Sometimes you walk into a home and plan out a purpose for each room before you can even call it your own. Other times, rooms have to evolve alongside your family. Michelle Milowe took a moody guest room and replaced it with a vintage cottage inspired toddler boys room. Located in Grand Rapids, MI, Michelle has recently welcomed baby #2. Her oldest, Emmett, age 2, was upgraded from the nursery to his very own big boy room. Michelle shared her mood board with us. Take a look...
To begin the transformation, Michelle began where all good designers go... to Pinterest. She spent hours pinning inspiration photos before she laid a finger on Emmett's new room. Searching keywords like "vintage" and "cottage" she landed on the idea of creating a special space for her son that felt boyishly whimsical. Michelle imagined a space where she could rock Emmett to sleep and spend time reading stories before tucking him in at night. A place where he could have fun and run around, yet still preserve a sense of calmness - the ideal toddler room. What started as a dark space, ended with the perfect light blue walls, fun wallpaper, and pattern play. To perfect her vision, Michelle pulled in several vintage and homemade pieces into the room.
After planning her mood board and imagining where she was taking the room, she knew had to tackle updating the ceiling. Michelle referred to scraping the popcorn ceilings as "a nightmare" - yikes, note to self! Once the room was prepped, she brought in the sailboat wallpaper, vintage furniture collected from estate sales and Facebook marketplace, and colorful tartan rug. Michelle's great budget hack is to take paint colors by Farrow and Ball and color match at cheaper retailers. However, she admitted couldn't budge on the real deal this time to get the light blue walls exactly right.
The Schoolhouse quilt for Emmett's crib was something she couldn't resist. After all, it will easily grow with him! Purposefully avoiding anything too babyish, one design goal for this room was to make sure it would be a transitional space for her growing toddler boy. With minor changes, she wants Emmett to enjoy the space for years to come.
Michelle is a big fan of using vintage and homemade pieces as well as supporting small businesses. In Emmett's room, the rocking chair, dresser, some wooden toys, and his bookshelf, are all second hand and help preserve the vintage cottage feel. Among the handmade items include the road play mat and custom Eventide Pennant Co name pennant!
As we know, picking a font and choosing colors for a Name Pennant is a difficult job. Michelle knew that with this finishing piece, she wanted to continue the vintage vibe, so she used Emmett's rug and bedding as inspiration for his Name Pennant. She settled on a beige background, cream letters, and chestnut siding in cursive. How fitting that in this perfect vintage-inspired room, her son's old-fashioned name is even on theme!
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