Neutral Mid-century Nursery

We love a clean-lined neutral nursery, and we love precious baby faces even more! Little Charlie has both. Minimal decor in his nursery makes him the focal point – which he totally deserves. We heard from his mama on the sweet perfection that is this family shoot in the nursery and the woods in the backyard.

Tell us a a little bit about the shoot!

We decided to hold off on doing a newborn shoot when Charlie was just a few days old so that we could have more photos of us as a little family of three – once we’d all had time to rest a bit. Charlie was about eight weeks old. He had just smiled for the first time the weekend before – so we spent a lot of the afternoon trying to get him to smile on camera. I especially love the photos taken at the park next to our house. I spent almost every morning or afternoon during the summer when I was pregnant with Charlie walking at the park – imagining him and what our lives would be like once he finally arrived!

What inspired the nursery design? Is there anything significantly special that went into the planning of the nursery?

The most important thing was for this room to be simple and even a little understated. We kept everything neutral and added small touches of color and interest. I knew that in the beginning, we wouldn’t need much and I didn’t want to feel overwhelmed by the pressure of picking a certain style or a lot of decorations that may not work as he got older.

My husband built a wall of built-in shelving and it’s my favorite thing in the room. Since we wanted the furniture to grow with him, we picked a walnut mid-century-style dresser to go with a mid-century end table that belonged to my grandparents. We chose the crib since it matched the mid-century aesthetic – and we felt like the combination of walnut and white could work for a future baby girl too.

We were very lucky to include a lot of special items in Charlie’s nursery. My mom is a very talented knitter and she knit the cream blanket that’s in many of the photos as a wedding gift. I love that it’s a part of these photos.

I loved picking the artwork for his room. For every piece, I asked, “Could he have this in his room as a little boy?” The wildly popular animal photographs by Sharon Montrose would be easy to move into a future nursery. There’s also a special letterpress print of EE Cumming’s “i carry your heart” that my mom gave me years ago. Growing up, that was always “our” poem — and I felt like once I had Charlie, I really understood this type of love – carrying your child’s heart with you, in your heart. A love so wonderful that it’s “keeping the stars apart.” Seeing those words every day in his room is a special celebration of a mother’s love.