Photo flashback - our nursery
My way back time machine moment
This time of year makes me think about the passage of time. My two oldest kids have birthday in late fall. The holidays are here again, and how on earth is it almost 2025? The early 2000s were just a few years ago, right? As I scrolled through pictures recently, a few pictures caught my eye in particular.
I gasped. The quilt! The inspiration for our family’s nursery! The Etsy purchase I just had to make. It was beautiful and cozy and bright and welcoming and take all my money right now. The year was 2011 and I was in full nesting mode, eager to plan, design, and set up a nursery for our first child.
Hopes and dreams for the space
We had just moved into our new home a year earlier while we were finishing graduate school and working, so as you can imagine, we hadn’t taken much time to tackle home projects. It was a blank slate of white walls, and the upcoming baby’s arrival was the perfect catalyst to put our mark on a room in the house. We knew we wanted:
A gender-neutral theme, as we knew we weren’t going to get less busy with a kid around and we planned to have more children
The space to feel bright and fun, but not too in-your-face
Reading friendly. I’m an educator and I love language and children’s literature. A bookshelf and a comfy chair were must haves, and I was looking for other ways to make the space literacy-rich.
So I started collecting and piecing things together, with that sweet nursery quilt as the starting point.
A recliner here and a crib there. Curtains made by nana. The images from my baby shower (lovingly designed by a dear graphic designer friend) framed - sweet pea, apple of my eye. A rocking chair that belonged to a great-grandmother. A dresser that could serve as a changing table. A tall bookshelf (that we anchored to the wall for safety), alphabet blocks, board books, some Hokie spirit, and even a page from a Curious George book framed on the wall.
And can you peek in the mirror and see the pièce de résistance?
The phonetic focal point
The alphabet wall! Be still my heart!
This became a family project. Nana made the D, my sister painted the Q scrabble tile. Friends gifted the M and W. The T was a cross gifted to me at my college graduation. The L? Legos from my husband’s childhood toy bin.
We collected, curated, crafted, arranged, and voilà! We hung the alphabet installation taller than I normally would for regular framed art, but I knew those babies of mine might just try to reach out and grab a letter one day from that crib. So safety took precedence. This was our finished look.
Two fun little tidbits:
We decided to name our first child, a son, Hudson Michael, after my roots in the New York/New Jersey area, and my husband had many happy memories near the Hudson River visiting his best friend, Michael, in New York. So I took decoupaged maps of the area on the letter H, including as many mentions of “Hudson” as I could find.
You’ll notice three letters are highlighted in a slightly darker green. A hidden message: I love you!
Part of our family history
This nursery served all three of my children well, and it was tweaked a bit when each child arrived. When my daughter took up occupancy, the first letter E for Ellyn got a special redesign (which I clearly forgot to do for the youngest with her M for Merritt), and the babies took pictures with their letters each month of their first year to mark their growth.
The alphabet wall is the background to so many family pictures, sometimes intentionally - to mark pregnancy progress, before a trip to the hospital. Or unintentionally.
So when we moved, we had to take one final picture in the room all three of my kids came home to. Sidenote: those third kids, right?
And you better believe that alphabet collection is stored safely for the next generation, and documented in the MLS pictures forever, even if it includes a “big girl bed” instead of a crib.
We can take your idea and develop a plan to make it happen
At Laura Kassner Consulting, our mission is to reduce your mental load so you can pursue things that bring you joy. From identifying your functional needs for a space, to selecting paint colors, textiles, and finishes, to sourcing materials at a great price, I am here to help take projects from your mental to do list to a place you can enjoy. If you’re dreaming of a special space, a special project, a new idea you want to try in your home, I’d love to support you. Book a free 15 minute consultation and let’s discuss what is on your mind.
