Before and After: How to Get the Look of a “Coastal-Bohemian” Nursery

Stefany Ovalles, who runs the account @honeyandmoss, always knew that the guest bedroom in her home would be a nursery. The World Market canopy that swoops from the ceiling was purchased, knowing it would one day cozily envelop a crib. 

“I had originally bought some coastal elements for the room because I thought it was calming and would allow our guests to also feel at ease but also because I always knew that if we were lucky to have a baby, a coastal Bohemian theme was always what I had in mind,” Stefany explains, “as my husband and I always feel most at ease near water and routinely vacation in sleepy coastal towns, both in the U.S. and abroad.”

So when Stefany and her husband discovered they were pregnant with their daughter, Emma, they were already partly done with their nursery vision. (Stefany recommends creating a vision board to see what works and what needs to be swapped out.) “I knew that I wanted a coastal theme, but that can look very kitschy very quickly,” she explains. The vision board helped her narrow down her design preferences. 

It was actually a rainbow mobile that inspired the rest of Emma’s room design. Stefany refers to her as a “rainbow baby” and wanted her space to be filled with warm colors. Since they’re renting the home, they wanted to install more temporary decor, so she found a colorful peel-and-stick wallpaper on Etsy that incorporates all the desired hues and nautical themes. 

Stefany credits the wallpaper for bringing the room together, but the neutral furniture added tranquility and storage to the nursery. “Babies have a lot of stuff, and I’m someone that doesn’t like to see clutter, but once we got the IKEA HEMNES dresser in and it held so much, it made it that much easier to envision what the rest of the space would look like,” she shares. 

Another bonus is that some of the furniture that Stefany purchased for the room will grow with her daughter. For example, the Nestig Island Wave crib transitions into a full crib and toddler bed. Stefany placed a changing pad on top of the IKEA HEMNES dresser so that Emma could use it as she grew up. 

The nursery cost around $5,000 to furnish, and initially, Stefany was worried about her design vision becoming a reality — it turns out she didn’t need to fret at all. “I’m so proud of how the wallpaper looks, considering it was my first time using peel-and-stick wallpaper,” she says. “The entire room is perfect for playing, sleeping, changing the baby, nursing, etc. It gives me the same calm feeling that any coastal town gives me, even when my baby is crying at 3:00 a.m.”

• Crib — Nestig
• Dresser — IKEA
• Chair — Crate & Kids
• Canopy — World Market
• Mobile — Etsy
• Peel-and-Stick Wallpaper — Etsy
• Whale Basket — Crate & Barrel
• Macrame Jellyfish — Etsy
• Belly Casting Kit — Amazon
• “Emma” Sign — Etsy