The Intersection of Design & Motherhood
The amount of diaper changes a newborn requires is absolutely mind-blowing. I set up this changing station on a dresser in my bedroom. It’s nice to have a pretty little space to enjoy — especially when I end up spending so much time there. The vintage jars make me smile. Where do you change your baby’s diapers?
PS — The gorgeous wooden teether rattle is from Little Alouette.
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My name is Gabrielle Blair. I'm a designer and mother of six. We're currently living in a farmhouse in the French countryside. It is dreamy as can be. I post on where design and motherhood intersect.
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New to Design Mom? Here are 10 posts to get you started:
What to Wear To Middle School
Napoleon Dynamite
Our Birth Announcements
Potato Print Clothing
Having Another Child
Young Einstein Birthday Party
Little Red LightHouse Outing
Porch Makeover
Waving Goodbye To The Atlantic Ocean
Build Two Toddler Beds for $75
Pimp My Ride: Family Edition
We've used our base in France to do lots of traveling. It's addictive! Here are some of our adventures:
A trip to Amsterdam.
Canoeing on the Dordogne River.
A Belgian Waffle Tour.
A wintery visit to Cologne.
Three cheers for Barcelona!
The tulip fields in Holland.
We saw the final match of the French Open.
One of our favorite spots is Mont St. Michel.
I wonder where we'll wander next! To see more of our travels, click here.
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{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
WHERE did you get the apothecary bottle with the glass stopper? I’ve been looking for them everywhere.
Isn’t that a great bottle? I found it at a local antique shop called Patina. Do you have a good antique shop in your area? Let the owner know what you’re looking for and they’ll pick one up for you on their next buying trip.
Love your set up!
I forget how many diapers you go through wit a newborn.
Pretty! We use cloth diapers so we usually used a changing station right near the laundry closet. That way we could just drop the wet ones in the machine. Our changing station never looked so nice but baby’s bum was always super cute so that made up for it. :)
I am giggling at your huge stash of pacifiers! We used that kind with my last baby, but he never cared for them much. He was always too busy nursing to need a pacifier. How convenient that they match the q-tips!!
We started with 5 pacifiers and are already down to 2. I can not figure out where the disappear to. : )
So pretty!! My son is at the age where those vintage chairs wouldn’t stand a chance! I usually change his diaper on the carpet in the family room…it’s only gotten messy once!! Ha ha
So true! Once June is a bit more mobile, the jars will have to be moved out of reach. I’m thinking that once the frequency of diaper changes goes down, we’ll rethink the current set up. The family room sounds good…
Awww so adorable.
You even make diaper changing seem glamorous. Grrr.
I have a question – unrelated to this post – that I was hoping either you or one of your readers might be able to give me some suggestions on! I am expecting a baby in August and am looking for a cute and maybe unique/artsy/fun baby book for him.
Any suggestions?
There are several adorable ones out there. I’ll email you with some ideas.
I have a changing table on the packnplay bassinet that I use right now. otherwise i have a changing area set up on an old dresser too. I love it!
Oh good! You’re well stocked on Soothies!!! :o) My little Caleb loves those! We found a great old dresser (really old, like over 100 years) at a flea market, that still had the old paint on it and it matched our Dumbo themed room perfectly. Only $40 and it had so much more character than what you find in the stores today! My best friend painted a huge Dumbo mural over the changing table and Caleb just smiles and sings to Dumbo the entire time! We love changing time! :o)
I’m laughing that you used mind-”blowing” in this post and no one seemed the wiser. I’d say it was “freudian” when talking about baby diaper changes!
Very sweet and pretty. We mostly used either the living room floor or the foot of our bed, depending on what time of day or night it was, and kept a little stash of supplies in each place. I had a hard labor/delivery and took awhile to heal, so I wasn’t up to traipsing upstairs with the baby to the changing station in her nursery every time she needed a change.
Great idea, really pretty too :). Ah newborns :)
Our nursery is a pretty tiny bedroom in a condo. It was previously my art studio. I had a desk in the closet using solid Elfa shelving. I put a changing pad on the shelf. It has been great. Now that she is one, I can close the closet doors and let her play without fear of her going through the trash and her dirty diapers.
Oh that is pretty. The glass jars are gorgeous. But…glass?!?! Brave!
Now we just have a changing pad on top of of Delilah’s dresser in her room. But back when she was an infant, I had a changing table on each floor of the house, and one on top of the dresser of our master bedroom for those long nights. My dresser top wasn’t as pretty as yours – I used baskets to store the supplies. Good thing because I am klutzy and they hit the floor!
We’re fans of the Soothie paci’s too – I just hated that I couldn’t find any clips to go with them – as we ALWAYS seemed to be losing them (esp. in the middle of the night). Ironically now that we are no longer in the paci stage – I’ve discovered all sorts of Soothie accessories – have you seen the wubbanub’s (http://www.wubbanub.com/) yet? Tons of soothie specific paci clips on etsy as well:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/WhimsicalDragonfly?section_id=5162136
http://www.etsy.com/shop/eraysema?section_id=6593811
http://www.etsy.com/shop/DBoutique?section_id=6031282
http://www.4hisglorydesigns.com/pacifierclips.htm
Love your set up!
Lovely- and I see you have a cute little bowl of pacis. We used to keep little baskets in each room, full of pacifiers. All identical!
yes glass set up is daring, for a baby that will flail and kick
I’m must be in the dark here, but what do you use cotton balls, q-tips and whatever that liquid in the jar is for baby changing? {I’m thinking the umbilical cord maybe?}
But the setup in general looks stunning! Oh and to the first person who asked you can find plenty of apothecary jars on etsy…I just looked. :)
Gabrielle,
Your diaper changing station is beautiful! The first changing station we had for Penelope was our utility closet in our kitchen. We lived in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment in the San Francisco area at the time. It was pretty slick. Too bad I didn’t take a picture of it before we moved. Now we use a victorian-style desk from my mom’s childhood. I love it!
Hi there! I am expecting my first child in August – and I too am so curious about the contents of the glass jars. Probably a funny question for experienced moms, but I can’t figure out what Q-tips, cotton balls, and the liquid are used for! Regardless, the little changing station is a-dorable.
Hi Barb! Great question. The q-tips, cotton balls and liquid (some pediatricians recommend water, others recommend rubbing alcohol) are for cleaning the umbilical cord stump — which will fall off after a week or two. After that, these pretty little bottles will move to the bathroom counter.
wow, how organised! i love the pop of colour!
Me too! I was so pleased to happen upon colorful q-tips at Target. They had yellow and bright pink as well.
I love those green pacifiers……with the smile in them….like little works of modern art! They make me happy!
Oh the days when you could lay them down and they would just stay there… I had to remove everything from next to the change table bcs my daughter would grab everything and stick it in her mouth. Or climb up and pull every.single.wipe out of the box.
Oh I must say that I shed a tear looking at this photo. Your changing table is set up almost identical to mine….11 months ago.. when I brought home baby #4. I’m thinking #5 would be just fabulous! Are you using cloth? We love our Bum Genius..they are too cute on those baby bums!
Sorry if this is redundant…but just noticed your “Welcome” paragraph needs to be updated to “mother of six”! Congratulations on your beautiful bundle :)
Beautiful.
Congratulations on sweet baby June. I’m so happy for you and your family.
This set up fits right in with the idea of creating “nursing oasis” that you wrote about (in Parents magazine?). I have thought about that a lot and although I nurse all around the house I like to apply the nursing oasis concept with a book/magazine, a snack, and some water. Here you have a “changing oasis”. What a beautiful place for you and June to bond. I think we should create such spaces for the tasks we return to again, and again. I’m going to work on creating a “laundry oasis”. In my imagination it is wonderful.
i’ve changed every baby on the floor – one can not fall off the floor! little June is so lovely – congratulations to you all.
I, too, am a floor changer – have a little pad on each floor (we have a tall 3 story house) – a little Pottery Barn Kids basket with gingham liner that holds all my diapers, ointment, etc. – carry it with me. We are also “soothie” pacifier fans here. When my babies did take a “paci” – they ONLY liked that one.
Ahhhhh, that looks like a calm place…and changing stations are rarely places of calm you know :)
I like your setup. My grandpa made my daughter a changing table and shipped it all the way from IL to UT. The heavy thing traveled a far way. You can see picture of it in this post I wrote a while back … http://theartistshouse.blogspot.com/2010/03/things-that-cause-spousal-arguments.html People always comment on it. It’s funny considering it’s function is to change poopy diapers. I love when beauty and functionality are combined :)
Sweet set up! I change the Baby Space toddler on a white painted timber change table with a plastic-covered foam change mat. Bit boring actually – your set up is much more stylish. Although I think if I had it I would worry that one day bub would flail out and tip over the glass bottles…but perhaps I’m just a worry wart.
ETA – just read the bottles will be moved :)
You have awesome readers Gab. Not one OMG IT’S GLASS! GLASS NEAR THE BABY!
Or maybe they’re just not first-time moms. Heh.