When Tylene Galinet found out she was having twin boys, she freaked.

“I’m 40 years old,” says Galinet, whose twin sons are about a year old. “The baby thing is totally new to me.”

Once she survived the shock of learning she was having twins, she started thinking about a nursery; Galinet says she wanted a room that would blend with the modern architecture of their home. The room she and her husband, Bruce, chose for the nursery is a two-floor loft that had been a guest room. After looking at magazines, searching the internet and talking to consultants in baby stores, she decided on primary colors and a Noah’s Ark theme. Then she began the several-month process of pulling it all together.

Galinet’s process of creating a nursery for her sons is pretty normal. Rather than designing a nursery that is its own world, many of today’s expecting parents are designing nurseries that go with the design and feel of their house. Using the internet, magazines, catalogs and local stores, neighborhood residents are creating nurseries for their babies — and themselves.

Galinet says she looked in several local stores but couldn’t find a look she liked. She prefers primary colors to pastels. And she wanted a room that would go beyond the baby stage and easily become a toddler room.

“I’m not a frou-frou girl,” Galinet says. “All the stuff I found here was too babyish. It was to frou-frou. It didn’t fit with our lifestyle.”

She found her bedding, which is made by an Australian company, online. She put the cribs upstairs in the loft with a changing table, chair and ottoman. Downstairs, she created a play area.

“When we were looking at couches, we were looking at cozy, expensive couches,” Galinet says. “Then I said, ‘Wait a second, they’re going to be spitting up on these.’”

She bought a couch from Ikea with slipcovers, which have been removed more than once to be washed. Before going to the stores, she looked everything up on the Internet. Galinet says she doesn’t like clutter. She made a spreadsheet of what they needed for the nursery, from furniture to diaper wipes. She included the brand she wanted, the store and the price. She and Bruce bought most of the things in one week.

What ties the nursery together is a Noah’s ark mural that a family member painted as a gift. Life-size animals, walking two-by-two, are painted on the wall walking up the stairs in to an arc in the loft.

“It made the nursery,” Galinet says. “Everyone comes in and says ‘wow’. The boys have loved it from the beginning.”

 

When Amy Lauten started on her nursery, she began with the bedding. She wanted a material that could be used for a girl or a boy, so she picked a neutral color toile with illustrations of animal characters. She had bumper pads made and a chair covered. She picked a coordinating material for a crib skirt. She did look at pre-made bedding sets, but she thought they were too expensive and “too matchy.”

“I always start with the bedding,” Lauten says. “It’s the one thing that draws the room together.”

Then she found out she was having a girl and “decided to pile on the pink,” she says.

She picked a warm pink for Charlotte’s room that works with other color tones in her house. She also wanted a color on the walls that would contrast with the white furniture she was using. She painted the room herself, using a low-fume paint made by Sherwin Williams that is safe for expecting mothers.

She ordered a new crib, but used an antique buffet for her changing table. Supplies fit in the buffets cabinets and pajamas go in the drawers. A changing pad lays on top aside a basket of diapers.

“I actually used to use it as a bar when I was single,” Lauten says.

While she spent money on her crib and bedding, she picked up accent pieces at discount stores, such as a pink chandelier lamp from TJ Maxx and a pink patterned fitted sheet on clearance at Burlington Coat Factory. Prints she purchased on eBay were put in frames she bought on sale at Michael’s.

When shopping for the nursery, she took pictures into stores so that people could help her find what she wanted. For expecting moms, Lauten says pick one thing in the nursery to focus on “and let the rest flow with that.”

“Get ideas first,” she says. “I spent months looking at catalogs and magazines.”

 

Caroline Caolo, who owns Haute Baby with her mother Patty, says more expecting mothers are focusing on colors, rather than themes.

“Five years ago, people were going all out with the cowboy or the fishing theme,” she says. “Now they’re taking a more elegant theme.”

That was certainly the case of a nursery in Preston Hollow that Caolo helped with. She says the mother didn’t want a theme — she wanted classy. They picked out a mahogany crib and silk bedding with blue in it and built the nursery around it.

Caolo says many women are having children later in life. They have spent time and money decorating their homes, and they want their nurseries to match.

Many clients bring in paint chips and pictures of rooms on camera phones, she says. One customer brought in a picture of a living room from a magazine because she wanted the colors in her nursery.

Caolo says it’s easy to understand why some people get so excited about a nursery.

“I think they’re ecstatic to bring a little life into the world,” Caolo says.