Adding Vintage Touches to a Nursery

(all photos in this post are taken by Hado Photo)

My son, Grayson, has the best room in the whole house. It is bright and has the perfect mix of all the vintage touches I love to incorporate into my designs. It is full of texture and layers. It is important to me he grows up around lots of bold color. I think it immediately can lift a bad mood.  I kind of laugh at the idea he may look back at this room and think "Oh, that was so mom."

Let's start with the obvious.  That wall. Isn't it just the happiest thing you ever seen? I couldn't afford half of the prints I really wanted so I just got some canvas and free styled some prints that inspired me.  The red print all the way on the left was from Etsy.  Using the black frames really unifies the wall with the different colors and styles.  I also love mixing in canvas and prints. 

That amazing sconce was perfect since I wanted something that could be moved to over the changing pad if needed.  And I wanted something vintage inspired.  West Elm really brought the heat on this one.  For some reason, none of the rooms in our rental have overhead lighting.  Annoying? Yes.  But God help me, I do love a lamp. And that brass one is another vintage touch brought in from a thrift store. I dare you to find a room in my house without a brass lamp. I can't get enough of them! 

The curtains are Ikea (you can't beat them).  The yellow stripe pillow is from Home Goods.  The buffalo plaid throw is from Wayfair. 

The glider is from West Elm.  And as a side note for any future parents out there, I love it.  I had read somewhere to make sure to get a rocker or glider that was wing backed so you have a place to rest your head when you are nursing at night and fall asleep with the baby.  It was worth every penny during those early months when I basically lived in that chair. 

The dresser was a Craigslist find from forever ago.  You can actually see pics of it painted in a different color in my old apartment.  We (and I use that term loosely since I made my husband do it) painted it with Rustoleum Enamel in Royal Blue for Gray's room. 

And OF COURSE, no room in our house would be complete without a little dog bed for Sir Hemmingway, Earl of the Snuggery (his legal name but we call the pups Hemmy). 

You may have seen this image on my instagram feed last week.  This is a closeup of the shelf on that large wall above.  I'd love to tell you it looks like this all of the time.  But I am not sure about your toddler, but mine doesn't like having his diaper changed so this is where we store his bribes.  You know, the toys (phones, whatever) that will entertain him for the 2 seconds it takes for me to change his diaper. 

But when it isn't being used for top secret missions, I love styling it with some of our most sweet family treasures.  The teddy bear up in the left hand side of the picture was my husband's teddy bear growing up.  The black and white picture under it is from our wedding day.  The crown on the right is Grayson's Birthday Crown that he has refused to wear for the last 2 years.  (Please note, he's only 2). Oh well, it is adorable and from Mark and Graham.

I went back and forth on the crib color for months but ended up getting this one and couldn't be happier with it (here is the style, not the color).  I keep the bedding simple with blue and white striped sheets (similar ones here).  One of my favorite new things is coming in and the morning and seeing all the toys from the wicker basket next to his crib now INSIDE his crib.  I forget how much he is growing!

The picture on the side table is a picture of my mom pregnant with me.  I love looking at it when we are rocking and thinking about how she used to do the same for me.

I wanted something more unique than a traditional mobile.  I found this great shield frame at a flea market years ago and used it forever as a chalk board.  I bought this amazing cardboard deer head off Amazon and mounted it to the shield to hang poms from as a mobile.

Opposite his crib is now a small table from Melissa and Doug that serves as the Playdoh/Blocks/Coloring area. I hung this great little book storage shelf from Ikea that I painted red above it to hold coloring books and some of our favorites.  Again, I tried to incorporate a few of our childhood favorites in the design.  The book all the way to the right was a personal favorite of mine growing up, named "Clovis Crawfish."  Remember, I grew up in South Louisiana. Clovis...well, he had it going on. 

As he grows, I think the room will be able to grow with him.  It was important to me to not have a room that would have to be redone every few years (you know, for the sake of my marriage). But I love all the things, even as uncute as they can be, we are adding to it.  The space ship tent isn't really a designers dream come true but I love his face when he is in it. 

What memories and personal touches did you include in your child's room to make it more vintage and meaningful!?