welcome to my daughter’s nursery! while God was taking 10 months to put her together so perfectly, i took that time to put together a happy space full of sentiment for her to live in once He was finished. my husband, chris, painted the nursery’s walls and then told me to have at it. i didn’t have any specific theme in mind so long as the decor was cheerful and could be executed inexpensively as chris and i pretty much had a budget of $0. chris’s parents gifted us with some cash to get a crib so we hoofed it on up to ikea where we purchased the gulliver crib, a sultan blunda mattress, lill curtains ($4.99 a pair!) and tacksam curtain rods, plus a few other odds & ends. oh, and some swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce. much of the big decor pieces came courtesy of my parents. the rocking chair was handed down from my oldest sister-in-law, ronda, who used it with my now teen-aged niece and nephew. the rocking horse had been at my grandparents’ house when i was a kid. before they passed, they’d given it to my oldest brother’s family so ronda thoughtfully pulled it out of their attic for anouk to use. the dressers are the ones i’ve used since babyhood. around her room, i planted pictures of chris and me alongside collected toys and handmade objects. i can honestly say that while chris and i contributed to the nursery in any way we could, it would not be the cozy space it is today without the generosity of our families and friends.

below, i’ve included more information about some of my favorite items in the room and immediately below, you’ll find information about the above pictures.

a. i made this banner using instructions from origami club b. the original antique natural history prints were a gift from my friend, kim, who runs slinkymalinkicat on etsy. c. the rug is actually an outdoor mat from cost plus world market. i think it was around $18. d. the dress is from boden and was a gift from my friend, jenn, owner of lickety split on etsy. she makes fantastic jewelry. the u*sa*ha*na purse was purchased at a sanrio store years ago. e. the hello kitty table was a gift from the owners (also friends) of the kids boutique in which i used to work. it was from a sanrio wholesale catalog.

i’m a freelance muralist, but i’d had no plans to paint anything on the nursery walls for fear i’d get tired of looking at it. anticipation and an eagerness to decorate were wearing me down, though, so i decided i had to put something up on those freshly-painted walls. since i never get tired of friendly faces, i mashed up my love of japanese animation and vintage illustration and came up with these smiling characters. at the time, we weren’t sure of the gender and i figured these would be appropriate for either sex. the three faces represent anouk, her father and me.  i’m happy to say that all these months later, i still enjoy looking at the wall.

this mobile may be the cheapest of all the projects i made for anouk’s nursery. a good while back, mom had purchased some vintage paper placemats from a yard sale with the idea that i’d be able to use them for a craft project. since nothing jumped to mind immediately, they ended up in the catch-all room that is now the nursery. while cleaning it out to make way for baby, i found them and inspiration finally struck. i cut out all the butterflies and then glued them to some white floral wires i’d had on hand from a previous project. it took some time and patience, but that was a price i could easily afford for such a fun, one-of-a-kind mobile.

these billy buttons were one of my most fun projects. one night after drooling over a wedding featured on oncewed, i got it in my head that i needed more billy buttons for anouk’s room. i couldn’t buy any, but i had some polymer clay that had been sitting around waiting to be put to use and then i rummaged through chris’s closet till i found some wire hangers. thankfully, he had huge wire cutters in his toolbox so i just went to town hacking up the hangers and rolling clay into imperfect spheres. an hour later, i had my billy buttons. oh, and the illustration is one of my own—it’s how i imagine my baby girl to look one day. it’ll be neat to see how she turns out. for all i know, she’ll have red hair and green eyes!

i have a thing for vintage milk bottles but have yet to come across any so i took some starbucks frappuccino bottles, put a little gesso (thicker than paint) in them and labeled them with a paint pen—super simple and a fun way to kill a little time. i made the billy buttons out of cardstock and bamboo skewers. (postcard is from theblackapple)

chris rescued this vintage industrial restaurant cart from a house he’d been hired to fix up. the previous tenant left behind a few random belongings that the owner told him he could dispose of however he saw fit. most of it was bound for the dump, but chris thought to ask me if i wanted him to save the cart. it was in great shape—just some scratches in the old white paint and rust spots. he gave it a fresh coat of sunny yellow paint and now it’s the perfect spot for anouk’s toys, toiletries and extra blankets.

i made these pillows by using my highly rudimentary sewing skills to stitch together napkins i’d purchased years ago at an april cornell outlet. the red ones were used for my parents’ 40th anniversary party while the white were used at a baby shower thrown for my sister-in-law, jennifer. i like that they have some history (while somehow remaining stain-free). i embroidered craspedia (billy buttons) and her name on a couple of the napkins just because i’d always wanted to try my hand at it. it was time-consuming and left my fingers sore, but the result was well worth it.

the temporary bed skirt is simply a piece of tulle that had been used by my friend, lauren, to wrap a basket of gifts for my baby shower. i wove it through the spindles then tucked paper butterflies leftover from the mobile project into the folds. i suppose i have until she starts crawling to enjoy it.