Baby Elizabeth's Nursery

Before we even knew we were having a girl, I knew I wanted to incorporate an artist that my Aunt Mary and I have loved over the past few years. Once the ultrasound tech's words "It's a girl!" had settled in, I started dreaming up the pretty nursery. I started ordering samples and making my dreams a reality. Watching it all come together was my favorite part of nesting for my sweet baby girl! My wonderful friend, Sally Cavanaugh, helped capture the nursery in photos, and I am so excited to share.

My Aunt Mary and I stumbled upon Lulie Wallace a few years ago and have loved her work ever since. My aunt has actually filled a lot of her walls with her gorgeous prints, and her guestroom has a bedspread with a floral print. I love the simple elegance of her florals and after ordering some samples, I decided to go with the Lara print (her wallpaper names are as beautiful as the designs!). I loved the pretty blues and greens with the touches of pink. It became the inspiration for the rest of the room. With the help of a friend and her mom (thank you Megan & Sara!), we put up the paper on the wall behind the crib. My husband then painted the other walls with the paint we had color matched to the wallpaper. Don't have a good wall for wallpaper or can't afford it? She also makes baby blankets in a few of the prints.

The next big purchase I made for the nursery was the Jenny Lind blue crib. I have always loved the Jenny Lind style and when I found it in this gorgeous blue color, I ordered it right away. Loved the idea of something traditional with a twist. Above the crib, I hung a gorgeous mobile my Aunt Mary purchased for the room that I found on Etsy. It matches the wallpaper so well!

The Venetian blown glass chandelier is probably one of my favorite things in the room, besides the wallpaper. My friend, Kelly (@streetflea is her Instagram account), found it at a local estate sale. She is wonderfully talented at finding hidden treasures and seeing beyond the dust. She sent me pictures of it somewhat taken apart and extremely dusty, but she told me she'd die if I didn't get it (well she said "no pressure" before making that statement haha). Since it was only $150 (I know right!?), I decided to go with it and I am so glad I did. Besides being beyond heavy to hang, it was the perfect light for Elizabeth's room.

Since the window walls do not have wallpaper, I wanted to do pretty curtains with a pattern. While in NYC for the National Stationery Show, I met Lillian, a talented pattern designer. I fell in love with her artwork and this adorable bird print. My grandma loves birds, so they made me smile. Lillian played with the colors, so they coordinated with the wallpaper, and then we ordered the fabric. My mother-in-law sewed the fabric into curtains and we hung them on gold curtain rods.

The rest of the room was pulled together with the comfy chair, dresser, rugs and details. I wanted a comfortable, but affordable chair. This one from Joss and Main fit the bill and I loved the pop of white in the corner of her room (watch for sales and also check Wayfair). The silver poof I already had, it was an old Target find. Next to the chair, I placed the hand painted pedestal table we received as a gift. The dresser was a hand me down from a friend and my mother-in-law painted it with chalk paint. I added these adorable bow knobs to the top drawers and spray painted the bottom ones. The large rug was my hardest find for the room, mainly because pinks can impossible (first one I ordered was an ugly brownish pink). I ended up spending more than I wanted to and got this gingham rug because it made me happy. My mom found the faux fur rug at our local HomeGoods and it's so soft for the baby to lay on. I styled her built in book shelves with all of the fun books we received as gifts. Parisian cardboard houses topped it off and framed cards made for affordable art next to the books. Around the room, we have fun animals and a cute mini chair for Elizabeth, all gifts from our wonderful family and friends.

For the nursery artwork, I wanted to work in my favorite artists that I carry in the shop: Anna Bond with Rifle Paper Co. and Ali with Lark+Raven. Ali designed this happy little town print to match Elizabeth's decor and it is so perfect! It hangs by her crib and it's the first thing you see when you walk in. I want to live in this little French cityscape! She has become a good friend as I have grown my business and I love having her apart of the nursery. The Rifle Paper Co. prints above the chair are available at the shop! Next to them I added a quirky cuckoo clock that my friend had found for her daughter's nursery and I had to copy. It's the perfect little nursery clock, plus you can turn the sound off. The last wall touch is an antique bow mirror I found on Etsy a couple of years ago. I purchased it out of love and I'm so glad I finally was able to use it in this special place.

Photos by Sally Cavanaugh - please credit if you share.

I hope you enjoyed this little peak into my new favorite place in the world. Bringing Elizabeth home to this gorgeous room was so fun. The blue is such a pretty color and makes it a peaceful space where we can go and relax. I also love that the colors and patterns can grow with her. I definitely had some splurges in the room, but also worked hard to find affordable things as well. Find what's important to your space and then save on other items. Search estate sales and garage sales to see if there are things can redo or hidden gems!

Thank you to my good friend Sally for taking these gorgeous pictures! She is so talented and I highly recommend her.

Baby announcements have finally gone out, so I will be sharing Elizabeth's newborn session soon! So excited to introduce the new love of our life.

Lots of Love,

Shopping Details:
Lara Wallpaper - Lulie Wallace
Baby Blanket - Lulie Wallace
Jenny Lind Crib (Lagoon) - Target
Crib Sheet & Changing Pad Cover - Love of Character
Mobile - Etsy
White Glider - Joss and Main
MacKenzie Child's Side Table - The Plaid Giraffe (local)
Pink Gingham Rug - Overstock (Google to find availability and best price)
White Faux Fur Rug - HomeGoods
Child Anywhere Chair (Pink Gingham) - Pottery Barn Kids (monogram done locally)
Princess Ballerina Doll - Love of Character
Curtain Design - Lillian Farag
Curtain Rods - Land of Nod
Cuckoo Clock - Land of Nod
Floral Prints - Love of Character
Bunny Rocker - Pottery Barn Kids
Large Giraffe - Melissa & Doug
Swan and Flamingo Bookends - Etsy
Parisian Cardboard Houses - Love of Character
Cards - Love of Character
Cane Baskets - Pottery Barn Teen
Pom Pom Laundry Basket - Pottery Barn Kids

New Year, New (Cleaned Up) Work Space!

Pictures via Sally Cavanaugh

I don't think I could have started the new year off with a better goal - cleanup my work space at the shop! It had been driving me crazy and I was quite frankly so embarrassed by it when customers would pop back there. In the back of my shop, I have a storage area and upstairs I have an office. Both are great work spots, but both were definitely neglected when we were getting the shop up and running. My main priority was getting the shop ready for customers, so the back area was left dark dingy, and unorganized. We cleaned everything out and here is what the space looks like empty before:

Very uninspiring and basically the opposite of my cheerful shop space. Not pictured, the dark cubes stuffed, boxes everywhere and tools from our original shop setup. It was a mess and it was stressful. Up the stairs, my office had good bones since it is an open loft to the store (aka the wallpaper makes it pretty), but it needed cleaning up and organizing. Plus, I had purchased a great desk to use and was ready to set it up.

I went back and forth on the colors I wanted to use for the storage area. At first I was thinking about doing blush pink walls. Floor wise, I was thinking I'd have to stick with a gray or some kind of neutral because of limited cement paint colors. After looking at some inspiration, my mom got the bold idea to paint my stairs pink (my mother, who loves black, suggested pink!). I loved it. I then decided to paint the walls white to let the stairs pop. I was still stuck on the floors. I had considered navy, but it wouldn't really go with the style of my store. I went into Sherwin Williams and when they said I could do the cement paint in any color, the indecisiveness set in. I left with lots of swatches and some samples of pinks. Bella Pink  won for the stairs. After staring at a bunch of boring neutrals, my mom and I painted some pink on the floor. Why not? Where else could I have a pink floor? I mean I've painted stripes on a ceiling before, I wasn't afraid of a paint risk.

I loved it! Thank goodness because I had to paint the whole area to see if it would work or not. Hard to judge a crazy floor color without covering a large area. Once the painting was finished, we had to organize the back stock, packaging materials and supplies. To keep things light, I decided to ditch the dark cubes that were back there when we took over the space and we purchased white ones from Target. Dustin added a back "bar" on the top of a row of cubes and I love it for customers to use during events and for quick storage during photo shoots of products. It is so nice have a bright, happy storage area!

Need to come up with a way to hide that big electrical box.

Photos via Sally Cavanaugh

Not perfect, but that door looks so much better white!

Now up the new pink stairs to my office! Like I mentioned before, this was more about organizing, throwing out the mountains of paper and setting up my new desk. Having a clean work space makes the office work I need to do a lot more fun and definitely less stressful! Love that the wallpaper is in my office space and I love the white Sugar Paper desk I scored from Target a while back. To accessorize my desk I pulled some of my favorite items we offer in the store: lucite ruler, gold stapler, legal pads, floral file folders, gold scissors and lucite tape dispenser.

Photos via Sally Cavanaugh

Thank you to my mom for the color inspiration and for helping me paint (not a fun task when there are so many edges!). Thank you to Lily and Olivia for all their help organizing and cleaning. Thank you to my husband for setting up my office and putting together the six cube shelves he had to go to Derby to pickup. Thank you to Sally for taking fabulous pictures for me. Lastly, thank you to my customers for letting me close the shop for a week to make all of this happen!

Lots of Love,

Kitchen Island Reveal!

I remember looking through our house during a showing and telling our realtor that this kitchen was screaming for a kitchen island. It is a large kitchen for our neighborhood - which was definitely a selling point - and there was a big open space in the middle. The way the cabinets lined the walls and doorway placements, it seemed awkward to have a kitchen table. Plus, storage and counter space were definitely still a need. For entertaining, we hated that our guests had no where to sit while we prepped food (or as my friends are probably thinking, Mary rarely cooks, she needs a place to sit while others make the food!). Here is a look of the before, right when we bought the house:

Definitely dark and needing some life. Our first makeover, seen here, focused on getting the cabinets and walls painted to lighten up the space. Then after a couple years of back and forth on how we wanted to do the island, we finally decided to tackle the project ourselves! We wanted it to be a permanent structure, not a cart, and for it to have a lot of storage. Budget was also important and why we decided to do most of it ourselves (with the help of Dustin's dad - the best!). Find the details of cabinet purchases and mounting here and here. Since we saved money going with unfinished cabinets, we were able to splurge on the Cambria Torquay Quartz countertop I'd been dreaming of. The countertop details can be found here. We wanted an island that looked finished, pretty and had the touch of character we love so much. To finish up the island after our last updates, Dustin and his dad added the corner pieces and put trims along the floor. We purchased them at hardware stores and had to make sure they were the correct size for our look. Definitely wasn't the easiest project we have done and it took some time, but in the end, we couldn't be happier with the results!

It completes our kitchen. I honestly can't remember what it was like not having the island in the middle of the room. The many months of having unfinished cabinets in our way, painting the cabinets, waiting on the countertop, etc. were totally worth it. We are in love and have enjoyed prepping meals with our new space and eating together in the kitchen. I am happy with the choices we made and how they mesh with the rest of the kitchen. One day down the road we will probably update the other countertops and add a back splash, but for now we are very content and happy with our space. Now we just need to have some people over, so we can entertain! Maybe I can convince one my friends to teach us how to cook something delicious or have my grandma teach my friends how to make pies! I feel a Love of Character workshop in the making...

Couple extras, I wanted to share what I like to use to quickly clean up our kitchen space. For the safety of your countertops, you want to find an all purpose cleaner that is safe for your specific material and that smells clean. Since our other countertops are granite, I use granite safe cleaners. The smell of the JR Watkins All Purpose Lemon Cleaner is perfect. Extra touch, light up a favorite candle. Mine currently for the kitchen is the Voluspa Prosecco Bellini candle - who doesn't love the smell of brunch bubbly? I also wanted to share that Teddy got a dish upgrade to go with our new kitchen space - didn't want him to feel left out.

Special shout out to Dustin and my father-in-law for all of their hard work on this project. They made it happen and did a beautiful job with the finishing touches. It looks like a custom island built perfectly to fit our kitchen - and fitting a kitchen with uneven floors is no easy task!

Shop this post:

JR Watkins All Purpose Cleaner | H&M Faux Marble Bowls | Serena & Lily Chevron Stools | Urban Outfitters Rug | Voluspa Prosecco Bellini Candle

Lots of Love,