apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Because they rent, Eli's parents couldn't change the wall color- so they went with greens, dark browns, and plenty of polka dots.

The book shelf was purchased at Stumasa in San Francisco and then stained. Mom says the bookshelf was the most important item for her. "I knew we had to have lots of books, no matter what else," she says.

The crib was a Craigslist find. It was then stripped, refinished and shellacked dark brown with water based stain and food grade shellac. The bedding was a discontinued Pottery Barn design that Eli's mom fell in love with. She finally found it on Ebay. Her mother-in-law surprised her and used the same sheets to create an amazing quilt.

The dresser was another excellent Craigslist find at just $30. It was stripped, refinished, and given new knobs from Target.

We love the way the framed alphabet (which is actually Cavallini gift wrap) interacts with the dresser and the objects on top of it. We've featured The First 1000 Days Journal by Nikki McClure before on AT. It was a gift and the parents are loving it. Beside the journal on the dresser are shoes from Spain, another gift.

There are a lot of other treasures in this room, handpainted name tiles on wooden blocks from close friends, and a name train from Eli's grandpa to name a couple more. A lot of love- not to mention stripping and staining that made us kind of tired just reading about it- went into this room! Good work!