Bodacious Boy Boudoir: Bike Art

I think I may have an addictive personality. Once I start a project or get an idea in my head, it’s all I can think about. It consumes me like a plague. My husband was telling me about his tennis match tonight and the awesome drop shot he had on his elderly Asian opponent, but my thoughts were drifting to the bicycle artwork I found online today and how I would frame it. Blah. I’m sick. Sick with nursery design fever. And the only medicine is more cow bell? 

I was checking some regular blogs today and happened to find a sweet little poster that I think would look rad in the nursery I’m doing for my sis. It’s orange and blue (very fitting for our color scheme) and the retro vibe is something I think would be a winner.

I think I’ll crop out the slogan and pop it into a crisp, white frame. I found this poster on a website called ReadyMade, a site I had yet to hear about until today. It seems to be a magazine that is for “people who like to make stuff” which I can certainly get on board with. One of their web issues provided this poster, and four others, for people to download for free – free art! Could it be any better? I love this print and hope I’ll figure out a way to make it work in the nursery (assuming the mom-to-be approves).

I also thought about incorporating this bicycle picture that Scott and I took on our honeymoon in the Florida Keys. We stayed at a friend’s parents’ rental home for the week and rode these rusty old bikes all around the island to get some grub or watch a sunset on the beach. Ahh, pure heaven. Sure, it’s more of a memory for me than the new bebe, but the colors and bike theme really hit the nail on the head. Am I taking the bike theme a bit too far? Possibly. We’ll see if any of these ideas actually make it into the nursery.

On a side note, can I just say how awesome it is to have my sister as a “client”? She actually said the phrase “just show me what you think will work and I’ll say yes”. What? Are you actually trusting my abilities as a designer to not lead you in the complete wrong direction? I was baffled. Most of my commercial clients seem to think that we, as designers, can’t help them choose a fitting finish package for their office space because we do this day in and day out. It’s so refreshing to have someone actually put some trust in me and give me creative license to come up with something new and exciting.

I’m not bitter. I swear.

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Bodacious Boy Boudoir: Idea Numero Dos

We’ve had a few developments in the design of my future nephew’s nursery. By we, I mean my design team consisting of the mom-to-be and my momma. We talk quite frequently about ideas that we all have, and my mom just purchased the glider for the room, so I figured I’d take another stab at an idea collage. This one isn’t as fleshed out as it could be, but I think it’s enough to convey an idea. One of our original ideas came from this simply amazing nursery that I found online:

I could die it’s so amazing. My sister and I both really liked the graphic white detail on one wall, and I’m such a sucker for orange accents. It’s basically perfect. But what’s the fun in copying someone’s exact design? I decided to take the feel of this room and go in a little different direction. The giraffe on the wall is pretty fantastic, but I have a feeling that this little boy will be a lot like his papa-full of energy and more into sports than cutesy animals. So, I took the circles from the bedding and that lead me to a theme – circles and bike tires repeated throughout the space.

I ran with the bike theme and thought it would be cool to have a graphic bike mural on the accent wall in the space. I’m hoping we can find a projector, project this image up on the wall, and handpaint it in some crisp, white paint. Quite a challenge, but I think we can handle it. The glider is one that my mom just purchased for the room from Babies R Us. The reviews said that you’d need a pillow behind your back for a shorter mom (which my sis most certainly is) so I think this graphic bike pillow from CB2 is just perfect.

My sis chose this rug from Target which I think is a great starting point to start introducing some orange accents to the room. Plus, the circles keep the whole bicycle tire theme going. We do have a wall sconce issue to deal with in the room, so I pulled this swirly stained glass one from some other comments from my sis. The more modern square sconce is freakin rad, but it’s a cool 300 beans. I think this is something we can recreate on the cheap, so it’s still in the running.

The mobile is something that I found on etsy.com. If you’ve never been to this site, check it out sometime. It’s a place where artisans/craft makers can post their creations and sell them to adoring buyers like myself. There are some really unique items on there that give you an alternative to the big chain stores. The colors weren’t quite right for the etsy mobile, but I think we can add in the orange (like I’ve shown here) and make this on our own for some more money savings – and a fun project. Now, I do realize that these colors are orange and blue, which makes my garnet and gold blood boil. But, the mom and dad are Gator fans, so I have to cater to my client. Unfortunately. :P

The crib and storage solutions from the previous idea collage still stand, but maybe we can bring in some orange storage boxes in lieu of the wicker baskets. They’ll have a bit more modern shape/look and will really bring that punch of orange all the way around the room. Swoon. Any thoughts on Idea Numero Dos?

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Bodacious Boy Boudoir: Idea Numero Uno

Scott and I had a very lazy Sunday today, which is a bit odd for us. If you know Scott at all, you know that he’s a very spirited guy (ie. can’t sit still) and loves to be on the move (ie can’t sit still). But alas, we were very sedentary today because it rained ALL DAY. No joke, it has been raining since Saturday morning, non stop, and now it’s snowing pretty heavily. The lovely weather has kept us locked up, so I decided to use this downtime to tackle a project that’s been brewing in my head for some time – a little laddie nursery. That’s right folks, I’ll be an aunt in about 5 months (you thought I was going to say mom didn’t you? did your heart skip a beat?) and my sister has accepted my offer to do her little boy’s nursery. I’m so super excited! I just started jotting down some ideas today and doing some (very rough) sketches, so I figured I’d post them on here to get a bit of feedback. This is idea numero uno in my crazy design mind, so if it’s totally off the mark, that’s fine! I’ll work on some more ideas and post them along the way until the ultimate boy nursery comes to fruition.

This is a quick little idea collage I pulled together on this rainy day. My mom has already purchased the crib bedding for this room, so it gave me a starting point as well as something concrete that I had to work with. My sister mentioned that she doesn’t want something too cutesy for the nursery, but rather something a bit more modern and not so literal (ie a surfer mural on the wall). With this collage, I’m running with the stripe theme, but making the stripe wall a bit more modern than most stripe walls you might see out there. My husband seems to think the striped wall is “a bit 80s” so maybe I am off the mark. But I like it. :) The crib, bookshelf and glider are from the always amazing Target, while the floating white shelves and baskets are from Ikea. The artwork is something that I found online that I’d like to try and recreate (DIY project) if this idea reaches the goal line.

This is a quick little sketch I drew up to give some idea of where everything would be in the space. I’m by no means the best artist, but at least this gives a feel for how the space would lay out. I have yet to find the perfect rug or the exact window treatments, but hey, this is a first stab. Give me a break, internet! One thing that I don’t have shown on these sketches is the papa’s surfboard, which I think would be nice in Elevation A to the right of the dresser. Future baby daddy is a surfer and would like that to be integrated into the room somewhere, so I think one of his boards propped up against the wall would a) be a great place to store the board and b) bring in the surfer theme, without the cheesy mural. If we went this route, the custom artwork could definitely be tweaked to have a more beachy, surfer feel.

Of course, my brain is spewing out ideas (like the vomit reference?), so I’ve been spending the rest of my afternoon sketching more accent wall ideas. Some are ok, some are awful – but that’s how the design process works. At least I didn’t post the other 20 sketches I had – my rendition of an elephant was just too embarrassing to post in blogland. Maybe it’ll make an appearance on a “best of the worst” entry in the future. Yikes.

Please feel free to leave me a comment and give me some feedback (good or bad) and some ideas for this little munchkin retreat. I’m not sure if I’m writing this blog just for my parents (love your comments, ma and pa), so if you’d like to follow their lead, drop me a line!

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