Gender-Neutral Palette Makes Nursery an Easy Hand-Me-Down
Navy blue walls and coral drapes work for a designer’s firstborn boy and later for her newborn girl
Ever since her first baby came along, interior designer Rebecca Hay has been repurposing rooms around her house the way others might rotate their seasonal decor. First, she retrofitted her home office into a charming, gender-neutral nursery, where her toddler lived until baby number two took up residency in her brother’s old digs. Since it was designed to be gender-neutral from the start, passing the proverbial torch from toddler son to newborn daughter has been mercifully easy for this professional mom on the go. Here’s how the space came together.
Hay leaned on Houzz ideabooks to help her gather inspiration from photos of both nurseries and other rooms that captured the moody depth she was after. She had considered papering the walls but decided star decals would be a better use of her decorating budget. Against the celestial navy, they hint at a “little explorer” design concept, Hay says. She intended that the stars would burst out from the corner of the room, but during the “star sticker party” she hosted with her mom and husband, her approach suddenly seemed too structured: Putting the stars up at random was a lot more fun.
After choosing the wall color, Hay shopped for the major pieces before layering in accessories. Nursery or not, she wanted this room to relate to her home’s overall style, which mixes modern and traditional. So she selected a traditional drapery style in a modern fabric, set against traditional wainscoting alongside a midcentury-modern crib.
The coral draperies lean more gender-neutral orange than girly pink and are meant to pop against the navy. “I love using fabric to bring in interest, texture and color,” Hay says. The off-white ball fringe on the leading edge of the drapery is a “playful detail,” and, rather miraculously, only a single pom has been plucked off by little fingers.
Crib: Nursery Works
The coral draperies lean more gender-neutral orange than girly pink and are meant to pop against the navy. “I love using fabric to bring in interest, texture and color,” Hay says. The off-white ball fringe on the leading edge of the drapery is a “playful detail,” and, rather miraculously, only a single pom has been plucked off by little fingers.
Crib: Nursery Works
Hay had initially hung three bookshelves behind the rocking chair to house her son’s bedtime stories, but the plaster walls of her old house made it extremely difficult to find any studs to securely attach the shelves. In the middle of the night, the shelves came crashing down. She strategically hung framed photos of her son and his birth certificate to hide the drilled holes.
Find rocking chairs
Find rocking chairs
Hay customized an affordable Ikea chest of drawers with brass square knobs from Anthropologie to give it some personality. The fun light fixture is also from Ikea and creates a lovely warm glow when dimmed.
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Nursery at a Glance
Who lives here: The designer’s new baby girl
Location: Toronto
Size: About 120 square feet (11.1 square meters)
Designer: Rebecca Hay Designs
With all the office clutter out of the way, the small room needed little more than a fresh coat of paint, kid-appropriate furniture and some style and personality. Since designer Rebecca Hay and her husband did not know at the time what gender they were having, they wanted a flexible palette without resorting to the same gray-and-yellow scheme that seemed to have become the trendy default for non-gendered nurseries. Instead, she looked to the room’s natural light, or rather its lack of it, for inspiration. The small room is relatively dark, so Hay decided to embrace it with navy walls, her favorite neutral.