Naomi Coe is the founder of Little Crown Interiors and author of the nursery design book, Your Perfect Nursery. She founded Little Crown Interiors in 2008, focusing her design studio on nurseries and children’s spaces. Bringing together beauty, functionality, and safety, Naomi believes in creating spaces for her clients that are unique, intentional, and curated. Today on the Kids Sleep Show podcast, we are diving into the best nursery designs, how to help your baby or toddler sleep through the night in a clean and safe environment & what products she loves to work with!
Little Crown Interiors offers full nursery and kids’ interior design services for clients in Southern California, and Virtual Design services for anyone in the U.S. or Canada. Over the last 17+ years, LCI’s work has been featured widely in print, web, and on television, including Domino, People Magazine, California Home & Design Magazine, and many more.
Episode Highlights:
- What nursery furniture do you recommend?
- Nursery layout for a small room?
- Newborn baby room decorating ideas
Sleep Struggles Solved + Results Guaranteed
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Welcome to the Kid Sleep Show podcast, where we dive into the magical world of sleep and all things parenting. Join us as we embark on a journey filled with expert advice, practical tips, and heartwarming stories that will transform your little ones into sleep superheroes and empower you to navigate the beautiful chaos of parenting. I’m your host, Courtney Zents, and I’m on a mission to change how the world views sleep and provide accessible sleep coaching resources for all families to build healthy sleep habits in their home for children and adults of all ages.
As an award-winning speaker, author, and pediatric sleep expert, myself and my team of consultants work intimately with families around the world to teach healthy sleep habits to children and adults. I believe wholeheartedly that sleep is the foundation for which a happy home is built. So let’s sleep together.
Hi, Naomi. How are you? Hi, I’m good. How are you doing? Doing great.
Just going to throw my phone on set. There we go. Cute glasses.
Thank you. I found this website called Zenny, and they make the best glasses. You upload your prescription, but they have like really, I got pink frames and blue and red, and I don’t have a strong prescription, so I don’t need like bifocals or trifocals or anything.
They’re like 30 bucks, and they ship with like the lenses and everything, and they ship them like they take your medical insurance, so it’s like, you know, we add in all the blue light blocker and stuff, and it’s great. They ship them right to your door, but the founder of Slumberpod actually has these, and I was like, where did you get those? And she’s like, Zenny, so then I went on and ordered six different kinds. So my prescription is too high.
I can’t wear most frames. Oh my gosh. I am blessed that I have a bit of astigmatism where like one eye is worse than the other, but being on the computer all day, I get migraines, or if I drive at night, I can’t see well.
Otherwise, like I can function totally fine without the glasses, but I’m learning as I age that like, like why are my text messages blurry, you know? And then, you know, I make fun of my husband because he has like his little readers on in bed as he’s like reading a book, and I’m like, oh my gosh, I’m at the reader stage now, you know, where if I don’t have them on, the readers help, or I need my prescription on, and I’m like, oh man, like I guess I’m there. Yeah. Hair thinning, eyes failing me.
All the things. All the things. Yeah.
How are things out west right now? Doing okay? Yeah, I think so. It’s been a very busy morning, so I haven’t even, I don’t even know what’s going on outside. I know, that’s awesome.
My first day back after being out for like two weeks, daughter and travel and holiday and stuff. I’m like, okay, what are we doing today? You know, so yeah, it’s good. It’s like, but I’m a structured person, so I like prefer to be working in my office every day and like know what the day is going to bring.
Summer is always hard for me because I love it, but I also secretly hate it at the same time. Yeah, that makes sense. I’m trying to balance it all, but that’s okay.
I’m gonna make sure we’ve got the recording on. So typically, I’ll edit obviously all this out, but when I do the podcasts, as we talked about briefly, like I like them to be conversational, like an aspect of who you are and what you do, but then talking about like the way in which you work with families. And I know you have like the mini consults and then the full service, like in homes.
Then you have like a little bit of stuff in between where it’s like the virtual consult with some of the renderings and stuff. I mean, I like to kind of kick it off with like why you got into the space and how, and just like helping people to understand a little bit more about your journey. Most of our listeners have young kids or are expecting or maybe expecting a second or third, you know, little one.
So I think like education is helpful. I like to keep it sort of flowing back and forth. I don’t like to really stage it too much because I feel like then people sort of tune out.
Yeah, that’s fine. You know, let the conversation flow. Usually the podcast episodes are between 20 and 30 minutes.
So I think for you specifically one scheduling, do you have anything coming up from a like launch or release or adjustment standpoint, as far as like when we’re scheduling right now, we’re scheduling into August and September. That would make sense. Like I know you have the baby safety checklist on the website, you know, you’ve obviously got baby safety month in September.
So I was like, maybe that’s like a good time to launch it. Yeah. I only have, I’ve got one big event.
I think it’s going to be in October, but I’m not, I can’t quite talk about it yet. Because I don’t really, we haven’t figured out all the details. And I have, let’s see, I mean, a lot of local stuff.
So I don’t know if that’s relevant. Yeah, no, I mean, anything that just, I think that actually I always forget my, the book is always good to mention. Okay.
Your perfect nursery, right? Yeah. Did I send you one? I should send you one. Okay.
Okay. Let me know where it’s like UGC with it and stuff too. Let me know if you, or just send me your address that you’d like and I can, I’ll send you one.
Oh, perfect. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. What I’ll do is slate it for September 3rd. Okay.
That way it’s baby safety month. So we usually do a lot around like safe sleep and the right environment. And obviously that starts at the nursery, but I think that’ll coincide well.
And then I just recorded a different one for the 17th for baby safety month as well. So that’ll be good. Okay.
And I can, I can I made a note of that so I can also help too. I could put it in my email newsletter and Instagram and all that. Perfect.
And it will go out. I have about 8,000 in my list for just our newsletter and then social media and such the likes across the different handles. So that’ll be good.
Awesome. And then as far as pronouncing your last name, it’s Coe, correct? Yes. So I know it comes up as two different names online sometimes because one’s my legal name and I went back to my maiden name for work.
Okay. So my work name is Coe. Okay.
My legal name is Elan. Okay. I just want to make sure, you know, didn’t want to introduce the wrong way, but we’re good.
All right. Well, this is exciting. We’re already recording.
Like I said, I’ll kick this off. And then I do typically do just the audio. That’s fine.
Unless it’s helpful or you want both because it’s just another way to get, you know, listens to it. You know what I mean? So if the, if the video is okay and you’re okay with video, like I sometimes, you know, sometimes I chop it up for like preview or teaser content or put it out on YouTube, things like that. Okay.
Awesome. All right. All right.
I’ll pause for a second and just kick it off. And then I edit all the other stuff when we’re not here. So Hey everyone, welcome to this week’s episode of the kid’s sleep show podcast.
I’m joined this week by the founder and CEO of little crown interiors, miss Natalie Erickson. I get Natalie a lot. No worry.
All right. Put my pen down. Hey everyone.
Welcome to this week’s episode of the kid’s sleep show podcast. I’m joined by the founder and CEO of little crown interiors, Naomi Koh. Thank you for joining us all the way on the opposite side of the beautiful States.
How are you today? I’m good. Thanks for having me. I am so excited to talk about nurseries and design.
And this is like all my jam. I feel like the first thing I did when I found out I was pregnant was like started my Pinterest board with like all the aesthetic things, but I am definitely not a designer. So I’m excited to have you on the show today to talk all about how you design your perfect nursery.
So take a minute and just introduce yourself to our audience and tell them a little bit about what led you to start little crown interiors. Yeah, it’s a kind of an accident. It’s kind of an accidental story.
So I graduated design school in 2007, which was right in the middle of the recession. And so none of the design firms were hiring. And I found this job at a little studio that was doing nursery and kids, which at the time didn’t exist at all.
You know, there was a couple of baby catalogs and that’s it. So I kind of got my foot in the door there. And I was like, this is fun.
And it, it helps the clients on a totally different level than just aesthetically. And I love that. And they shut their doors very quickly, unfortunately.
But I had a client list and I had photography and the owner was happy to share that with me. And so I started little crown with a partner in 2008. And now here we are in 2025, still going strong.
That’s amazing. And I will say, I think that the aesthetic of a nursery, right, you know, is so important for, I think, demeanor, sense of calm, but also safety, you know, and the way in which you design it around the space that you have can be so unique to each family, you know, it’s, I think, obviously, a calm, cool, serene space is helpful for, for sleep for all of us, you know, but talk about just the evolution since you’ve started, right? You have a lot of families come to you. I know you’re out in Orange County.
So there’s a lot of folks out, out there that want that premium, you know, sort of design for their, for their nurseries. But then you also have someone like myself who was having a child for the first time going, I don’t know, the first thing about a nursery or the aesthetic or the design or the safety of it and what makes it a perfect nursery. So take a few minutes to just talk about like the evolution, you came from the design firm, and you said, Okay, we’re going to do this, we’re going to start with maybe this type of client or this type of service.
I mean, you offer virtual consults. So what’s cool is anybody listening can have a consultation with you, which I love. Yeah, so it definitely started with, you know, local clients here in Southern California throughout Orange County, Los Angeles.
And you know, they have some bigger budgets sometimes, and we were doing various types of styles, a lot of more traditional styles in the beginning, and quickly realized that, you know, there are people all over the country who could use a service like this at a smaller scale. So we launched virtual at least 10 years ago, we’ve been doing it a long time. And of course, then with COVID, it just took off.
And it’s now a pretty big piece of the company. And I like virtuals, because I can reach a lot more people. And they’re quicker, you know, we don’t have to do contracting in the home, you know, they’re kind of a smaller project, which lets us charge less as well.
And then we did the mini consultation, which you mentioned, which is for people who even just want something smaller than that, which is just, you know, can I pick your brain for an hour and ask a bunch of questions, and you know, we give them some resources and bonuses and stuff. And so there’s kind of a huge breadth now of service options and clients that we deal with. So I’ve had anywhere from, you know, like a $1,000 budget to I think our highest was almost 80,000.
I would like to be on that end of the budget. With our first in our tiny little level, I was like, let’s get blackout blinds and a good quality two stage mattress, you know, so yeah, a little bit about like how you get started, right? Like, what is probably the number one thing that parents would want to pay attention to if they’re listening to this, and maybe they’re just found out they’re expecting their first or their next little one. What’s the first thing as in your profession that you know, you would look at and go, hey, this is the most kind of important component of what we do? Yeah, so definitely safety and functionality are going to be very important.
The aesthetic to me is kind of the third piece, because without the other two, it can’t exist. And that functionality is going to differ, of course, depending on the shape of the room, the size there, what their plan is, those first few months. If they have other children, you know, there’s so many things that go into it.
And we do a lot of work with the client to really understand their lifestyle and what they want and what they need. And then of course, the safety component goes hand in hand with that. And so you know, where we’re placing the crib and what types of decor we’re using and window treatments.
Aesthetically, though, is where people get tripped up. So they get overwhelmed, they don’t know what direction to go, they don’t know how to achieve the look they see on Instagram. And that’s where there’s kind of a lot of direction on my part to help kind of pull out what it is they’re reacting to in a photo and help them kind of translate that into their own space.
Which I think is cool, because it is, again, for somebody who’s not a design person, but I sort of know the look I’m going for safety utmost, especially in the space of sleep, which is where I’m, you know, you see these pictures and you see that insta-perfect look. And I’m like, yeah, that’s not safe. That’s a really heavy letter to be hanging directly above the crib, you know, like there’s stuff I look at and like that, that is a, you know, that is something I would probably not do, I would say in my own space, you know.
But I think to your point, safety, like I didn’t understand safety of a nursery, right? Cords hanging, furniture mounted to the walls. So like, help explain why some of that stuff, I think for, without stating the obvious, is important and things that you look at when you’re, you know, conducting the design, right? Like what makes a nursery safe? Yeah, so really, minimalism. As much, you know, or as few products and things and cords and stuff in the nursery is going to be the best way to go.
And one of the things that I have, I do a lot with clients is educate them on not only the safe practices, but how to get around them or be aware of them when they choose to ignore me. Because this happens a lot, you know, they’ll see a picture, they think it’s beautiful, and they want it, and I tell them it’s not safe, and they say, I don’t care. Or they just do it themselves, you know, there’s things that happen like that.
And so I’m like, okay, if you’re going to do it, I can’t stop you. But here are the risks you need to know about. And you know, if your child reaches a certain age, you know, for example, we do a lot of floor lamps.
People like to have a floor lamp next to their glider for reading and rocking and whatever. And I always have to tell them like, that’s fine. It looks great.
It’s going to function for you when you’re in there in the middle of the night. But once that baby can start to pull up on things, you’re going to have to pay attention to that floor lamp. Because if they get a hand on it, they can pull it down, you know, things like that.
So it’s not just how the nursery looks immediately. It’s how it functions as the child grows. It’s how it functions in that home.
New things are going to be moving in and out of that space all the time. And they need to be understood individually and in motion with the child’s growth. And you know, it’s a process.
So I try to educate as much as possible. Now, how many I would say of your clients do you think are like, first time versus next time? Right? Yeah, you know, I would say most of my clients that come to me for the first time are first time expecting parents. But then most of my clients who are coming from the second time, they’re kind of a blend between having another baby and then transitioning the room.
So we because we do a lot of like, toddler rooms and big kid rooms and moving through the space with that child. So there’s a lot of those as well. But I would say predominantly, it’s first time expecting parents.
Okay, well, that’s good. Like what design elements do you think are the most supportive for healthy sleep since this is generally asleep? That would be a good question. So of course, we talk a lot about the crib and the placement of the crib and what should not go in the crib.
So there’s a lot of conversation about that. And because it’s generally the anchor visually of the room as well. You know, it’s a big part of that conversation.
And as you know, you know, there’s, there’s other things to consider outside of the nursery, like, are they doing a bassinet in the bedroom? Is there going to be another setup in the living room? Like a pack and play? What what’s the situation when they get home from the hospital? Can they climb the stairs? And, you know, working with them to really understand the overall sleep environment, not just the nursery sleep environment. But yeah, safety wise, a lot of stuff with the cribs, you know, of course, we don’t want to put any bumpers, we don’t want to put any pillows or blankets, keeping it away from the windows, keeping it away from other things they can grab through the rails and you know, get a cord or something like that. So there’s a lot there, as you know, but I don’t really get in too much to the actual sleeping.
So that’s when I would bring in someone like you. If a client’s asking, you know, how often do they need to nap? Um, that’s, that’s something I would bring in an actual sleep expert for. Yeah, no, absolutely.
So I guess, when you’re designing the products, what would you say is a product that is you something you recommend, obviously a crib in some capacity or bassinet, but like, what is one product that you almost always recommend in your designs outside of the obvious of like a crib or bassinet? I would say non-toxic mattresses, mattresses. Yeah. And I can as well, because I do a lot of work with naturopedic and yeah, Green Guard, you know, and I think it’s so important for people to understand the toxicity in these products, you know, so talk a little bit about that.
Yeah, so a lot of clients are, you know, pretty aware now and they’ll ask, you know, hey, I want to keep things on the organic side of possible, but they don’t really know what that means. And they don’t know which products it’s going to be the most important for. So I always say that the mattress is going to be the most important product because the baby’s face is going to be right up against it for hours and hours a day.
Um, and including the crib sheets as well. So having that, you know, a mattress that’s not emitting VOCs all the time, especially because it’s generally going to be a brand new product, um, that comes out of packaging, you know? So yeah, those non-toxic mattresses are great, you know, naturopedic, avocado, anything that’s got the Green Guard. And, um, and then the other thing I like to recommend is rugs.
So also kind of a non-toxic rug, if possible, if they can’t do that, because that’s kind of hard to find, um, getting one of the, like the little mats that go on top. So for tummy time and other things where they’re going to be face down or close to the floor, they have, you know, something that is non-toxic there that they could throw in the washing machine, um, to make things easier there too. That’s so smart.
I never, ever would have thought of rugs. And I, it’s so, now that you say that, I’m like, oh my gosh, you’re right. Like baby’s laying on it, crawling on it.
We’re standing on it and our feet, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, they touch it and then their hands go in their mouth. There’s a lot that goes, now that you say that, I’m like, there’s a lot that goes on down there, you know? Yeah. Unfortunately though, non-toxic rugs is a whole thing and it is not straightforward at all.
Like much, but especially in that space, I feel like with the toxicity, and I think what people don’t understand is like, what are the toxic chemicals? VOCs, formaldehyde, heat sequence and glues, like adhesive. Yeah. Any of that kind of stuff like omits, just so people listening kind of understand what we’re talking about.
Like it omits these like off gases into the air that your baby is breathing in, that you, depending on what mattress you have, are breathing in for as long as you have that mattress. And with babies, that’s several years, you know, because if you’re getting a two-stage mattress, you flip it and they have it through toddlerhood, you know? And I think to your point, like toxicity, people don’t look at it like that, you know? So I know I was naive in the mattress space when I was first pregnant and we just kind of went to baby’s a rust when it was still around. And I was like, this one’s good.
It’s like 200 bucks and it’s two-stage. And like, I had, like, that didn’t even cross my mind. Whereas now I’m like, oh my gosh, you know, I have that EWG app on my phone and I go to the store and I’m like a 10 out of 10, no.
And I like put it back on the shelf because I think people are more aware of it. But like with mattresses particularly, if they’re not, you know, EWG verified or GreenGuard certified, like some of these certifications that help to get rid of the toxic stuff, I always tell parents to understand like mold is a big one, right? People understand black mold. And sometimes with mattresses, it’s like, well, okay, you could hose down that mattress right in the shower if it has a soil.
But if the mattress itself is breathable, then that means that stuff can get in it. Poop can get in it. Water can get in it.
Black mold can develop in like less than a week. I think it starts to form inside of these mattresses. And you have no idea because you can’t see inside.
And then babies are laying on it for weeks, months, years with that growing on the inside. So that’s why like I, you know, I do a lot of work with Naturepedic. So I know a lot more about their product than some of the other ones.
So it’s not that the other ones are any less. It’s just, I happen to know a lot about like, one of the reasons I love those is it’s heat sealed and the whole outside of the mattress is waterproof. And then they have the breathable waterproof covers, you know, so- The cover.
I always tell people to get the cover. Yeah. So I get it.
So important to, just for people to understand, you know, as they’re kind of listening for the first time and trying to figure out like, oh my gosh, you know, with this, what are we, what are we looking for? I would say, you know, as far as within the space, like, are there things you see that people do or common mistakes maybe with their first child that when they come to you, you’re like, eh, when they’re designing the nursery or the sleep space, you know, what are some of those common mistakes that you see parents making? Yeah. So I usually end up working with them before they’ve done much of anything. But I would say placement of the crib is, is a tricky one to understand.
And I see people making that mistake of putting it in the wrong place, either safety wise or function wise. Because I think a lot of people think that, oh, I don’t live in an earthquake zone. So it doesn’t matter if it’s under a window or if it’s even, you know, kind of near the window or, you know, things like that.
And I always explain, you know, well, there’s other risks that windows pose, even if you’re not in California. You know, sunlight beams coming through or drafts or, you know, you never know if a neighbor hits a baseball through that window or things like that. So having that crib be placed correctly, even if it throws off the aesthetic of the room, I think is really important.
Yeah, no, that’s true. I mean, I, you know, you don’t think about that kind of stuff, but I know I’ve seen the news, I’ve seen the recalls, I’ve seen the alerts, you know, and sometimes something as simple as the cords from a shade, like, oh, yeah, people don’t think about that. And they’re a strangulation risk when a baby can stand up or start to climb out of the crib, to your point, or glass breaking or, you know, even noise.
Like, we get a lot of questions here at Tiny Transitions about the right sleep machine or the best sound machine for managing the nursery and is it too loud and how many decibels and where is it located and what’s the best placement, you know? And I think acoustics of a room are important to understand. I think sometimes people can overanalyze, you know, certain things, but, you know, it is, when you start to think about the aesthetic design, like there is a purpose for placement of all the things, right? Especially even like exterior lights or those standing lights and then what type of light bulbs, right? What type of light is it? You know? So talk a little bit about lighting, right? You probably get people asking for specific, I feel like sometimes in like a bougie, you know, my daughter’s bougie bedroom, she’d want like a chandelier with like 100 lights. I have in here, if you see up top, I use nine light bulbs on that.
It’s not because the lights actually are right and I’m doing just a podcast here, but like sometimes when I’m filming, like I need a lot of light, but it can be impactful to go into sleep, you know? So talk about like, what should parents pay attention to with that? So I definitely recommend flexible lighting if possible. And this goes hand in hand with window treatments because, you know, I’m sure your clients know or you tell them about blackout window treatments and how helpful that can be. But having the option for flexibility is always so good.
And sometimes when you’re dealing with blackouts, they can be kind of a hassle, especially if you’re like clipping them closed and, you know, to get a perfect seal and whatnot. So constantly opening and shutting those can be a bit of a pain. So if there’s an option to make them more flexible or like, I like to do double layer.
So if there’s any way to do a sheer treatment and a blackout treatment, so you have both. So you can let the room kind of air out during the day when they’re not napping. And same with lighting.
So flexible lighting, if you can get your light fixture on a dimmer, that can be really helpful. So you can adjust that lighting as you need it. So if, you know, if you need to go in there at 2 a.m. and you flip the switch, it’s not, you know, stadium lighting.
Yeah. Like national lampoons. I always think of like, yeah, you don’t want the deer in headlights lighting.
So if they can’t do a dimmer, you know, having a small table lamp that they can turn on or something near the door, because if you’re walking through the room in the dark, you don’t want to risk kind of, you know, falling down or tripping on something. So if possible, having something close to the door is good. Of course, with proper cable management.
Yeah. Even if it’s just a little nightlight or something. Well, and sometimes I’ll tell parents, I’m like, put the nightlight in the hallway.
Like if you’re that way, static or you don’t have a light or there’s, you know, sometimes houses are different where the, where the, the outlets are, you know, so it sort of connects with things a bit. I’m like, put one in the hallway. So that way, when you open the door, there’s enough light that you can get in and get the baby, but you’re not like flipping all the lights on and making it, you know, this massive bright fest.
Prince Lionheart actually has a product called an Illuma pad. That is a baby changing pad that has a light on it that is meant to be designed for just that so that you’re kind of illuminating enough to change the diaper, but not so much that there’s this exterior light, because it is stimulating to get a baby then back down to sleep. Exactly.
Ideally, you want to kind of get in there, do your business. If you’re feeding them, changing them, cleaning them up, and then, you know, get them back down into the crib or the bassinet, depending on where they are in the space for sure. So tell us a little bit about virtual consults, right? I know that’s a predominantly now, a lot of the way when you’re reaching people, our listeners are all over the place.
So if somebody wanted to work with you, what does a typical virtual consultation look like just so they can understand more about the services that you provide? Yeah. So we’re so lucky now that we have this technology to do this. And basically, so we start with a Zoom call because I personally believe that seeing someone face-to-face is impactful, especially when we’re talking about, you know, babies and life transitions.
And I like to, you know, be a person they can see. So we start with that and we really try to get into what they need, what they want. They’ll show me, you know, they’ll move their camera around their room.
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