One of my fellow designers at Hello Little One's partner site (tiny*prints) has started a cool business designing custom wall art for hip, modern families. Stacy Amoo-Mensah has taken her bold and colorful artwork from her stationery designs and applied them to canvases and art inserts. What I love about Stacy's work is that it's fresh and chic, yet sweet and approachable. All the designs are personalizable with your child's or family name. Check out some of the artwork below and be sure to visit www.nameyourdesign.com for the full collection.

A lot of people have heard of Etsy, but have you ever been to 1000markets.com? I love this site: easy to navigate, unique products and great service. One of the things they do best is feature design studios that sell their prints and posters. The price is usally right, and with a frame and mat bought at your local crafts or home store, voila! You have original and inexpensive art that you'll love. One such shop is Hero Design Studio. Check out some of their prints... $4 - $25! You can't beat it.

When I found out I was pregnant, one of the things I was most excited about (besides the baby :) was that I could start designing a cool and modern nursery for my baby boy. I knew I wanted to create a room that was unique and hip, but also a source of inspiration for my little one. I enlisted the talents of my mom, a graphic designer at heart and amazing seamstress, to help with the process. I had a rough idea of my colors -- green, black and white -- so we headed off to the fabric store to see what we could find.  We were lucky enough to discover some really cool panels of fabric by one of my favorite textile manufacturers called Marimekko. With birch trees outlined in black set against an aqua and lime sky, the colors served as a perfect palette for my nursery. We decided to make these panels the curtains, and they worked out perfectly.

With the color palette now in place, I had to pick a wall color. Although I was drawn to the greens in the curtain, we decided on a light blue. I know blue is a common color for a little boy, but I picked it to represent the sky, seeing as the curtains had a landscape feel about them. To drive home the sky look, I ordered bird wall graphics from blik. I positioned them across one wall, flying towards the windows.

One of the hardest choices I had to make was what kind of crib to buy. I LOVE all of the modern cribs, and if I had an endless amount of money, I would have been happy with a number of them. However, I wanted to keep the cost reasonable, without sacrificing quality. I finally settled on the Sparrow crib by Oeuf and I love it. It's durable, safe, and super cool. For the bedding, I couldn't find anything pre-made that I was happy with, so I enlisted the help of my mom. We bought some more Marimekko fabric: bold black and white patterns, as well as some green fabric to help tie in the curtains. I have to give a big shout out to my mom for doing an amazing job. If you know how to sew, I would recommend this route--your bedding will be unique and a lot cheaper than a lot of brand name designers (although if I had to buy a set I would head over to Target as Dwell Studio is now designing for them and they have GREAT stuff!)

Finally, for the rest of the furniture, I headed to Ikea. I love their minimalist style and endless customizable furniture. I wanted a changing table, but wasn't happy with any of their nursery furniture, so I improvised. In their collection of office furniture, I found some cool shelving units with doors that were the exact width and depth of a changing pad. I bought two of them and put them side by side to provide excess storage and surface area. When I remove the changing pad, these two pieces look like they belong in a boy's room, not a baby's nursery, enabling the furniture to grow with my son.

I hope this serves as some inspiration as you plan your baby's nursery. Combining ready-made products with creative solutions will give your room a unique and special feel. Good luck and have fun! 

I have people asking me all the time for good ideas to create a modern space... either in their kid's room or nursery, playroom or even home office. A sure fire way to add a modern touch is through wall graphics, and my favorite place for these is blik. They sell bold, modern graphics that come in cool, hip colors. The best thing about them is that they are self-adhesive and removable, so they can be changed up as you (or your child's) tastes change. I know mine do on a monthly basis :)