Hellobee

Last weekend, I finally put the finishing touches on Pint-Sized Picasso’s Toddler Room. I originally posted my inspiration board a year ago (!!) and am proud to say that I stayed the course on it for the most part. (That’s not normally how re-decorating projects go for me.) Not only did I stick to my vision… I adore how it came out. I’m actually a little sad it’s all done! (And yes, Pint-Sized has been home for three months. Let’s not focus on that aspect though… ok?!)

This room took me the better part of a year, and it was truly a labor of love. There were weeks where I had to close the door and pretend it wasn’t there… and there were weeks where I coped with all the stress and frustration [of the adoption process] by pouring all I had into a project for the room. I’m sure I could have accomplished it quicker, but well… with the adoption process what it is… I had the time to burn. Plus, I like to overanalyze creative choices and big purchases, so not being pressured helped my sanity. (And being able to spread out the purchases was helpful to my budget too!)

While I stuck to the plan—mostly—there were some changes as I pulled the room together. I decided to omit the chair in the room since the full-sized floor bed took up so much room. Without that big dose of red… the smaller doses of red didn’t seem to fit as well, so I pulled it more towards aqua and orange with gray, white, and navy as the accents. But I love red, so you will see a few punches of it here and there! I also purchased the original Land of Nod bins from my inspiration board, but when I saw the new (orange!) bins at Ikea, I swapped up my plan.

I’m excited to share it with you… so, without further ado… the room!

{The view as you walk into the room…}

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{The view as you stand near the dresser…}

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{And the view towards the hallway…}

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Now that you have an overall feel for the room… I’d love to share some special details with you. Because really, the reason I love this room so much is because of all the special details. Like I said above… Labor of love here.

First things first… the bedding and fabric accents. The whole room was really inspired by a line of fabric I’ve loved for ages. I started by buying fat quarters, half yards, and yards upon yards of fabric that tickled my fancy. I then designed and sewed the quilt top and backing. And then sent it out to a professional long-armer, since I didn’t want to mess with that part—it’s an art in itself! (It’s the first non-crib sized quilt that I have ever made so that is an accomplishment in my book…) Once I had the quilt completed, I started to look for sheets that would work. I had seen great options on all the “kid decor” sites… but had some sticker shock, so chose to shop around first. I actually found the perfect options in Target, and scooped up some sheets and “complimentary” pillowcases during a white sale. It’s amazing how well they worked with the fabric I had incorporated into the quilt, but I still think they work on a kid’s bed.

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While I found the anchor pillow at the Land of Nod, the other two were sewn by me. The pillows were a “I need to keep my hands busy and my mind off things” tactic. Funny how stressing over fabric measurements can make you forget about adoption process delays… At least for a few minutes.

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I’ve been wanting to sew a bunting for as long as I can remember. I wanted sewn edges for a more polished look (as opposed to the raw “pinking shears” edge) and I knew I would “hang” them off of bias tape. This ended up being something that Mini Michelangelo helped me with, after I cut the pieces… he paired them up and then we sewed it together. He still talks about how he made it, so it’s nice that he has some fond memories of this room too!

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Next up… the storage. We went with Ikea furniture since the price is right, and we’ve had great success with them in other rooms. We chose the Hemnes dresser in blue (seen above) and the Expedit shelves in high gloss gray. (Anyone else bummed that they no longer have these?!)  We filled them with the Drona bins, books, and other goodies…

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Above, you’ll see a hand-knit blanket peeking out of the bin. But you may have also seen some other handmade goodies in the pull-back room shots. Each one of these projects helped me get through a difficult part of the wait. It was my way of “finding my faith in the process” … Or, at times, keeping the faith. The blanket got me through the first birthday and the looong hold-up with some government red-tape. The whale creation got me through the news that our file hadn’t made it into a batch submitted to the government. The monkey? He was my way to cope with the news that there had been a delay after our court hearing due to some birth parent issues… It was my way to do something… while not really being able to do anything at all.

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A surprise gift card to the Land of Nod paired with some much needed retail therapy resulted in this little play wall. I would eventually like to paint an octopus hiding behind the door… but that will have to wait. For now the wall seems perfect—and whimsical—with the magnet boards and the chalk board. (Magnets by Janod)

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And lastly, the gallery wall. That was my dad’s labor of love. Oh, my poor dad. I dreamt this up in January I think. Which is not really the time to source nautical decor. But, somehow, my dad did it. And then he shipped it all to me. Antiquing and craft store hopping is not really in his wheelhouse… so it means so much that he took all those hours to do it.

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And that, in way-to-many-photos, is Pint-Sized Picasso’s room! Thanks for letting me share it with you!