As you might expect, our community at Hallmark is still exercising their creativity even when they’re off the clock. Those inventive instincts go into over-drive when kids come into the picture. Today, we’re sharing three Hallmarkers’ beautiful nurseries; we hope they give you some great decorating ideas for the kids in your life!

Cece Merkle is a designer in the Trends Studio who is passionate about shape and color. Her nursery is full of playful shapes, pops of color and handmade treasures.

From Cece: Ethan’s room started with white walls and a yellow mid-century-modern dresser. I wanted the theme of Ethan’s room to be shape and color with a little inspiration from Alexander Girard and some mid-century flair. I love the quirk of Girard’s bold shapes and decided to create a large focal piece with cut-paper shapes above the dresser. I also used cut-paper shapes to create a repeat pattern that I designed to make a colorful blanket for Ethan’s crib. A few Hallmark friends also made some handmade treasures for Ethan. The Plush Club girls, Allyson Lassiter and Lisa Hadley, each made a charming handmade plush; Tuesday Spray crafted an adorable chalkboard and wooden alligator with movable arms and legs; and Amber Goodvin made a yarn-embroidered pom-pom pillow.

One of my favorite pieces in the room is a hand-painted wooden illustration of our little family that a couple of friends at Hallmark created as a decoration for our baby shower. Plants, both real and stuffed, are also an important part of Ethan’s nursery. I love a little greenery and couldn’t resist sewing some plant pillows and a monogram pillow for Ethan’s crib. The Alexander Girard “Love” plaque was a gift I gave my husband on our wedding day. After a few years of not knowing where to hang the plaque, it found a home on Ethan’s shelf next to baby books about art and color.

My husband is also a designer at Hallmark in the Licensing Studio, where we met. We both love the Peanuts characters, and I designed the “Good Grief” wall art piece for Hallmark, which also has a happy home in Ethan’s room. We also love Hallmark’s memory-keeping albums; I now keep Ethan’s ABC memory book next to my rocking chair to record our memories along the way!

Other featured items include: “Dream Big” by Kellie Bloxsom-Rys, “Imagination is Everything” by Georgia Sutton, Alligator Print by Ames Bros, and paper-shape mobile made by Katherina London.

Jeff Shumway leads our Union Hill Studios, Hallmark’s own photography and video outfit. His little one’s nursery reflects his edited aesthetic and personal skill (check out the animal prints he created for the space!).

From Jeff: As a designer, working on a baby room can be a daunting task. Like a wedding or a first birthday party (as I now know), a lot can be expected of you. I would hear things like, “Jeff is a designer, so I’m sure the room will be amazing.” It didn’t help things that my wife lived on Pinterest and every baby blog she could find. There was so much cool stuff out there. In the end, our process of putting together the room had as much to do with editing as it did designing. The small space made us keep it simple, too. The room is not much bigger than a walk-in closet in most homes.

We wanted to keep the the key elements in the room gender-neutral. The grey striped walls and navy blue Flor tiles will remain if our next child is a boy or girl. (Yes, baby number two is on the way!) We added a thin pink stripe around the room using washi tape. The other pink and gold elements will be easy to change out.

I love all the quirky characters and animals in her room. The Hallmark happy cloud pillow is one of my favorites.

I do have a goal of creating something unique for each of our children before they arrive. For Harper’s room I was able to create the animal prints that hang above her crib.

Laura Linebarger is a designer in the Gift Presentation & Stationery department, where she’s able to combine her interests in surface design and the art of sending a thank you note. Laura has been at Hallmark for almost nine years. You can see by the nursery she designed with her husband that she’s not afraid of color or large-scale patterns!

From Laura: We designed Claire’s nursery knowing we would be spending many hours in that little room. The hand-painted pink scallops were inspired by the ice cream cone pillow that was given to us soon after we found out we were expecting a girl. While keeping the large items (crib, rocker, dresser) neutral, we weren’t afraid to toss in obviously girly items. We love that Claire’s room is sweet without being too saccharine, and everywhere we look, we are reminded of the talented people we’re lucky enough to call friends who have given us such meaningful, thoughtful pieces for Claire.

You can find several of the items seen in these rooms on Hallmark.com or in your local Hallmark Gold Crown store. For more nursery and baby ideas, check out the Hallmark.com Ideas section!

Photos by Lindsey Mehlhorn.

— Tobe R.