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Design

A guest room becomes a nursery

After she converted the guest room to a nursery, Kelly Rogers re-created the guest room on a different note.Eric Roth
Eric Roth

After admiring a gracious 1896 Georgian revival in Waban for years, interior designer Kelly Rogers and her family had the chance to purchase the house in 2012. “I always wanted to live in a Victorian-era home with all the original details and character,” says Rogers. “This is the home of my dreams.”

Among the designer’s first projects was the guest room. “I felt the room should have special meaning to us, but not be overly personal,” says Rogers. “I wanted the room to feel like a getaway, kind of like a hotel experience.”

Since the small room has windows on three walls, the bed had to be located in front of a window. To make the less-than-optimal situation work, Rogers put the bed in front of the window that was most centered in the room and made it the focal point by creating a custom headboard upholstered with lavender and white Peter Dunham fabric. The woven shades had been installed by a prior owner and Rogers added linen drapes to frame the bed. The walls are soft lavender. Lavender, green, and aqua hues are found in the Thom Filicia carpet, a combination of wool and viscose. “It feels plush and cool underfoot, which is exactly the feeling you want when you get out bed,” says Rogers.

The room reflects touches of India, where Rogers and her husband had memorable travel experiences. The bed’s suzani coverlet is from a market in Delhi, and Rogers took the framed photograph of the Taj Mahal. A mirrored West Elm console table serves as display area and works as a desk when the pouf underneath is pulled out. “I selected the mirrored finish so it didn’t look too heavy for the room,” says Rogers. She also picked the piece for its reflective quality. “It bounces rainbows around the room at different times during the day.”

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Just after the first guests had enjoyed the thoughtfully designed space, Rogers and her husband found out they were expecting their second child. With only three bedrooms on the second floor, the only option was to put the new baby, Eamon, in the guest room. And so, Rogers transformed the room into a nursery.

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“I wanted a classic, vintage-inspired room that would grow with Eamon,” says Rogers. The room’s jumping off point was an inexpensive American flag rug she found on Amazon.com. To create a multi-layered effect, both paint and wallpaper were used on the walls. Above the portion painted Benjamin Moore’s Newburyport Blue a high chair rail was installed to protect the plaid Thibaut wallpaper, which works as a thick border under the molding.

The existing drapes remain; to make them more in keeping with the new vibe, Rogers added a trim along the edge made of geometric print fabric by Kravet. A bookcase from Restoration Hardware works well with the vintage feel Rogers was going for. “It looks like an old suitcase,” she says. “It’s anchored to the wall so it won’t tip when Eamon starts trying to grab things off of the shelves.”

A 19th-century walnut chest is used as a changing table; when Eamon outgrows it Rogers plans to move it to another space in the house. The Jessica Charles glider will also be relocated when it’s no longer needed in the nursery. “It’s a well proportioned chair that we can recover to use in another room,” says Rogers. An antique red and white quilt on the wall works now, but when Eamon’s older it will be used on his bed.

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It’s hard to imagine that the nursery used to be the guest room, says Rogers. Fortunately, guests still have the privilege of enjoying the retreat she designed — it’s now set up exactly the same way, right down to the wall color, on the third floor.


Jaci Conry can be reached at jaci@jaciconry@globe.com.