Behind the Designs of Bratt Decor By Lauren Halperin
Bratt Decor was born out of a love for design, excitement about the founders' first baby and a synergy of mind and spirit between husband and wife Stephen and Mary Bauer. Mary had always combined her love of art and design with her marketing background. Stephen was a commercial illustrator with his own successful business after training in South Africa. In 1995, the couple were expecting their first child and "were delirious with the anticipation and excitement that your first child brings." As Mary began to decorate the nursery, she focused on finding the perfect crib -- the centerpiece of the nursery. However, Mary could not find anything that satisfied her vision for baby Bauer. “In 1994 the landscape was all very different,” Mary reflected. “We saw lots of cherry and white melamine, in the most boring of designs. We spent a few days shopping around New York City and found nothing exciting happening in the realm of nursery design. None of it was working for us.”
Stephen took it upon himself to create the perfect crib. While not trained in design, Mary had nothing but faith in her husband. “Design runs through his blood,” Mary beamed. “Art is who he is and his brain can figure out how to put anything together.” After designing her wedding ring, wedding dress, their country house and a green heating system, figuring out the components of a crib seemed easy. After an outside consult regarding safety regulations, Stephen had created the perfect crib they named the Casablanca Plume, a fourposter, black wrought iron crib topped with a spray of ostrich feathers. “I’ve always loved hand bent French wrought iron as a medium, so that’s what we chose, and of course, we had to throw some wilds of Africa in there,” Mary said of her baby’s nursery. “Stephen’s dad drove all around the Karoo, in the Southern Cape of South Africa, visiting ostrich farms for us for feathers. Stephen designed and sewed the bedding, which featured a wave style
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