Room of the Day: Chic Neutrals Give a Nursery an Edge

When an interior designer is hired to decorate a baby’s nursery, she usually doesn’t get a say in the child’s name.

But the moment Lindsay Espinoza heard that her clients, Vinnie and Jenny De La Torre, were planning to call their boy Noah, she envisioned the name in lights. At that point, however, the De La Torres hadn’t decided whether to spell the name the conventional way, Noah, or to drop the “H” and spell it Noa.

“Well, you’ll spend more money with an ‘H,’ because those lights are expensive,” the designer said.

Noa it was.

The De La Torres had worked with Espinoza’s firm, Lulu Designs, on the rest of their Huntington Beach, California, home. So inviting her to decorate the nursery didn’t seem so unusual — even though most mothers prefer to do the job themselves. “It’s a rite of passage,” acknowledges the designer, who says she’s done only four nurseries in the past dozen years.

Although the rest of the home is hacienda style, the De La Torres pictured a more contemporary look for Noa’s room. “They’re not a traditional couple. They’re a little more edgy, so I knew I could push the envelope a little bit,” Espinoza says.

Rug: HomeGoods; crib: Babyletto Harlow 3-in-1 Convertible Crib; ottoman: West Elm; chair: Nursery Works Sleepytime Rocker


The designer didn’t want to fall back on convention and make the room little-boy blue. “Anyone can do that on their own,” she says, so why pay a designer for it? Since the rest of the house is done in grays and whites and tans, she continued the neutral approach here, opting for a two-tone wall in black (Sherwin-Williams’ Domino) and white (Benjamin Moore’s Swiss Coffee).

The palette makes sense, Espinoza points out, because babies see only black and white. Plus, she liked the way the dark lower walls helped ground the space. “It’ll stand the test of time,” she says. “When Noa is 5 or 10 or 15, he won’t be sick of his room.” (Normal teenage rebellion notwithstanding, of course.)

The room measures 12 feet by 12 feet, so the designer limited the furnishings to just a few pieces. A skylight augments light from the window, which is covered with black shutters to aid baby’s sleep. The stark polyhedron pendant is a graphic counterpoint in the composition.


While Noa’s room might be different from the rainbows-and-unicorns norm, Espinoza points out that nurseries are a great place to experiment, since they have a limited lifespan and are not generally seen by the public. “The kids’ room is always a room that could be a little more special,” she says.

Illuminated letters: Restoration Hardware


Espinoza bought a half-dozen picture frames from Ikea (white for the bottom row and black for the top) and flipped the mats over, exposing their brown backing, so they would match the rolling wood toy box. The box’s simple lines will allow it to adapt with the child as he ages: today a toy box, tomorrow a bin for sports equipment.


Baby supplies are neatly organized atop the bureau, which doubles as a changing table. The oversize mirror repeats the black and white motif … with a few discreet touches of blue.

Mirror: Classic Home; bureau: Universal Furniture

More: Oh, Baby! 12 Ideas to Get a Chic Nursery Rolling

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