2011 was a very productive year for us, and we’ve now created over 80 nurseries and child spaces. To make space for new rooms on our website, we have to say goodbye to some of our images. Next week, we’ll be adding new photos of an adorable Western theme nursery, so we wanted to share this train theme boy’s room one more time, before removing it from our portfolio…
The starting point for this boy’s train theme bedroom was an idea we had to use actual wooden train tracks as chair rail style molding.
Throughout the room we placed train-theme elements, such as these beautiful chrome table lamps reminiscent of a train station.
The custom built hard-wood window seat was made to perfectly match the shutters and provide both storage and a fun place for the family to enjoy their space.
We finished off the room by adding custom towels and cute bath accessories to the attached bathroom. Our goal was to create a fun and functional room for this train-lovin’ guy – mission accomplished.
Versace has been in the news a lot lately, mainly for their affordable fashion debut at H&M. But Donatella has had something else up her sleeve that has flown under the radar in America. Versace has launched a new Young Versace boutique in Milan, right next door to Versace Home.
Young Versace Boutique in Milan, Italy
It’s hard to even see the clothes in the photos of this amazing boutique because the interior design is so bold. The style boasts a chic monochromatic lilac color scheme, contrast moulding, greek key patterned carpet, carousel seats, and giant candy canes – a paradise for a little princess, even if she can’t touch anything.
Young Versace Boutique in Milan, Italy
So if you happen to have a trip to Italy planned, you might think about taking in some eye candy at Young Versace.
Quite often, people who want to create a modern nursery end up hitting a wall when it comes to kid-friendly modern decor. Sure, there’s a lot out there, but sometimes it all starts to look the same. That’s why whenever we come across something that’s modern and manages to catch our eye, we just get a little giddy. While shopping for a client who wanted some modern accessories in her nursery, we came across this amazing item – the Tea Cup Stool.
Tea Cup Stool by Holly Palmer
Made in the UK by designer Holly Palmer, this oversize tea cup can serve as a modern side table, place to sit or even function as a toy in the nursery, playroom or backyard. It’s constructed of a durable plastic, which means it will stand up to the torments of a toddler.
2011 has been a very productive year for us thus far, and we’re completing gorgeous nurseries and fabulous children’s rooms at a rapid pace as the year comes to a close. To make space for new rooms on our website, we have to say goodbye to some of our images. This week, we’ll be adding new photos of a gorgeous nursery design in Orange County, so we wanted to share this gender neutral nursery one more time, before removing it from our portfolio…
We completed this gender neutral nursery for a wonderful family in Orange County. Although the end result may look understated, virtually every element in this room was customized. The end panels on the crib were made with fabric to match the custom sleeper sofa. The custom blackout curtain panels, custom crib bedding set, and other textiles including custom sofa pillows were all made from perfectly coordinated fabrics. We added new little knobs to the dresser, and had a custom rug made to tie the room together beautifully.
Whenever we’re creating a gender neutral nursery, we always try to leave space for some special items that can be added after the baby arrives. In this case, the custom monogram over the crib was made extra special by creating a unique wood molding shape around the block letters. Not long after we completed the nursery, this Orange County homeowner welcomed a healthy beautiful baby girl.
The beautiful residential photography was done by our friend, the extremely talented David Casas of Full Spectrum Photography in Orange County. We hope you enjoyed this last look at our “Eclectic Gender Neutral Nursery”, and stay tuned for a brand new room on our website soon!
Although the holiday season approaches and our design schedule should be slowing down, we find ourselves busier than ever creating fabulous nurseries and gorgeous children’s rooms. This week, we shared a couple of our favorite new finds on our facebook page, and wanted to round them up, here on our Nursery Culture Blog.
For starters, this amazing ikat rug is in our warehouse just waiting to be installed in a modern children’s room we’re working on. We cannot wait to finish and photograph this project – it’s going to be spectacular!
Another fun item we recently received is this downright amazing clock. Laser cut from a record by an extremely talented artist in Estonia, this beautiful piece is going into the home of one of our Los Angeles natives. If you look closely, each cut-out represents one of Los Angeles’ landmarks. Santa Monica, Hollywood, LAX and more – this fun little find will be a great way to teach little Angelenos about their home.
If you’re not already a fan on facebook, please be sure to stop by our page or follow us on twitter. When the delivery trucks come to our door, we’re always there to snap a pic and share (and of course, to check and make sure that our clients’ deliveries are absolutely perfect!).
High Point Market is like Mecca for interior designers. It’s an annual event held in High Point, North Carolina which is a major hub for furniture manufacturing in the U.S. We were not able to attend this year, but lucky for us, one of our favorite bloggers and style makers, Meg Biram of MIMI + MEG, was there as an official Style Spotter for High Point. We got to live vicariously through her as she updated her blog followers with amazing new finds for furniture, accessories, lighting, art and everything in between. As an official Style Spotter for High Point, Meg created a Pinterest link including some of her favorite things, which you can see by visiting the High Point site. Below is one of our favorite things from her favorite things: an amazing woven horse from Currey & Co.
Well, last week was a big week for Little Crown Interiors – preparing for and then hosting the “Celebration of Hope” event on Friday night at the beautiful Newport Cottages flagship store. Together with our hosts, Newport and sponsors, we want to thank everyone who encouraged, participated and attended the evening, which helped raise money for breast cancer research.
Celebrity Mom, entrepreneur, activist and Hope Crib owner, Laila Ali – attended the event and cheered as our guests won the raffle. The talented Angela Chee of www.theZenMom.com was our emcee for the evening – check out the fantastic video she put together with the help of our media sponsor Project Nursery.
The Celebration of Hope was a time to bring together friends for an evening of fun, benefiting breast cancer research. We’re pleased to say that we’ll be making a significant donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, thanks to the support of contributors, sponsors, hosts and event attendees. To learn more about the Hop Crib project, please click here.
Meet celebrity mommy and Hope Crib owner, Laila Ali!!
Receive complimentary mini-portrait sessions by Full Spectrum Photography, chat with the trendsetting team of Project Nursery and experience Cameron Hughes Wine. Enjoy a live DJ, gourmet food, luxury raffle and more!
The first 50 attendees to make a donation for Breast Cancer Research will receive a glamorous gift bag.
After a whirlwind couple of weeks, we’re so happy to be able to sit down and write a blog about one of our latest celebrity nurseries. We created this nursery design for Mel B (Scary Spice of Spice Girl fame) in her Los Angeles home. Here’s a quick video showing the transformation, and below are all the juicy interior design details…
The gorgeous images of Mel B’s nursery are by the spectacularly talented David Casas of Full Spectrum Photography.
The gorgeous nursery interior design project in Mel B’s Los Angeles home started with the choice of silver nursery furniture by Bratt Decor.
Custom nursery artwork by Oopsy Daisy brings an element of Mel B’s British background into the beautiful Los Angeles space.
The beautiful nursery glider by Angel Song in lush lilac velvet is a beautiful spot for nursing and snuggling, and the cute little table by Restoration Hardware Baby & Child makes it convenient.
The grey silk fabric draped ceiling and custom blackout window treatments were created by the super-skilled team at Lily’s Custom Drapery and Upholstery. The sparkling pendant, which coordinates with the wall sconces and sparkling nursery chandelier were made by I Lite 4 U.
In the background of this photo, you can catch a glimpse of the beautiful stretched canvas artwork by Oopsy Daisy, and the spectacular hand painted wall murals by Spotted Moon Art & Design for Children.
Also on the crib wall is a beautiful crib crown, custom made by Lily’s Custom Upholstery & Drapery, especially for Mel B. And, as no crib is complete without a crib mattress, baby Madison is lucky enough to be resting her head on a Naturalmat mattress.
Completing the luxury nursery design is the fabulous silk crib bedding set, designed by Little Crown Interiors and made by Angel Song, and an adorable child’s sofa, also made by Angel Song.
One of the most exciting things we look forward to at the ABC show is the debut of new nursery furniture. It’s like Fashion Week for nursery designers! We always keep out eye out for new pieces, trendsetters and especially products with fabulous features. Here are some of our faves.
Bratt Decor is a nursery furniture brand we know and love. Now, we love them even more with the addition of their new crib, J’Adore. There are few round or oval cribs in the market, and also very few with this sleek and convenient size. The J’Adore is an iron oval masterpiece with subtle detail and enormous function. It converts from a bassinet to a crib, and fits through a doorway!
photo via Bratt Decor
Another fully functional find is from GRO Furniture. These guys thought everything through – from the sustainable materials, to the flat mattress deck, to the “one minute, no tools” assembly. This crib is modern, Eco friendly, and delightfully well designed.
photo via GRO Furniture
Lastly, our friends at Oeuf created quite possibly the smartest, yet simplest innovation of a changing table: they made the changing tray reversible. Genius, right!? No more fumbling over yourself if you’re left handed, have a lefty husband, or just want to switch it up a bit. The dividers can also be arranged in any way for maximum control over your storage.
As usual at this time of year, Little Crown Interiors just arrived back home (Los Angeles and Orange County) from the ABC Expo – the largest juvenile industry event of the year. Although it may not sound very glamorous, we actually had a great time and found some fabulous new discoveries at the event. One of the biggest trends we noticed is the much bigger (and much welcomed) presence of lucite and acrylic materials.
As long time mega-fans of lucite anything, we were beyond excited at last year’s show when Nurseryworks debuted the very first completely lucite crib, the Vetro. This year, to our utter delight, they created a corresponding match-made-in-heaven: a drop-dead, unbelievable lucite rocker.
A new-comer to the American crib market, ubabub, also struck our fancy with a line of cribs featuring breathable lucite panels. Delicate star details were cut out of the panel to allow for airflow as well as an added design element.
In the accessories department, we saw a few new and exciting things along the same lines. We discovered a new art company called Art Addiction, to which we can truly see ourselves becoming addicted. Instead of the standard canvas wrap art typical in nursery design, they took it one step further and printed their art onto acrylic panels with unbelievably vivid color and fantastic graphics. We can’t wait to make use of these in a nursery design!
Lastly, we were taken aback by the absolute genius and simplicity of acrylic picture frames by Wexel Art. Yes, we’ve seen products like this before, but these have a new edge – magnets. The laser cut acrylic panels have strong magnets on both sides to easily hold and change your artwork – brilliant!
That’s it for now, but stay tuned for more of our favorite new releases of the year.
A few weeks ago, we featured a book on our Nursery Culture blog called Crazy Design. Upon exploring the publisher’s website (Vivays Publishing), we found many more incredible books to peruse. The one that ended up arriving at our door is titled 10 Principles of Good Interior Design by Vinny Lee. This little black book is filled with secrets of how interior designers do what they do. The book is written in a simple manner, explaining each element of design in a concise and understandable way. It’s a great easy resource for us to pick up when we need a little inspiration.
10 Principles of Good Interior Design by Vinny Lee
The book features essential interior design principles like Purpose and Function, Focal Points and Features, Colour, Pattern and Texture, and many more – all accompanied by beautiful photos of interior design projects of all kinds.
Sample Page from 10 Principles of Good Interior Design
One of our favorite aspects of this book is that in each section, they’ve included “Expert Advice” from various well known designers from all over the world such as Karen Howes, Romeo Sozzi, and one of our personal favorites, Jonathan Adler.
Sample Page from 10 Principles of Good Interior Design
At the end of the book, there’s a few summary pages with the key points of each element – a fantastic quick-reference tool.
Sample Page from 10 Principles of Good Interior Design
10 Principles of Good Interior Design is set to release on October 15, but you can check out the book on the publisher’s site, or pre-order your copy here.
Being a nursery designer truly is the best “job” in the world. I get to spend my days thinking up fabulous new ways to make our clients’ nurseries special. I get to work with my best friend. And, lately, we’ve been getting to do some pretty fantastic things outside of design. Take Tuesday, for example. Here’s Naomi talking about design inspiration for TV.
Filming gave us the opportunity to visit one of our favorite shops in Southern California – Newport Cottages – at their gorgeous store in the Fashion Island shopping center, in Orange County. Always a source of inspiration, we fell in love with this cute little bunny bank, among other things…
Further, our little field trip gave us the chance to talk to the owners of Newport Cottages about our “Hope” Crib collaboration. Together, we designed the Hope Crib to benefit Breast Cancer Research. The project is gaining momentum, as one of our recent celebrity nurseries – for Laila Ali’s daughter Sydney – recently included a “Hope” Crib. Check it out in this recent issue of People Magazine:
As the weekend approaches, I can’t help but wonder what fun and excitement is in store for next week… We’ll be sure to let you know!
Some babies are just lucky. Sunday night, we pulled up to the Los Angeles home of one of our nursery interior design clients, and took a moment to enjoy the beautiful scenery. This baby will not only have a beautiful nursery design, but a fantastic view as well. We count seeing the spectacular neighborhoods of Los Angeles and Orange Counties as one of the many reasons why we love our jobs so much!
Little Crown Interiors recently completed an absolutely stunning nursery for our celebrity interior design clients, Mel B. (aka Scary Spice) and husband Stephen Belafonte, in their Los Angeles home. One of our favorite celebrity nurseries to date, the design is going to be revealed this week on Access Hollywood. Currently scheduled for Tuesday August 16th at 7:30pm pacific time on NBC, Mel B’s baby nursery is a must-see, so be sure to set your Tivo!
Our celebrity nursery design includes incredibly luxurious items from top companies like Bratt Decor, Angel Song, Oopsy Daisy, I Lite 4 U, Naturalmat and Restoration Hardware Baby & Child as well as a huge amount of custom items designed by Little Crown Interiors, and impeccable workmanship by Lily’s Custom Upholstery & Drapery. Be sure to watch when Mel B’s nursery debuts on Access Hollywood, and stay tuned for our complete nursery design reveal in the coming weeks!
