apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time


Nursery Tour: Penny Lou's Ode to Mary Blair Art

072409wake_up_view.jpg
Name: Penny Lou
Age: 4 months
Location: Portland, OR

>> Enter Slideshow

Starting with artwork by Mary Blair, a sea foam green record player, and a love of mustard yellow, Penny Lou's parents Molly and Curt created a nursery that is fun and functional. With DIY visions of grandeur, the outcome looks super pro: handmade cubby baskets, cloud shelves, painted picture frames, and a refurbished dresser only start the list. Molly's best advice is to make the nursery a place you too want to hang out; Penny Lou's vibrant space of artwork, golden books and record collections have us wanting to pull up a rocker...

072409pennythumbs.jpg

 
 

072409mary_blair_wall.jpg>> Enter Slideshow

Inspiration: We wanted to make a fun space for our daughter to grow. We love art of Mary Blair and found lots of ways to incorporate that into the room. The Sea Foam Green vintage record player was the inspiration behind the wall color.

Favorite Element: The cubby shelves. We like so many little things and this shelving unit allows us to display all of those things and have the space not feel so cluttered. The cloud shelves are a favorite, but I also like the dirty clothes bin that we found at Value Village to an absurd degree.

072409cubby.jpg
Biggest Challenge: Finding a rocking chair that we could afford, that was comfortable, and that looked good … Countless hours wasted researching online. We lucked out and ended up getting a converted Eames chair/rocker as a gift!

What Friends Say: People really seem to enjoy her toy/ book/ record collection because they are mostly faves from when we were little, or our actual old stuff.

Proudest DIY: I couldn’t find baskets that fit our cubby shelves, so I decided to make them. A frustrating process indeed! I’m so happy with the results. It is nice to have places to put away small toys, burp rags, diapers, etc. Here are the directions I used…

We enjoyed making lots of things for Penelope. I didn’t realize just how much we had done until I got to this question. The curtains, cloud shelves, painted picture frames, refurbished dresser, the dolly on the shelf and the pennant holding wall birds!

We also have lots of creative friends and family that have added so much to this nursery.

072409laundry.jpgBiggest Indulgence: Flor “Toy Poodle” carpet squares

Best advice: Make the room a place you want to hang out in. Have a comfortable place to play on the floor.

Dream source: a time machine

Resources: thrift stores, internet lurking

072409enjoying_the_view.jpg>> Enter Slideshow

Images: Molly Anderson (Penny Lou's mom)

Tags

Nursery Tours

Related Links

Share

Comments (40)

Such a bright, beautiful room-loaded with personality! Where are the cubby shelves from? They don't look like they're from the ubiquitous IKEA Expedit collection.

posted by neomott on July 24th 2009 at 10:47am
view neomott's profile

This room is so fun and virbrant. I love it!

posted by Carrie too on July 24th 2009 at 10:51am
view Carrie too's profile

Best. Room. Ever!

There's just so much joy and creativity put into this and it shows.

Can you tell me about the paint? Which color did you use? We are thinking of the same duck egg blue/green for the future nursery, but I noticed you just put it on one wall. . . I wonder if all four would be too much seafoam. ??

Pretty girl and a pretty name.
:)

posted by mere1975 on July 24th 2009 at 10:53am
view mere1975's profile

are those flor tiles on the floor? beautiful room!

posted by mrs. p on July 24th 2009 at 11:18am
view mrs. p's profile

Totally awesome! Love the paint color and curtains, and of course all the vintage treasures. But my favorite thing might be the sweet birds with the banners--what a genius little whimsical tweak to the cute banner idea. Also, where did you get your laundry basket!? I'd love to get my hands on one of those.

posted by hyzen on July 24th 2009 at 11:46am
view hyzen's profile

I love Mary Blair's illustrations. You've got one lovely room and a beautiful little girl!

We're about to have a little girl who will be sharing a room with her brother and I've been trying to figure out how to combine some blue and yellow in her side of the room so that it all works together and I've just found some inspiration from your ideas!

Thanks for posting!

posted by racheloncegentry on July 24th 2009 at 11:58am
view racheloncegentry's profile

that's one of the best nurseries I've seen. truly beautiful! i love the vintage mobile. and what an adorable baby!

posted by slm1234 on July 24th 2009 at 12:10pm
view slm1234's profile

PLEASE, APARTMENT THERAPY!! Stop.... with.... the.... adorable... babies! You're killing me with preciousness!

This little girl is so cute, I wanna scream! You guys have had a series of the most adorable children lately and they're making me pine for a chubby cheeked lil one.

I love this room and really, it's the exact environment that I am trying to create in my entire home, but I just can't get down. Love it!

What fabric are your curtains? They're great!

posted by chusmabilly on July 24th 2009 at 12:21pm
view chusmabilly's profile

the cubby shelves were found at a used office furniture store.

the paint is Valspar simply seafoam. We put it on one wall as we were having a little girl and didn't want to over do the blue as we wanted to use other colors as well.

yup Toy Poodle flor tiles.

the laundry hamper unfortunately is a thriftstore find so i am not sure where to find another.

yeah the birds holding the pennants designed after Mary Blair's birds in I Can Fly.

we really were inspired by all the nurseries on ohdeedoh.
thanks for all the comments and feedback.

posted by plousmom on July 24th 2009 at 12:21pm
view plousmom's profile

I love this! Mary Blair is one of my all-time favorite illustrators. Job well done! Oh, could you tell us what the fabric is that you used to make the little baskets?

posted by MalibuRachel on July 24th 2009 at 12:37pm
view MalibuRachel's profile

Oh, and ms. Penny Lou is just adorable, too! Great smile! Thanks for including the shots of her. I love when we get to see the darling little ones who inhabit these awesome spaces. :)

posted by hyzen on July 24th 2009 at 1:05pm
view hyzen's profile

Fabulous child's room! I absolutely love the colors and the whimsy. What a great mix of old, new, diy and scavenged finds. Lucky baby. What I like most about this room is that it serves the baby and not just the design tastes of the parents, that is after all what it should be about!

Great job, fantastic room that will grow with your lovely daughter- stimulate her creativity.
p.s - Where did you get the garbage can and the cloud shelves - wow!

posted by kkdm on July 24th 2009 at 1:35pm
view kkdm's profile

Love the Goldenbooks. Great room. There is something perfectly Portland about it.

The room brought up a question though. Is there anything to look out for when buying or giving your child vintage toys?

posted by gypsumsatellite on July 24th 2009 at 2:33pm
view gypsumsatellite's profile

LOVE THIS ROOM. LOVE IT!! I absolutely love Mary Blair and everything about this room is just perfect, including little Madame. So jealous of your hamper.

posted by robinm on July 24th 2009 at 5:12pm
view robinm's profile

Inspirational, beautiful, happy space. I love your advice to make it a space you want to hang out in. Our nursery (sister/brother) is still in progress, and posts like this help me remember what i want to create. Thank you!
And adorable girl. she looks so happy!

posted by flickchick on July 24th 2009 at 6:51pm
view flickchick's profile

Absolutely adorable room for an absolutely beautiful baby!

posted by yukonmama on July 24th 2009 at 6:55pm
view yukonmama's profile

Truly inspirational -- thanks so much for sharing!

kkdm: more info about cloud shelves here:
http://wallstory.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/cloud-shelf/

posted by jenbabyx2 on July 24th 2009 at 8:54pm
view jenbabyx2's profile

Where did you get the mobile and what brand is it? It looks like the vintage Christmas ornaments I have from my childhood that are wooden and labeled "Watkins."

posted by herz9160 on July 25th 2009 at 12:12am
view herz9160's profile

Wonderful!

posted by wrenx on July 25th 2009 at 12:51am
view wrenx's profile

Those little cloud shelves are AWESOME, way to go making them yourself!

posted by Mand@ on July 25th 2009 at 10:20am
view Mand@'s profile

So many great things in this room! Where do I start! I really like the cloud floating shelves with the vintage toys and I love the color, curtains, and shelves with the colorful objects. Those little vintage vintage pictures are cute too!

posted by jessroo on July 25th 2009 at 10:30am
view jessroo's profile

this is my favorite nursery yet!! i love how original it looks! great job : )

posted by zooeymae on July 25th 2009 at 8:27pm
view zooeymae's profile

Great nursery! Love the colors and illustrations...just bought a set of the Cloud Shelves from Modern Dose!

http://www.moderndose.com/product_info.php?products_id=586&osCsid=4d3954ca285f60e25af4c6f8d823e614

P.S. Your daughter is insanely adorable!

posted by rachel129 on July 25th 2009 at 8:34pm
view rachel129's profile

Love the bird pennants and the crib at an angle. Where did you get the white light fixture--is that Ikea?

Your baby=too cute!

posted by TheLittlestChicken on July 26th 2009 at 11:06am
view TheLittlestChicken's profile

love this nursery...where did you get the fantastic lamp that's sitting on the cubby shelves?

posted by KJW on July 26th 2009 at 11:40pm
view KJW's profile

Where did you get that neat boombox pillow?!
So cute, great job.

posted by eirvine27 on July 27th 2009 at 11:48am
view eirvine27's profile

boombox pillow was a shower gift from pottery barn kids

crib mobile was a thrift store find. do a google search on "mobiles by irmi" this was the zoo collection. there are a few other themes.

the lamp in the corner is from Ikea i don't see it on their site.

the handpainted kids lamp is a thrift store purchase and i don't see any markings on it.

the fabric for the storage boxes was found while traveling and I don't know any info on it.

let me see if I can find the pear fabric info. we got it from bolt fabrics in portland.

posted by plousmom on July 27th 2009 at 12:33pm
view plousmom's profile

Maisy!!! I love it! What a beautiful fun room..and the cutest little girl ever.
My boys are blond haired ..but being born with a mess of dark hair your cutie is what I always pictured my daughter would look like..You are lucky people!

posted by skubygurl on July 27th 2009 at 2:42pm
view skubygurl's profile

Sorry..its Miffy..got my characters mixed up ;(

posted by skubygurl on July 27th 2009 at 3:08pm
view skubygurl's profile

love your room and using Mary Blair artwork is a great idea!

posted by graphix_girl on July 27th 2009 at 11:04pm
view graphix_girl's profile

What an absolutely lovely room... I think it's my favorite nursery I've seen on this site. Thanks for the inspiration!

I know it's already been asked, but can you provide any more information about where you purchased the fabric banner and birds? I'm curious what the birds are made of- wood or heavy paper?- they are just too cute!

Again, fabulous job!

posted by ETebb80 on July 28th 2009 at 2:57pm
view ETebb80's profile

This is beautifully executed! LOVE the cubbies. Mary Blair was also the inspiration for my 10 month old daughter's room - "Mary Blair Woodland Animals". She is such an ongoing source of inspiration! I'm an animator and have begun an apparently never-ending project of designing children's prints that combine my two favorite aesthetics, mary blair mod and victorian :) For anyone looking to do room like this - note that Flor also makes those tiles by Alexander Girard (great for mary blair theme) and François Robert (great for a golden books/city/richard scary theme). In case anyone is interested, I'm selling my children's prints on Etsy ;)
Hello Prints
Great post!

posted by helloear on July 28th 2009 at 6:00pm
view helloear's profile

LOVE THE ROOM! We almost named our 4 month old daughter Penelope. Maisie (our daughter) is now very jealous and wants to know why mom is not working harder on her room.

posted by HeidiS on July 29th 2009 at 3:34pm
view HeidiS's profile

I love the entire nursery, especially the Mary Blair prints. Can you tell me where you got them?

posted by vcr on July 30th 2009 at 11:49am
view vcr's profile

SCERumptious baby! Love the room, love the seafoam wall, the storage unit, the bunny and crib quilt. Great colors; very sunny and cheerful without being too too much.

posted by housefulloffur on July 30th 2009 at 12:06pm
view housefulloffur's profile

the Mary Blair prints were just images we found online http://www.flickr.com/photos/60585948@N00/2223610562/in/set-1499986/

We had them printed on photo paper then found old frames from thrift stores and spray painted them orange.

the pennants were made by my sister from fabric scraps for the baby shower. the birds are made from cork board and felt.

thanks for all the compliments. we started on the nursery pretty soon after we found out we were having a girl so it was all a little at a time.

posted by plousmom on July 30th 2009 at 2:56pm
view plousmom's profile

What a great room. I love the colors (they were my wedding colors, so I'm a bit partial.)

posted by Morgan (The818.com) on August 8th 2009 at 6:13pm
view Morgan (The818.com)'s profile

First, what an adorable baby! And I love her name! Is Penny short for something (I probably should read the other posts)? Anyway, I love the nursery. I love the chest painted white with yellow (mustard) drawers, etc. I have a planter in a bright yellow that I would love to copy to paint a chest of drawers, but I thought it would be too bright. But I can just do the drawers, what a fab idea! And I love the orange frames, we have a Charlie Harper print in a bright orange frame for my daughter's room.

posted by Pencils on August 10th 2009 at 12:11pm
view Pencils's profile

love, love, love the room!

can you tell me where you got the stuffed bunny that is in the crib with your adorable daughter?

thanks!

posted by sedwards515 on August 11th 2009 at 1:33pm
view sedwards515's profile

Penny is short for Penelope.

That bunny's name is Miffy. We got ours on ebay. I see there is one available now as well.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-NEW-14-MIFFY-RABBIT-PLUSH-TOY-STUFFED-DOLL-YELLOW_W0QQitemZ270441709164QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ef794fe6c&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

posted by plousmom on August 12th 2009 at 11:50am
view plousmom's profile