I've got it bad - for the blues! In the next few posts, I'll be doing a little series on how almost all of the rooms at Project Gearyed Up (aka le petite townhome) are sprinkled with some variation of blue. Because, who doesn't like blue, right? Blue is the Switzerland of colors. It's a color that both spouses often agree on during the design phase of a project. It commonly acts as as neutral. For example - navy. Totally a neutral. (So is leopard, but that's another story).

Blue is calming and cooling. And since that is the theme of our new lifestyle in Cali - to try to chilllllll outtttt - I found it fitting for our new place. But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's start back where it all began, back in the 11238-  In the heights of BK.

Since Avery's gender was a surprise (no, it wasn't hard not knowing and yes, we would totally do it again!), we wanted to do a neutral gray. If you know me at all, I love a good gray. Both in the wardrobe and the home. My belly was quickly growing into bowling ball status, and we needed to figure out the nursery. After pouring over about 452 gray paint swatches, we finally picked one and had it painted. I believe it was a color called Silver Ice, but don't quote me on that, because I blocked it out.

When I waddled home and opened the door to the freshly painted nursery in excitement, I basically burst into tears. What was supposed to be an ethereal gray was instead a sad, flat ivory. I just couldn't bear to spend hours and hours of our future life with our future bundle of joy in a joyless nursery with "whomp whomp" walls! So, Eric spent the entire next weekend repainting. (I know, I know. Husband and Dad of the Year Award).

After a nauseating amount of Pinterest research, we went with Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray the second time around. Home run! Totally recommend if you are one who is stumped by the bucketloads of grays on the market. It's enough of a color to make a statement, but it's not too dark if you're a little afraid of something dramatic.

Fast forward 2+ years to Ms. Avery Etta's second birthday and the purchase of this play kitchen whose color I can only describe as a "retro robin's egg":

Since it took me going on ten hours (and 10 glasses of wine) to put it together, she is keeping it in her room until she goes to college. In fact, she will be forced to play with it until she marries and moves into a house of her own, at which time I will still keep it in tact for my future grandchildren.  Good thing I actually really love the color, because this thing is here to stay.

After I lost a day of my life assembling it (some of the hinges are still questionable), I stood back and admired my work.  In my tortured decorator's brain, it bothered me that this tied to nothing else in the rest of her pink and gray room. Thus, as you'll soon see, it acted as the #inspo for her new "boho blue big girl room". 

Here are some shots of her old nursery in Brooklyn from over the years, so you can see some of the pieces that journeyed along with us to the bay.  

For our Cali house, I was ready to have a little fun and go with something different. I wanted Avery's Big Girl room to feel calm and relaxed, with a playful touch of whimsy-boho. Here is my original mood board for her room (and bath), complete with shop-able links below:

I chose an iced out aqua (Benjamin Moore Polar Ice 1660) to bring in the tones of the play kitchen and complement the wool area rug that I fell in love with. It was a little tough picking out paint colors from across the country with access to neither the house nor the rug. So, all things considered I would really like to toot my own horn here and say that I am super happy with the result. Toot toot!

I also dug these capiz shell mirrors out of the archives. They were a TJMaxx find back in the day when Eric and I first moved in together in Manhattan! #Memories. They've been in and out of rotation over the years, but I thought they looked great with the cream tones in the rug and brought in a little touch of a natural material.

Since this pic was taken, we've had some major, groundbreaking developments, i.e. a toddler bed and swivel glider. Turns out our little genius was planning her escape from jail and piling up stuffed animals in the crib to build an exit ladder. So, before she succeeded in her prison break we promptly converted to the crib into a toddler bed. I'd say it's going relatively well. In toddlerhood, it's all relative, right? Right?!  Someone please answer me! 

Here is an updated pic:

A little late to the game with the swivel glider, but we love having a place to cozy up and read/nod off. And it's done in a soft neutral linen, so if and when baby #2 comes along, it remains gender neutral. It could even go in a living room down the line. Who says a swivel glider needs to stay in a nursery?

So, hope you enjoyed the tour, and Part 1 of the "I've Got the Blues" series. Feel free to drop a note in the comments section below! Do you love it? Do you hate it? To each their own. And don't worry, there are many more blues to explore yet. Stay cool-(toned)!

~L.S.