Design Star Jennifer Bertrand Channels Her Creativity into Nursery
Jennifer Bertrand has an eye for decorating rooms. As the design consultant who won HGTV’s reality contest “Design Star” last year, she won the right to have her own show on the network. But Bertrand is the star of a different reality now: motherhood.
Her son Winston Spencer Bertrand was born on February 20 to her and her husband Chris. Given their hectic schedules of filming shows for HGTV as well as running Bertrand Designs, they were happy to finish their modern nursery before their son’s arrival. “It’s a room that’s all about creativity,” Bertrand says. “We wanted to make it personal and happy, but we didn’t want it to scream nursery. We wanted it to reflect our modern tastes.”
The nursery is what you would from the winner of a national design competition, imaginative, creative, in a word, special. The room contains a soothing palette of cream-colored walls with olive-green stripes. Bright splashes of grass green and red artwork pop in the room. The modern crib and changing table were gifts from family members. The couple designed the room on a tight budget with furnishings including a DwellStudio zebra area rug and drapery hardware from Wal-Mart, proving that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to make a big impact. “This economy is tough, and even though Jennifer won a reality show, our business hasn’t been immune,” Chris says. “People are doing smaller projects like painting rooms.”
The first detail you notice in the nursery is the giant Union Jack front and center. The British flag is an ode to England, where Chris was born and raised before moving to the Midwest. But in this room, grass green substitutes for the flag’s traditional blue. Bertrand, a former art teacher in the Blue Valley School District, painted the flag and stripes. Using the same green paint, she painted wooden frames containing childhood photos of her and Chris.
Jennifer is passionate about using original art in Winston’s room. Besides her own paintwork, art pieces are by friends who are local Kansas City-area artists. A plush deer wall hanging, an owl pillow and a bullfrog are by Alisa Ross. Ross’ husband, Scribe, painted a graffiti-style rhino that hangs in the closet. Jodie Stallard hand-painted a red child’s chair. Peterjun Custodio, who is deaf and mute, sewed the custom slipcover for the glider and a crib blanket.
Bertrand also has art hanging in the nursery from artist Jenean Morrison of Tennessee, whom she’d never met, who sent her a congratulatory e-mail after Bertrand won the show. They chatted about art, Bertrand checked out Morrison’s Web site and liked what she saw. Morrison sent her a painting with colorful dots as a gift, which served as the inspiration for the nursery. “The painting is very special because it represents such a huge moment in our lives of winning the show,” Bertrand says. “We wanted to share that with Winston.”
With her perky personality, Bertrand would like to be “the Rachael Ray of design,” making decorating approachable for the masses. Bertrand wants to start taping her show in the Fall. Since winning, Bertrand has appeared on two one-hour HGTV specials, “Paint-Over With Jennifer Bertrand,” in which she demonstrated how painting techniques can transform rooms, kitchen cabinets and furniture, and “HGTV Showdown,” which pitted her against Myles in a four-hour design of a children’s playroom. “At least Winston will get to see himself on TV,” says Bertrand, laughing. She was visibly pregnant during the episode.
Nursery photos by Tammy Ljungblad