I had the opportunity to interview Mary Bauer, celebrity nursery designer and owner of Bratt Decor, a few weeks back {thanks to Playtex}. We talked nursery and Mary shared with us her must-have tips and trends for creating a safe and stylish space for baby and you.

Listen to the phone interview or read the transcript below.

CCN: We’re always trying to give expectant parents tips on how to design their ideal nursery on a small budget. Do you have any tips to share with our readers?

MB: Absolutely, we have some tips and a sweeps we can talk about. Playtex is sponsoring a $5,000 sweepstakes which can go a long way for designing a nursery. To register, all you have to do is go to PlaytexBaby.com and sign up. That’s going to be awesome. Now trough April 8th.

CCN: Great! That is going to be awesome. Do you have any items that you consider to be must-haves for a nursery?

MB: Obviously, a great safe crib that meets all newest safety regulations. That’s #1. A changing station is essential. A fully stocked changing station with diapers, wipes, a change of clothing and a diaper pail is essential. You have to dispose of them. We love the Diaper Genie Elite from Playtex. It has a super sleek design that’s very very cool. And it also has a foot pedal so it makes it very convenient, you can keep your hands on your baby while you’re doing the change and never have to take your hands off which I love.

CCN: You mentioned a save crib. And it’s funny because you and your husband built your own crib when you were expecting your first child.

MB: We did. That’s how we started our company. We’ve been designing and producing cribs for almost 16 years.

CCN: I don’t know if you’re aware of a trend that we’ve seen online. A lot of new parents are buying really inexpensive cribs, like Ikea cribs, and modifying them to fit their design needs. Do you agree with what they’re doing? Do you have any suggestions to ensure that the modifications they are making are safe?

MB: I never recommend anybody modify a crib because the minute you change it no longer meets the safety regulations and I just advise parents to go to the CPSC website and make sure that the crib they are using is meeting all of the regulations. But yes, the minute you change it it’s no longer been approved.

CCN: I didn’t think of that. That’s a very good point! Moving on… Do you have any suggestions on how to make the nursery design process less stressful? I know that I was losing my mind!

MB: It’s such an emotional space. It’s where your baby’s going to sleep and it can be overwhelming but if you can break it down into some steps, there’s broad stroke considerations that can make the process a lot more relaxing.

#1 is to just consider the size of your room. Lots of times it’s the smaller room in the house so you want to keep the colors and the tone of the room light and bright. Maximize the space. Choose products that can do double duty like a changer that can be a dresser as well.

The second tip (#2)would be to create a great changing space, as I said, that’s really important. Make sure it’s well stocked and that everything is within hands reach so that you’re not really leaving that space to do anything that you need to do.

The third tip (#3) would be to kind of personalize the space. I’ve seen some gorgeously designed space and there was nothing of the person in the room and it really looses a lot when that happens. So, put something that tugs at your own heart strings, maybe it’s something from your childhood, maybe it’s your childhood teddy bear or little silver rattle or it could be framed photographs. I just love playfulness in a nursery, like of your childhood, of you playing. It just makes the space so unique to you and when you walk in it brings back all that wonderful childhood memories so if you can just do those three things. And that doesn’t cost a lot and would make the space so special and fantastic.

CCN: I absolutely agree. We have many pictures of my husband and I as babies in my daughter’s room and she gets a kick out of it because she can’t even imagine that WE were babies.

MB: I love that! Having a baby is a family affair. And also a lot of times if you’re far away from your family it’s a way to include your family in that process. That’s always one of my favorite things, trying to get the parents to think about “What did you love most about your childhood and try to put something of that in your room.

CCN: How about organization? A beautiful nursery can look like a monsoon {I meant to say tornado but I was a little nervous and pressed for time} just passed by in a matter of seconds.

MB: The littlest people on the Earth have the most things, right? It’s just crazy. Organizing your space is essential if you’re going to keep your sanity in that nursery. And again the changing station with everything at your finger tips and organized and just a place to dispose of your stuff like a diaper pail. But beyond that, the overwhelming amount of toys and things, kids get so much stuff and it’s overwhelming for them so I recommend just keeping a few items out and then just rotating them so the constant clutter is gone and you’re not overwhelming your baby. Pick four of their favorite things and keep that in the space, put everything else in the closet. Baskets are great! They make so many cool baskets, there’s wicker baskets, and egg baskets, and fabric baskets  and they can be really fun and add a splash of color. Everything in baskets. That’s the easiest way to clean up the clutter.

CCN: This is a question that I get asked a lot by our readers. Most of the parents that I speak to are living in a 2 bedroom home. So once they’re expecting a baby, that guest room is basically gone. Many of them what to make their nursery also function as a guest bedroom. I was wondering if you had any suggestions on how to make this happen.

MB: That does happen a lot. One of the things I recommend is try to get a really cool day bed that matched with your nursery furnishings. And then it also looks like a couch so it doesn’t look like you have giant bed and the crib is an afterthought. Inevitably the dad is always stretching out, napping in there. So a really cool day bed. Some funky pillows that work with the same colors. There’s a daybed for every design aesthetic so that’s the quickest and easiest way to kind of do double duty on the nursery and a guest room.

It’s the baby’s space. That’s the primary use of the room. The guest is the afterthought.

CCN: How about some nursery design trends? There are so many right now and I love them all! But I was wondering if you had any favorites right now.

MB: One of the things I love that I see happening is people sort of breaking the traditional design rules that used to be you had a modern nursery, or you had a traditional nursery, or had a clean classic nursery. But people are mixing the elements. We just did a nursery that I loved! It was a really modern, stark space with concrete walls and exposed piping and raw floors. We included ornate silver furnishings from our Bratt Decor Chelsea Collection into this stark, modern space and the result was fantastic. I love that mixing of energies.

I’m also seeing a lot of sophisticated cool tones like a lot of grays and metallic and taupes and I love that. I love the traditional pink and blue, that’s always fantastic, but people are just breaking away and doing some fantastic and daring things that I think are wonderful.

CCN: Absolutely. Pantone picked Honeysuckle Pink as their color of the year but I’m going to pick Gray as color of the DECADE.

MB: I agree!

CCN: People are loving gray and I love gray. Especially on walls.  You can do so much with gray.

MB: It is so sophisticated and elegant. Gray is just beautiful. You can make it really conservative by trimming it white and that’s so tried and true. Or you can take it to the next level and just make it really modern, like putting bold hot pink stripes or orange stripes, or doing some type of a metallic trim. Gray is the most beautiful and versatile color in the whole wide world right now.

CCN: Here’s a question about company, Bratt Decor. DwellStudio did a line for Target , any chance that Bratt Decor will partner with a big box store, like Target, to create an affordable nursery line in the future?

MB: Well, it’s something that we would love to do. I love our line but it is a higher price point so we did come out with an affordable line, it’s my husbands line, and it’s called Steven Bauer Collection by Bratt Decor. Right now we only have a wrought iron crib and changer. It is so beautiful. It’s called JOY and you can see it on our website. The crib is only $495 and it’s fantastic. And the changer is under $400!

CCN: My last question is regarding celebrity nurseries. We know that you’ve done a handful of them. We don’t want you to pick favorites… but we do. Any particular one that stands out that you had lots of fun designing or that the end result was way beyond what you had originally expected it to be and that you absolutely loved?

MB: The most recent was the Mario Lopez nursery and that was really fun. They were just real easy to work with, they had an idea of what they wanted and we had lots of time. And again, they did all the grays and silvers and that was really really beautiful.

CCN: Ok. One more question :)
Many parents have a good idea of what they want the nursery to look like but a lot of them are overwhelmed by so many beautiful ideas that they find online. Do you have any tips on how to help them sort of zone in on what kind of style they actually like and want in their nursery?

MB: I tell them just to pick up a home decor magazine, like House Beautiful or Veranda, and just pull out some style sheets that they love, focus on one item and build their nursery around that.

It was such a pleasure to speak with you Mary. Thank you for all of your wonderful tips and suggestions.

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