Hey Diddle Dumpty

This baby nursery combines two favorite rhymes into one design. Humpty Dumpty and the King's Horsemen are on the daylight side of the room while the cat with his fiddle and cow jumping over the moon dominate the evening side. The fairy tale mural was painted over chair rail so it didn't over power the room and the characters were spread out over roaming hills so that there was a cohesiveness to the painting's story. The moon is a light mounted to the wall. And, a clock hangs in one corner. Above the window shelf, the sky turns from light to night for a very easy transition. The parents loved their nursery so much that when they moved a few years later, they had it reproduced so that each of their newborns could enjoy it as they became part of the family.

ANIMALS ON PARADE

Simple silhouettes on the bedding call for simple silhouettes on the wall. We painted the images from the bedding onto stretched canvas, and created a dotted canvas banner to hang from the ceiling. It brings a circus atmosphere to this modern ensemble.

HORIZONTAL STRIPED WALLS

One of my favorite painted wall patterns is a horizontal stripe. It makes a room seem roomier. It gives character and emphasizes corners, especially when the room isn't shaped like a box (but even then it works well). Here I've taken some really rich colors (mustard and teal) and altered their stripe width and repeated the pattern. This small bedroom lets you breathe instead of closing you in. And, this sporty kid loves the action and dynamic walls in his room.

Big Hard Sun

Love that song and this room! Alex, Maria's son (see Cowgirl Princess post), needed a design that would fill up his big open room. He loves nature and the beach and Maria wanted a room for him that he would love to get lost in and be thrilled with for years. We steered our minds away from the typical mural of the sea and concentrated on something he could grow with (he's a tween – not so little anymore and not so big either). His design began with large, serene canvas paintings to break up all the yellow in the room, a magnet board to hang his important papers, and some funky fish paintings on canvas to liven things up a bit. Once we hung those and added the curtains we needed something to tie it all in. We thought of plain rectangles to paint around the canvas, or framing the canvas, but that didn't look like enough when we drew them out on paper. Inspired by a stamp I have of a sun, I sketched a deeper yellow shadow of that behind the bed on a whim. It was unanimous, this was the right answer. It was an easy paint job to add it (2 hours) and the result was even better than the quick sketch. This really big room now feels cozy when you walk in! The finishing touch was to make something personal like we did for his sister's cowgirl princess room.We created two shadow boxes, one of him as a toddler with small toys and one of him as an older boy with shells and a message in a bottle. It's a room to lay back and ponder the wonders of nature.

Cowgirl Princess Collage Art Room

Lately I've been working for Maria. Her daughter, Ashleigh, is quite a storyteller and has a flair for dramatic presentations of the best kind. She's extremely entertaining and needed a room to match her personality. Our first decorating decision was to paint the walls in a distressed way to tone down the pink of the room and bring in some complementary colors. The high vines were added to create a bit of whimsy. And, a magnet board was created so that Ashleigh could hang her art work and her A+ school papers. I met Ashleigh while I was painting the walls one day and was completely inspired to create the art projects that decorate her room. Princess and the Pea Ashleigh sits upon her mattresses. She's a bit of a fairy princess with a body made of Hydrangea petals and buds. I think she would jump off of the top with just a little coaxing. Tiny Ashleigh flies away in a nest that she has climbed into. Unbeknownst to her, there is a baby blue bird inside. Her balloons get tangled up with the nest and lift her and the bird into the sky. And, finally, Cowgirl Ashleigh is wandering through Lollipop Land where she sees a giant butterfly carrying a bunny and another flying off with the heart lock for which only she has the key. This was the best time I ever had creating a whole room design. I'm so into collage and assembled art these days. I'm going to be creating more for customers I meet when my friend Robin opens her shop in West Chester this spring. It's a frame shop and we'll be holding art classes for people who want to explore this art genre. I'll keep you posted when things start rolling there.

Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper

My son Gunnar loved Blues Clues as a toddler. I had an old toy chest with a wooden house applique on it that I wanted to refinish for him with a Blues Clues theme. It worked out perfectly when I turned the cottage applique into Blue's house. On the other long side of the chest I painted my favorite characters Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper doing a happy dance over a spiral wallpaper. On one of the short sides you see Blue sitting in his thinking chair with the song's "Think, Think, Think" verse floating around the edges. The top is a blue chalkboard with the Blues Clues swirly frame framing it. I doubt I'll ever change that toy chest since it brings back great memories of my little Gunnar – :( he's eleven now.

We Love Penn State

Our family loves football and many of us are PSU grads so it was only natural to pick the pristine white uniform for the football player to wear in my nephew Chase's bedroom. (As much as I wanted to make it black and gold for Pittsburgh, I had to be diplomatic for my brother-in-law who is an Eagles fan.) The blurred crowd idea was inspired by a sketch I saw in Sports Illustrated. I really wanted to make the field encompass most of the room so skewing the lines helped to achieve this goal. The funky black outlines really made the field pop. I got the idea from the show Ed, Edd and Eddie -- the lines on that show are always moving and it really is a great visual. Painting the double white closet doors like a locker was a quick and easy solution for the enormous white space that was a distraction as you entered the room; had we kept them white, they would have been the first thing your eye saw instead of the football mural. A fellow Penn Stater hired us to paint the Lion on a finished basement wall so that there was no doubt about what team he supports.

Moon Looms Large Over Wynkin, Blinkin and Nod

Some nurseries are for sleeping and that was what I had in mind when I painted this night scene at Oh, Baby! I loved the moon face as soon as I saw it and had to paint it; and the clouds that swirl like waves flowed right off of my paint brush.The dark blue sky set against the yellow moon was a great color combination for coordinating bedding and furniture. The two photos show you how well the colors adapt to the chosen combinations.

A Walk In The Country

A sweet, vintage storybook with pencil drawings inspired this country nursery. Throughout the book ducks marched in a row, as ducks often do, so we painted them doing just that under the large picture window as if they were setting off on another adventure. A large summer tree was painted near the corner with a bunny reading a book while sheep grazed on the hills.

Odd Sloped Roof Transformed!

It's not easy to know how to paint a sloped roof but if you can determine what you want to achieve, you can find a solution. We wanted the room to appear larger but more importantly we didn't want to feel like we were going to hit our heads on the low ceiling upon entry! The answer was to paint the ceiling the same shade as the wall to open up the room more and fool the eye. A flower-covered lace border was painted on the wall. Green paint was added below the lace to coordinate with the bedding fabrics and to ground the room. Well chosen accessories (chandelier and ribbon board),and painted furniture added to its shabby chic charm. To serve as a focal point since there was no headboard, we painted an initial medallion in shades of pink over the bed.

A Whale of a Nursery

The direction given to us by our clients was to incorporate peach, aqua and yellow into the nursery through fabric selection and a seaside mural. We combed through fabric offerings and chose the perfect colors and textures for the window treatments, crib bedding, daybed pillows and coverlet. We didn't find any whale prints that we liked so we created a whale stencil and had an applique made from it to sew onto sections of the crib bumper. We painted two canvases to flow with the ocean waves that we painted on the wall above the chair rail. Below the chair rail, in shades of peach, are stencils of a shell, starfish and a whale, of course!

Classic Storybook Nursery

This nursery had direction right from the start – "Pick characters from the Peter Rabbit storybook series and integrate them on the walls of the room." Jemima Puddleduck pops out on the wall between the bedroom and closet doors to keep an eye on the baby, one of Peter's sisters takes a stroll through the foxglove and another sister wraps up in a towel over the changing table where the baby gets swaddled in a blanket. A flowering spring tree was added to tower over the crib to give the room focus while a little bunny sleeps underneath. The bed linens, rocker and antique Christening gowns scattered on hooks around the room coordinate and soften the pecan colored wooden floor. It's a very peaceful and relaxing space.

Bode's Bunnies

Bode, my littlest nephew, was the first child in our family to be born while I was designing nurseries for Oh, Baby! I wanted to paint the bulk of his room design at home so I created the canvas of the Guess How Much I Love You Bunnies which hangs above the changing dresser. It's enormous at 4' x 5'. The silhouettes of the bunnies were a quick and simple way to carry the theme throughout the room and keep the blue and tan colors repeating as well. The crib bedding was custom made. And, the bench belonged to my sisters and I when we were young. I repainted it to fit the theme and bring some black to ground the room somewhat. (I've always heard that every room needs a little black and have come to realize that it's true over the years.) This is a large bedroom and just envelopes you with baby love when you walk in – a camera will never be able to capture that feeling.

Yarnbirds & Buttonflies

This sweet little Yarnbird was perched on a branch over a crib at Oh, Baby! this Spring. Fleece flowers were added for a punch of pink. Buttonflies were created one day at Oh, Baby! when we were fretting over throwing out fabric samples from an exclusive bedding designer that went out of business. We just knew we could make something pretty for a nursery. They are so delicate and appear weightless when hung in a group over a crib.

Friendly Dinosaur Moves In

Edward Jr.'s room is one of the most spectacular rooms I've ever painted. The dinosaur, specifically chosen from a children's book so that he was "not too scary," encompasses parts of 3 walls. I began painting sky on every wall and ceiling surface on a day after a hurricane. The type of sky I paint is almost always influenced by the weather on the day I paint, and that day, it was full of fast moving and quickly changing clouds. The dinosaur parked himself right in the middle of a road. When you turn the corner, you see that cars don't mind him a bit, they just drive right down his tail. I never got a photo of Edward Jr.s name hung on the wall, but the letters were so unique I had to capture them before I left. I made these letters from floral foam because I specifically wanted something with depth and a particular font that would work well with the massive dinosaur.

Sarah Loves Tink

...so we made her bedroom green and pink. Images from Tinkerbell's Faerie books are painted on the walls. The headboard was accented with a vine of flowers. In one corner, we painted a hidden mouse on a leaf and in another corner put a teapot and cup so that she can have a secret tea party when mom is busy with the baby.

Name, Date, Social Security Number

OK, so I haven't actually created anything with a baby's social security number on it, but I have done a bunch of items with names, and some with all the birthday facts. A recent wall hanging was for Macie and is done in the ever-popular color combo of pink and brown. I'm thinking that it will be part of a paisley/argyle pattern collection like the step stool you see in the thumbnail photo. A few clients have requested famous characters in their designs. Twins, Oliver and Henry, received name plaques painted with Richard Scarry animals that had wire strung with baby blocks, cars and other tiny childhood toys for a little bit of fun. Some clients just give me a theme or a birth announcement and tell me to create whatever I can dream up so that they can present a one-of-a-kind gift. I have to say it's a bit scary to take on that assignment because you never know what the reaction will be; but, I love it just the same and haven't had a return yet! LUKE's Birth Announcement was commissioned that way is one of my favorite creations.

Dwell In Our Garden

Working with Oh, Baby! in West Chester was an incredible opportunity for me to grow into my artistic specialty which is decorating nurseries and kids' rooms. One of our favorite bedding lines there was Dwell. It has a retro-modern feel to it and a great price point! Two of our clients hired me to create simple wall murals to complement their Dwell bedding choices. Amy picked Garden, which is a lovely combination of pink, brown, cream and green flowers on a vine. We basically duplicated the pattern from the bedding on the wall. Her high ceilings helped to make this large floral pattern work so well. Jenna chose Clover. I never got a finished room photo after I painted, however the bedding pattern is a repeat of 3 leaves. The wall color was key here and Jenna picked the perfect shade. I added a silhouette of a grassy scene which was inspired by a Domino magazine photo spread. The silhouette has the clover in it as well as some ferns, the sun and a bird. It repeats around the room. This design really works in this room because it has a few extra angles to the walls. I don't think it would look as great as it does if it was a simple box of a room.

Dr. Seuss Nursery

Jill, my sister, was the recipient of my first complete nursery design. I had been home for a year and a half with my son and was religiously watching HGTV (circa 1999). I was bursting with creative ideas and tired of watching people decorate. Jill was pregnant with her first son and I wanted to give her a really special gift so I designed and painted a bright and colorful Dr. Seuss-themed nursery. She chose red polka-dot wallpaper with matching yellow and white stripes to go below a painted mural separating the two at chair rail height.