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Neat Nursery for the Founder of NEAT Method

When Ashley Murphy, the founder of NEAT Method (a home organizing service), came to Sprout for help in designing her healthy nursery, we could not have been more excited. Ashley knew she wanted a Vintage Sports theme with a neutral color pallet. (neutral, a Sprout favorite!) One challenge we were working with was space.  Ashley, the organizational guru she is,  decided that maximizing storage was ideal and she wanted to go with functional and transitional pieces. Here was our thought process:

Map out your floor plan– We find it most helpful to clear the entire room you are working with and measure out each piece of furniture being considered for the space. For Ashley's nursery, we were working with a very tight space and found it most helpful to use thick cotton ribbon in the furniture dimensions to give us a better idea of what the room would look like when finished.

Choosing the furniture– With the room mapped out and measured, it was time to pick out the furniture! We went with Newport Cottages, another Sprout favorite. Their furniture is made of solid wood with low VOC paints and manufactured in the US. They offer a classic American look with the option to choose a custom color and distress finish, which is exactly what we did. Foggy Coast by Mythic paint is a warm taupe/grey color I found and thought it was perfect for the neutral and vintage feel. We chose the Parker panel crib for it's clean lines and the Taylor 6 drawer dresser to help solve the storage issue. Newport built a custom changing tray for this so Ashley could maximize storage and use the dresser as a changing table too! Last, we went with the Serena and Lily Presidio glider (not just because we left our hearts in San Francisco where the company is from) but also for it's sleek yet traditional design. It's one of their smaller gliders so it worked perfectly in our small space.

Paint Colors– We had our furniture paint color Foggy Coast picked out and loved it so we stuck with Mythic Paints and chose my personal favorite white, America's Cup. It is such a classic white, not too bright and not too creamy. Ashley had a great idea of taking Foggy Coast a shade lighter and painting it on the ceiling and interior of her built in shelves.

Bedding– Our biggest challenge at Sprout is finding cute bedding in organic fabrics. Luckily we have tapped into an amazing resource now offering beautiful, soft organic fabrics by the yard. We also have Frances, a very talented Manager in our Chicago store, who now makes custom bedding. Ashley helped choose her fabrics and Frances then made a crib skirt, sheets, and changing pad covers to match perfectly in her nursery. We went with Navy as the accent color of the room so the bedding had navy, tan, grey and taupe.

Accessorizing (the fun part!)- Ashley registered for most of the accessories and kept them clean and to the vintage sports theme. We love what she chose! Also available at Sprout, and perfect for a budget, are large letters made of solid wood, perfect for initials in any room. We choose a navy “B” to hang and add a pop of color. When accessorizing, I think it is easy to go over board, so remember to access what you have so you don't end up going over the top or the room can start to look too cluttered.  And let's face it, there will be enough unwanted clutter with little ones and everything you start to accumulate!

We are so happy with the results and couldn't have been happier when Bennett Murphy was welcomed into the world! He is very lucky to have an organized Mom to keep his room looking so clean and NEAT! For more on tips to organizing your nursery read Ashley's blog, Neat Nursery style.