the past few years, I have become more particular about the vintage pieces that I buy, paying more attention to the condition, the designer, etc. I'm treating them more like investments, I guess. It's my mother's influence, really. She has such amazing taste.

Is your art mostly vintage as well?
 
It's really a combination of flea-market finds, some work by photographers that I love, and then just pictures we've taken. I actually shot the first photo in the entrance hall--it is of this great old car that was abandoned on the side of the road in the Andes mountains. It was so incredible looking!

You've really got a thing for ornate wallpaper patterns. I love the one you've chosen for Tessa's room.

Well, that room was originally our bedroom, but when Tessa came along, we moved downstairs and gave her this space. We figured we'd just keep the wallpaper up. It's not your typical nursery style, but I think it really works. We got both this pattern and the one in the hall online from Sweden. I loved the bedroom pattern so much that I bought 10 extra rolls and have them in storage for when we finally move into the place of our dreams. We got the sofa from Cosmo's, a store in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, and had it recovered--another prebaby purchase. We're going to have to cover it again at some point. Kids are not easy on upholstery, and it has really taken a beating!

All over your place you have these beautiful little vignettes of interesting objects, even here in Tessa's room. Do you think about what you're doing when you make these arrangements?

No, no, not at all! These are just things that I like ... things that I want to look at and that mean something to me. I'm really sentimental that way. The painting hung over my grandmother's bed her entire life, I wrapped a purple feather boa around that mirror when I realized feathers wouldn't be practical on a T-shirt; the butterflies seemed so cheerful. I just see little groupings in my mind that would make good pictures. Maybe it's from looking at so many photographer's portfolios. I see potential little pictures everywhere!

You have almost nothing in here that could be described as "typical kid's room," yet it all seems to work so well.

I don't think Tessa has to be surrounded by generic cartoon characters just because she's a kid, you know? She just needs to be inspired by cool things to have a good imagination. We brought this ink drawing back from Poland and draped it with a paper flower that an editor friend gave me. Together they look like something out of a fairy tale.

Even the back of your toilet looks like an art piece! And where'd you get that beautiful shower curtain?

The shower curtain is actually an old tablecloth that I found at yet another flea market. I just bought curtain hooks and attached it myself--it's really simple but it looks great. As for the toilet decor--it's just all the essentials: some reading material, some visual inspiration (in the form of a painting from an antique store on Cape Cod), and the best scented candle ever from Mrs Meyer's. I worship them and have them all over the house.

What unusual lamps for a kitchen!

We dragged those lights back with us from a trip to Poland! The kitchen is actually the destination for so many things I collect. The cabinets are full of old bowls and ceramic plates, the counters are covered with the glass jars that I started collecting after we had a mouse in the house, I started buying vintage linens almost 10 years ago when I lived in Europe--the one hanging from the stove is from Dresden. We use them all the time. It's so much better for the earth than using paper.

Another thing I collect are these old Danish Copenhagen glasses that we drink coffee out of every morning. They also make great containers for silverware!

The gigantic skylight over the stairs down to your bedroom--now, that's not a typical feature of a New York apartment.

That was the feature that sold us on the apartment in the first place! But then, of course, it started leaking and we had to replace the entire thing. It cost a fortune! But it was worth it because it's so great to have all of that light. Living on two levels makes the space feel much larger.

Your bedroom is so serene, with just a few splashes of color from the paintings on the walls.

Yeah it makes everything look neater down here if it's all one color. The curtains are simple linen panels from West Elm and they hide all of our clothes! Funny thing about the painting over the bed--I found it at a shop in Boston. It's by Robert De Niro's dad! I didn't even know he was a painter.

Are those National Geographic magazines on that shelf?

Yep! I keep saying that I'm saving them for Tessa, but they are probably more for me, at the end of the day. We love to travel so much and are always interested in checking out new places--it's really the way we spend all of our free time. And then we find ourselves lugging things home from everywhere. For example, that hat is from Peru and the painting of the Mexican woman beside it is from Chapel Hill! You can find great stuff anywhere, you just have to keep your eyes open.

Speaking of finding things anywhere, did you say you found the door to Tessa's room on the street?

You would not believe the things people throw away around here. This came from a beautiful brownstone that was being renovated. They left all kinds of stuff on the street. It was in perfect condition, too ... with a working doorknob and everything. I bought the fabric in Belize with my Mom and just threw it up there so Tessa can have some privacy.

Well, I will never just pass by a dumpster without checking out the contents again! Thanks, Stacie, for inspiring us to go out exploring and bring back treasures of our own. May you live happily ever after!

Check out all of our house tours.

And see more from Nesting contributor Brooke Williams at her blog, this is authentic.

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]

When the time came for Carl Germann, Cookie's assistant managing editor, and his partner, Fred Nachbaur, to transform their daughter's nursery into a cool kid's room she would love, they knew the style of the room would have to match Vivi's personality: sweet, smart, sophisticated, and spunky. Below, Germann fills us in on the details of creating such a special room.

What was the inspiration, or main objective, behind the decor of your daughter’s room?
The room was originally the office and the walls were cranberry. We kept it like that while it was the nursery, but once Vivi moved into a bed, we felt we had to make it more of a little girl’s space. So we chose the lavender paint and the white furniture.

How would you describe your personal decorating style?
One word: secondhand. The only things that are new in our entire apartment are Vivi’s bed and several IKEA chairs around the kitchen table.

How would you describe Vivi’s evolving personal style?
She’s a little bit tomboy, a little bit girly-girl. (She likes cars and baby dolls and graphic T-shirts with skirts.) In terms of her room, she likes all of the toys out on the floor and her pocketbooks hanging from hooks behind the door. A little bit of organized clutter.

How much say did Vivi have in the decor?
She didn’t have much say. Not that we steamrolled her opinions. She really didn’t ask for much or object to much. Except that once the room was painted, she said, “You should have picked pink.”

I love the purple hue of the room— what paint did you use?
It's Lavish Lavender (#6975) from Sherwin Williams.

Vivi’s name hanging from the pink ribbon is so great, a perfect mix of girly, sweet, and sophisticated! Did you make that, or buy it?
That was a gift from friends for Vivi’s birthday. She also got some personalized note cards. We love getting gifts from Ilene and Harper because they’re so thoughtful, and usually handmade.

  Does Vivi have a favorite aspect of her room, or an item in the room that she really gravitates towards?
It has always been the bed and jumping on it. But she recently started sitting in the window, which makes me extremely nervous, considering we’re five stories up.

I love the artwork above Vivi's bed! Tell us about it.
We chose artwork that either had a strong graphic treatment or looked like a kid’s artwork. That’s a print of a Basquiat painting. The other walls have a LOVE poster by Robert Indiana and an alphabet poster from Target.

What is Vivi’s favorite thing to do in her room?
Taking out all the toys and making a mess. We just started a nightly routine where we read in bed instead of in the living room. She really likes that. 

The red and blue lamp on the bookshelf is adorable—where is that from?
I got that lamp at a yard sale in Provincetown, and the shade came from IKEA. That’s a holdover from when the room was the office.

I also love the frog mirror, where did you find that?
We got the mirror while on a trip to Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Vivi picked it out herself.

Tell us about the furniture in the room, it’s a great mix!
We debated about what type of bed to get. We originally thought we would get modern furniture with clean lines. But when I saw the bed at Pottery Barn Kids, I was drawn to it. Then we found the old armoire and the bookcases in junk shops upstate. I was going to repaint the armoire, but I ended up really liking the chipped and scratched white paint. Someday we’ll paint it, when Vivi chooses a color.

What is your favorite aspect of the room?
The windows. The room is in the corner of the apartment and the windows are in the corner of the room. They let in so much light and allow a nice breeze to blow through the room.

Those stacking toys on the windowsill look like fun, where are they from?
I got the stacking acrobats when Vivi was first born. I found them in the Company Store catalog. She loved knocking them down when she was a toddler. Now she’s pretty good at stacking them. The color blocks are another gift from Ilene and Harper!

Thank you for sharing your daughter's adorable room with us!

See more editors' kids' rooms.

Before the arrival of our little lady, this room was a (terribly cluttered) home office. There were desks, file cabinets, book shelves, and piles galore. But when it came time for baby, the small space got a big makeover.

Stephanie Doucette is one of those incredible women who manages to be a full-time mom to her 19-month-old son Wilson and a partner in a thriving dress design business (Doucette Duvall) at the same time. And she always looks great. And her apartment, which she shares with her partner in crime, Web developer, drummer, and master builder Mark Robohm, is a knockout. Tiny in stature yet expansive in feel, their pad is full of personal touches that were custom designed and built by Mark "in his spare time." Maybe the rest of us aren't quite as adept with our hands, but we can dream, right?

 First things first ... tell us the story of the construction of your place.

Mark bought this place when we were dating. I was living in L.A., and we were seeing each other every four weeks or so--I would come here, or he'd go there, or sometimes we'd meet in the middle! He did so many things to the place ... he got rid of the fireplace brick by brick, he expanded the bathroom, he built the loft where we slept until just last year ... it was crazy. The remarkable thing is, when I would come to visit--and it was a shell of a place then--it was always so clean! So I never dreaded coming to stay, even though it was a construction zone. Every time I visited, there was something new, like a finished bathroom or a ladder to the loft-- sometimes he would send me videos of his progress that were hilarious. It was really sweet and inspiring because he still had to get his work done during the day plus he was playing drums and touring. But he made it all happen. Long story short, I moved here, lived in my own place for a year and then finally moved in. While I was pregnant with Wilson, we bought the studio apartment next door from our neighbor, a wonderful woman who is like a surrogate grandmother. We are very close to her and still refer to the bedrooms as Viv's place. She loves the fact that Wilson's crib is right where her bed was!

What a great story! Did Mark make everything?

He did all the work. It's pretty amazing. His whole family is like that. It's hard to believe that they are for real. Have you seen his father's website? I use his hooks and spoons and butter knives every day. DIY is not always smooth sailing, though--the kitchen cabinets were a very frustrating project. They kept sending the wrong sizes of everything. But once it was done we were so happy. It was worth the hassle. It always is!



This ladder is ingenious! It literally comes out of the wall.

Another Robohm special! It leads up to the loft bed which is where we slept until last October. My water broke up there ... that's where it all went down! Now it's a guestroom.


It looks so cozy!

It was pretty great up there, but I have to admit that I loooove my new grown-up situation. I went out West one weekend for a family reunion in Vegas and Mark's parents came to visit and to help him work on the place. They are industrious, man, they really get their hands dirty! I came home to this great bedroom. It was really cool.


A separate bedroom is nice, though I must say you do have a great view of the living room from this vantage. I love the wire head over your desk. Where's that from?

Mark found her actually. She belonged to theater great Helen Hayes! He stumbled upon an open house (Hayes's!) when visiting Nyack, New York, and wandered in. That wire head was tucked behind the washer and dryer. Why he looked behind the washer and dryer when in an open house is anybody's guess! Wilson loves her. We call her the Lady.


The living room seems to be such a reflection of your personalities with the big couch and eclectically hung art. How cool is the glass table with the pennies inside! And is that a vase full of toy horses?

Oh I love that table. I got it at Housing Works for around $150! That place is a total crap shoot but it is worth checking out. Especially at the beginning of the week because the weekends are a huge drop-off time. The pennies are Mark's--he's obsessed with those flattened pennies and has a whole collection. He just stuck them in there a couple of weeks ago. As for the horses.... I used to keep them in a little wagon and use the glass bowl for fruit like everybody else on the planet would. One day Wilson was playing with the horses while I washing out the bowl, and when he was finished, I just packed them in there. It was just an inclination but I loved it! And it is functional, because Wilson can see what's in there without having to dump it all out on the floor. We have such little space that I have to be careful with how many bowls we have. I have one less fruit bowl in my life but who cares! I can put my tomatoes on a platter for Pete's sake!


I love how serene your bedroom feels--and the contrast of the dark bed frame against the airy white brick walls is striking.

Thank you. I'll take the compliment even though we are not officially allowed to decorate until all the work is done. I would have pictures up all over the walls, but Mark is not a temporary guy. He likes to finish first. In fact, the John Deere poster in there was the biggest argument! I had given it to him while we were dating, so for him it symbolizes this romantic memory, but I just couldn't imagine a big tractor on the wall of my bedroom. It's so funny how two people can have such different ideas aesthetically. So now do I hate having John Deere in the bedroom? No. But will it live there forever? Absolutely not!


And now for the main attraction: Wilson's room!

It's so great that he has his own room now! I don't want to even think about how long he was just sleeping in his bassinet. We really lucked out with the crib and changing table. Mark found them for a song on eBay. They came from a little girl named Harlow who's mother was moving to L.A. to pursue her acting career.

Tell me about the photograph on the wall--is that Wilson?

Yes! He was 6 months old. It was from a Ducette Duvall photo shoot in Otisville, New York. They have a county fair there that rules! We showed the collection last fall at Christie's [the NYC auction house] and the pictures were on display as you entered the space. We really wanted to feature the Vote panties because we were all about getting Obama into the White House. The photographer really nailed it. Sure it's an underwear shot, but it looks hopeful and inspirational, instead of like a page out of Hustler.


Wilson's wardrobe seems to be part of the decor as well.

Oh, that's a part of the crib that we're not using. I like seeing stuff out--I just think it's cute. There's plenty of space for it and you can see everything this way. Plus we don't have a closet in there.


Your front door is completely covered with photos, stickers, postcards ... you name it.

That thing is a living installation. It changes all the time. It's an inspiration board, I suppose. We keep thinking about taking everything down and starting over, but I'm not ready to do that yet.


Looks like this encyclopedia says it all!

I guess it does! We are all creating our own little worlds, whether we know it or not. It's never easy--there are lots of frustrating moments for sure. You just have to figure out how not to focus on the bad, keep your perspective, and not let it spill over into your everyday routine so you become this bitter person who is mean to the guy who sells you coffee in the morning. You know what I mean?

I most certainly do! Amen to that.

Explore Stephanie's entire line of fabulous frocks on her website. And check out all of our house tours.

See more from Nesting contributor Brooke Williams at her blog, this is authentic.