Even down to a soft, cuddly bunny, the designers added finishing touches to make the room feel warm and welcoming.Imagine a beautiful; multi-million dollar house nestled in the woods not far from Boston. Each room is beautifully decorated down to the smallest detail: a baby’s stuffed toy, a candlestick, a cozy throw blanket. You are free to wander, look in closets, try out furniture and open drawers. Whether you’re imagining this dream house is all your own, or simply taking ideas back home, you find it easy to understand why showhouses all over the country attract so many visitors.
For designers, the fun begins when they walk through the empty rooms of this brand new estate or that old mansion and imagine the possibilities. After rooms are allocated to designers by showhouse planners, months of work follow to create a room that is beautiful, stylish and appealing — especially since most are designed to earn money for charity.
The showhouse, in a new and impressive 7,000-square-foot home, runs through May (scroll to the bottom of the page for more details). After Furniture was assigned a cozy second floor room, it was up to the design team to determine how to use the space and create a beautiful, believable room.
It could have been a guest bedroom or an upstairs study, but a bright, sunny window and a little nook cut into one wall made for a perfect baby’s room. In determining her theme, Furniture designers Christina Macrina and Heidi Abrahams considered not only the room’s characteristics, but the house’s overall tone.
The design team’s goal was to create a baby’s room that was light, airy and would stand up to the caliber of the rest of the house.“Our room had to stand up to the caliber of the house, which is very traditional and rich,” Marcrina said. “Because it's in true New England style, I wanted to use baby furniture and linens that would fit in.”
The design team, including set designers for the Furniture website, created a light and airy nursery with well-coordinated furniture. They started by painting the walls Necco Wafer green, a soft and cheerful spring-like hue. To enhance the room’s airiness, soft ivory voile was chosen for the window treatment and to emphasize the outlines of the nook. Pink bows were used to pull the voile back on either side of the nook, showcasing a baby’s crib with charm.
The design team selected Furniture’s Buttons and Bows nursery collection for the room. “The collection is rich, well-made and classic. It works well with the feel of the house,” Macrina said. “Also, this is a very large room so we wanted something that was fun and wouldn’t get lost.”
Because the collection features coordinated pieces, including a crib and a chest with a pastel quilt-patterned door, it was ideal for creating a themed look. The designers also chose a child’s plush rocker in the shape of Mother Goose, a quilt motif rocking chair and a pastel play table with chairs to showcase pieces a baby could grow into over time. An accent mirror and shelves helped complete the room.
The fresh, floral print on the linens was played out throughout the room on a stuffed toy and this coordinating toy bag.With cradle, crib and other furniture in place, the designers then added finishing touches to make it look like baby was just out visiting Grandma. A Spring Garden linen collection was chosen for the bed to complement the pale green walls and the traditional feel of the room and the house. This pattern is echoed in such details as a toy bag and a large, floppy bunny. Framed childhood prints completed the look.
The designers remembered the parents, too, tucking a wooden rocker into one corner with books and picture frames to make the room seem ready to welcome a baby home at any minute. It’s the perfect tranquil setting for parents and their baby and, in a house where most rooms are richly designed, it’s a refreshing breath of simplicity.
Today’s baby and children’s furniture is so wonderful, it was a delight to create a lovely child's room,” Macrina said. “I am so glad we had the opportunity to do this. It’s great to show people what we’re about while supporting a very important cause.”
