Oliver's Nursery: The Alcove

I met with Oliver's mom this morning to move forward on his nursery. We're all systems go, with one big change: out of safety concerns, we will be nixing the striped tenting plan for the crib alcove and returning to the original idea to do some kind of map treatment. Here's the alcove again.


The alcove, while not huge, is bigger than the largest non-custom world map murals out there, which clock in at 13' wide by 8'8" tall, so we won't be able to simply wallpaper the space with a pre-existing mural. While I did find a place that could custom print a vinyl, pasteable world map for me, my required dimensions would result in a pricetag of a whopping $1500, and since that's about 3 times the budget for the ENTIRE ROOM, we'll be taking a pass.

After a little research, I presented two options, each with variations.

1. Wallpaper.
To treat the alcove to an all-over effect, we could use this wallpaper of nautical charts, and go ahead and hang it like any old wallpaper.


Or we could pick up a slew of vintage maps and paper the walls in a random, overlapping pattern, like these creative folks did.

[Source]

[Belle Decor via Garden and Gun]

I think the overall effect would be an alcove that felt like it had a sort of color wash from afar, with all the delicate details showing up when you came close up. Lovely.

2. Giant continents.
The other option as I see it is to create overscale continents, with the Americas on the left wall, Africa on the back wall, and Europe and Asia on the right wall. The overall effect would be more graphic and punchy than the wallpaper plan.

I see three possible looks.

- we could use a topographical map and blow up each continent, print it and decoupage to the wall. I would make a mock-up of what I'm thinking in photoshop, but the hubs is just teaching me how to use it, and so far I've learned to cut items out and build layers, so there's a LONG way to go! Just use your imagination....

- we could create a map "silhouette" with custom vinyl decals or paint, for an effect kind of like this turquoise tapestry from Urban Outfitters or this Orange World poster from allposters.com.





Or we could cut them out of vintage wallpaper, like those cool animal decals.


- or we could go kind of old school and just paint our own custom mural. (Note to self: find a picture of Mom's murals, either from the California house int he 70s or from my brother's Sesame Street bedroom, for a Flashback Friday).

For this, I like the kid-friendly aesthetic and color palette of something along these lines.

I'm super excited to tackle any of these projects, and can't wait to see what Oliver's parents choose.

Do you have a favorite? I'm so torn!