Brooklyn-based cook Alison Roman is redefining what it means to be a yummy mummy. Between authoring New York Times bestsellers and filming YouTube’s Home Movies with Alison Roman, she recently gave birth to her first child with husband Max Cantor. High up on the to-do list before her son arrived was creating a classic baby’s room with delicious details in her historic Boerum Hill town home.
The Sweet Enough author collaborated with Babylist, starting the room’s design with essentials like a bouclé glider and walnut wood crib from Babyletto. From there, she introduced a vintage dresser that she already owned, sharing: “I mean, I’ll buy furniture from anywhere if it’s old.” She repurposed it by adding a changing pad and sprinkled decorative items throughout the room that contribute a sense of character and warmth. Perhaps, even, a sense of provenance.
The result is a charming room that is, well, sweet enough while also feeling authentic to the house’s historic bones—as well as to Roman and Cantor’s enviable taste. “It flows with the rest of the house, which has a lot of neutrals and pops of jewel tones and warm earth tones and is very cozy, very homey. We just wanted to make sure that this room felt like an extension of that. Nothing too precious, nothing too breakable,” she says.
The finishing touches will continue to be introduced—for example, burgundy window shades were installed post-photo shoot. The process is organic. Plants will be introduced with the seasons, Roman shares: “We love plants. We have a lot of them. We think it brings a lot to the space to have some greenery and things that are alive.” At the time of our interview, a cactus was residing in one of the room’s corners, but Roman wasn’t sold on it. “We’ve got some other plants we can audition for that space. I don’t want anyone to be worried that we’re going to leave a cactus in the room with a baby.”
Days before Romans’s baby boy made his debut, Architectural Digest chatted with the New York personality—who is famous for recipes like her Caramelized Shallot Pasta—about the darling room she designed with Babylist:
