White in a kid’s room sounds like a recipe for mystery stains and crayon-covered walls, but it was a color that homeowners Erica Sanders and Charles Dannaker picked for their nursery with zero reservations. “They like cool, crisp colors and streamlined Nordic themes,” says Jennie Gruss, interior designer and owner of her eponymous design firm in the Central District (1419 S Jackson St., Suite 11, 347.446.7540; jenniegruss.com). Gruss had already worked with the couple to glam up their modern, high-ceilinged Greenwood home with a blend of those styles when Sanders and Dannaker found out they were expecting a baby and needed the nursery done as well. “We focused on textures and picking really functional pieces that didn’t overcrowd the space.” They also avoided the baby-room trap of using gender-specific pastel hues.

Gruss, whose design style leans toward minimalist with bits of texture, played up the Nordic theme with a Viking ship mobile above the crib, clean-lined white furniture, a porcelain antler-shaped sconce, a woodland landscape wallpaper (from Mountain Friends, pattern no longer available) and framed art prints and figurines from the couple’s personal collection. A plush ivory rug gives the room a soft, fuzzy feeling.

A colorful rocking chair from Anthropologie adds a punch of personality to the muted nursery 

As for those items that are necessary for a baby’s room but tend to be unsightly—diaper pail, toy bins—Gruss made sure everything was white, including whitewashed, round storage baskets from World Market, which she used to create a vignette next to the changing table that helped disguise the diaper disposal device.

Nordic themes dot the nursery

The room’s one source of vivid color comes from a rocking chair the client discovered at Anthropologie. “It doesn’t really fit the rest of the room,” Gruss says, “but at the same time, it’s a quirky element that makes [the space] not too serious.”

Jennie Gruss of Jennie Gruss Interior Design