It's a tough world out there, especially when you're new to it. And every baby needs a soft place to land.

So a baby's room becomes a special space in a home. And for lucky babies, it will have style and substance without being over-the-top/froufrou or simperingly sweet.

The baby's room in Mary Laverty's home in Riverton is even more. It is sacred.

Laverty had wanted a child for as long as she could remember. Even as a little girl - or when she was a teenage babysitter - she loved babies.

When she got older, there were three rounds of in-vitro fertilization, all unsuccessful. There were several near-triumphs with adoption. And there were ongoing prayers that someday, somehow, a baby would come into her life.

And then, in March, one did. Through a network of friends and kind circumstances, good luck and prayer, tiny Chloe Elizabeth was placed in Laverty's arms through the adoption process. At 44, Laverty, single and a district-sales manager for an Internet automobile company, was a mom at last. And that baby, she vowed, would have a room that was worthy of its tiny empress.

"I knew that I wanted Chloe's room to be peaceful and beautiful, but not overdone," Laverty recalls. "I wanted it to feel soft, serene, and delicate. And when I learned in January that the baby was going to be a girl, I started letting myself dream of her room."

Laverty brought that dream to Phoebe Danahy of Moorestown. Danahy previously had decorated other areas of Laverty's circa 1930s brick cottage just a few blocks from her childhood home in Riverton, a Norman Rockwellian town on the banks of the Delaware River dotted with Victorians and Colonials.

"I knew what I wanted, but not how to get it, and how to achieve the balance of feminine, beautiful, and simple," Laverty says. "I also knew that Phoebe would understand. So, I basically gave her carte blanche, although we agreed on the basics."

Stepping into Chloe's room is to experience the feeling of being enveloped in a color that's more easily felt than defined. Imagine hydrangeas in the blue family after they've mellowed and been kissed by pale violet, and you've got the essence of what is called "Morning Chill" on the paint can.

"The days of pink for girls and blue for boys are behind us - and Mary Laverty and I wanted a color that would be close to the blue that had been on the walls already," explains Danahy, who prefers a light decorating touch with subtle, rather than "notice me," features. That minimalism and style set the tone of the room.

A simple white Pottery Barn Kids crib and dressing table are the baby staples, and a glider dressed in a slipcover of off-white cotton pique rests next to an antique table. On it is a white lamp that might be ordinary - except that its shade is artfully trimmed with small colorful buttons.

"Phoebe and I both wanted originality in the room, not a contrived theme," says this new mother. "And we discovered that quilts could really create a mood that isn't forced."

Squares of a beautiful patchwork quilt in delicate pastels, with a few bolder contrasting squares of pink and lavender, sit in antique arched window frames, creating unusual wall hangings.

Even Chloe's baby clothes - tiny pinafores and pantaloons, bonnets and caps - become decorations, hanging from hangers and hooks in an ever-changing baby-couture landscape.

A skirted ottoman is decked out in the same quilting framed on the walls, and it is accented by a wide pink satin bow.

"Little touches can make a simple room come alive," says Danahy, who has decorated rooms in designer show homes, also using fabrics and antiques to make her statements.

Festooning the perimeter of the room, where ceiling meets wall, is another original touch. Swags of wondrous fabrics - calicos and florals and organdies, bordered in ball fringe and cut into pennant shapes - create a sweet accent in the high-ceilinged room.

White sheers float on the windows, and a small rug decorated with playful frogs and simple flowers adds a touch of whimsy. Embroidered pillows, suspended organza butterflies ordered from the Internet's upscale Land of Nod, a handmade rosary, and antique prints, one bearing the prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep," leave little doubt that this is a baby's room - just one without the cliches.

Perhaps the room's sweetest accent is what is stenciled in print on a long wall. As a testament to Laverty's longing for the baby, Danahy chose to bring to life the lyrics made famous by the Carpenters:

On the day that you were born,

The angels got together

And decided to create a dream come true.

"This baby truly is my dream. And somehow," says Laverty, "seeing those words every day reminds me that I am a very, very lucky woman." I

Sally Friedman is a freelance writer based in South Jersey.