Houston designer creates sophisticated nursery for her twins

Chandos Dodson Epley's twins aren't going to grow up with just any pastel wallpaper or Disney bedding.

In early November, the Houston interior designer and her husband Ike welcomed their babies - Ila and John Isaac Jr. - with a nursery she spent four months assembling. The babies, now nearly 11 weeks old, share the snug second-floor space in the Epleys' Tanglewood home. It's a soft, sumptuous room with a sense of sophistication, full of furniture and accessories that will be useful even when the twins get older.

Epley, who started planning the nursery in July, had a couple of challenges.

"The room itself is very small," she says. "It would have been plenty of room for one crib, but it's challenging for two."

Furthermore, Epley and her husband are building a house in Royden Oaks and plan to move about a year from now, so she didn't want to redesign the former guest room from scratch.

"I didn't want to redo knowing I'd be moving soon," she says. "The room was lavender and the window treatments were in place. I really wanted something that was going to work with those elements." Besides, the twins are a boy and a girl, and "lavender is gender-neutral."

Epley found cribs with lavender upholstery at Restoration Hardware; she had a changing table custom-made with a dozen drawers. A slipcovered glider and ottoman provide a place for feeding and rocking, and an tagre bookcase keeps books and toys tucked away.

Epley replaced the seagrass flooring with carpet and put down a "soft and dreamy" sheepskin so the twins can spend time on a soft floor.

"Even though this is a nursery, it doesn't have an overly juvenile feel to it," Epley says. "All of these pieces could go into any type of room."

The babies won't stay babies for long, and it's important to keep that in mind, Epley says: "Spend wisely and put your money into things like the art, the chest of drawers, the bookcase, the things that can move into another setting."

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Houston designer creates sophisticated nursery for her twins