Nursery Inspiration

For some reason -- perhaps it was just being overwhelmed with house hunting, moving and the list of other projects that then came with the new home, the holidays, the new puppy, somewhat extreme fatigue at many moments in this pregnancy, just not caring about anything else because I'm amazed that I'm actually still pregnant (!!!!) and that's all that really matters, or, on the other hand, sadly overcome with "been there, done that" and not interested in going bonkers on another nursery decorating bonanza -- I have just not had any inspiration when it's come to getting a nursery ready for this little one.  Well, not until just recently!

Marti was anxious to get the nursery set up more so than I, so he pushed a little to decide on a theme or SOMETHING.  I didn't even want to paint really -- I was just THAT tired!  The room was kind of a latte color with one medium to dark brown accent wall.  I asked IRL and OL friends for help in deciding what would work for a little girl in a nursery with those colors and got a lot of help.  But, in the end, Marti offered to spearhead the project and get that room painted PINK!  (All this my aunt, Pat, pointed out, after we nearly FORBADE anyone to get Abby oodles of pink stuff when she was a baby!)

The room was suddenly taking shape -- but WHAT shape?  I didn't recognize it and STILL had no idea what to do with it!

Marti heard about wall decals we could put up that would effortlessly finish a design and keep me from having to spend endless weeks in there coming up with and executing something that was going to satisfy me.  The weekend after he finished painting the room, I sat down at the computer from the moment I woke up until after 12 noon looking for ideas.

I REALLY wanted something easy to work for us, but in the end, all the decals I saw were too "cartoony" or too grown up.  I wanted something that would have an impact when you saw it, but not be overwhelming.  I also wanted it subtle and understated, yet not too plain.  It had to be worthwhile if I was going to do it at all.

Did I mention I can be hard to please???

Out of sheer desperation, I was almost ready to settle on some rinky dink Pooh bear decals, but I knew I was not content.  SO, I dove into Google Images and started looking for ALL NEW IDEAS.  I typed in those fateful words:  Pink Nursery.  After scrolling through page after page of images, I was starting to wonder if there was ANYTHING that would please me!  I really wasn't in love with ANYTHING I saw.

...that is, not until I saw THIS!!!!

Passion for Murals

I was instantly smitten!!!  I HAD to have it!  Given that I had painted SO much in Abby's nursery, I was confident that I could take this on, but I was still secretly hoping it was a decal (fat chance with all those fine details!) and that I could order it and just be done with it.  (Little did I know that I'd later find out it would be even easier than that!!!!)

I backtracked the home address for the image and found out it was originally from a professional muralist's website.  That was initially disappointing because I'm just not one to have other people do things for me that I can do for myself.  Besides, how does one even locate a muralist, and who knows if some random muralist could (or would even want to) reproduce what I was looking at to my satisfaction.  Would it have the same feel, or would it come off cumbersome instead of wispy?  Would it be fine and free flowing, or would it look structured instead?  In my fear of someone else not being able to do it, I was also doubting my own abilities to just do it myself when I thought of these things and saw how much was going to go into accomplishing all that.

As I was staring longingly at the image on the website, I noticed something else.

The phone number.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!  You've GOT to be KIDDING me!!!!  She was LOCAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just KNEW Marti wouldn't go for it, but I called her anyway just to SEE if there was a snowball's chance...

We discussed price and a couple other things, but I wasn't too excited yet because I still wasn't sure I could talk Marti out of the "stick it and go" idea he already had.  Was I EVER surprised when he came back after thinking about it and told me to call her!!!!  I really didn't believe him and he had to tell me about three times to call her before he changed his mind!

Well, long story short, I called her, she came out to the house for a consultation before I knew it, and yesterday she painted the same exact image on OUR nursery walls!!!  I am beyond pleased to not only have something that somewhat resembled the design I saw, but was EXACTLY what I saw and fell in love with.  I never would have thought it would be so easy to find a design I loved and actually have that same artist in my own home that same week completing it for me.  It still seems kind of surreal how one day after hours of staring at image after image and not having the first CLUE what I wanted, it all came together!

Not only did I get what I wanted in the nursery, but Suzanne also offered to do Abby's room up in a big way!  Marti thought it would be good to go with that so Abby didn't feel left out if we made a big deal about painting one room and not the other.

At first I wasn't sure if Abby wanted princesses and castles or flowers and butterflies.  What I did know was that before we even bought the house, she loved colorful rooms when we looked at prospective homes, so we promised to paint her room first when we got a new house.  She not only wanted a brightly colored room, but LOTS of colors!

In the end, we HAD to go with flowers and butterflies, but Abby was not settling for them.  She actually chose that on her own -- even though that's all we found when we went out looking for bedding the week before Suzanne came to paint.  With that choice, here is what we decided on:

Suzanne pulled out the flower and butterfly designs and matched the colors perfectly to create a fun and funky custom design in Abby's room!  Abby got her flowers, her butterflies, and also her variety of colors all over her room!  It's perfect for Abby at 5 years old, but will also last her for many years to come.  (Check back after this weekend for actual photos of the painting!)

All in all, I am overcome with joy at finding something I wanted, satisfaction of getting "the original" and not some lame substitute, gratitude for Marti finding a way to make it all happen, and amazingly impressed with Suzanne's talent and professionalism in her work from start to finish!

I still don't know what I did to deserve all the good fortune that keeps coming my way recently, but I am grateful for how things have turned out.