apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We asked Tina to give us a tour of some of her favorite items, but first we wanted some background about her inspiration for this room...

I knew that I wanted a fun space. I wanted to incorporate many colors so that when I purchased or made something, it didn't have to exactly match a color or theme. I wanted it to be modern, but not cold. I also didn't want it to look perfect and so expected. I based the colors and design of the nursery off of the bedding. The first thing I found was the striped fabric at a local quilt store. I loved how it was so vibrant and youthful. The stripes made it more uniform and modern, but the colors were so joyful. I decided to use the aqua color off the fabric as the field paint color for the room…and it all just went on from there.

I'm a huge fan of Day of the Dead artwork and I just love skulls in general so a friend of mine mixed cute with creepy and came up with this adorable stuffie! She also made the striped monster. She used the scraps of my striped fabric as his hair.

I made the bumper and bed skirt. I found a plain white bumper at Babies 'R' Us and cut off the ties to use as the filler for my bumper. The skirt was just a made-up pattern. I also made the stuffed 2D car sitting on the shelf above the crib. I'm always trying to sew new things, so this was my first attempt at a stuffed toy.

I made the bunting, as well as the orange retro painting. The painted wooden bird houses (hanging with the bunting flags and one big one sitting on the shelf above the dressers) were made for me by one of the many girls that put on my baby shower. The theme of the shower was "nesting" and the girls decorated the picnic tables with little nests filled with pastel M&Ms and bird houses painted in the colors of my nursery. The houses were centerpieces and I decided to keep a few of them to accent the room.

I made the chair pillow and the curtain valance. My Mom made the quilt draped over the chair. She and I went together to pick out fabric for a baby quilt and I fell in love with these colors. They are so retro and old, but in a good way! It just reminded me of the colors and patterns I saw when I was growing up.

The framed "Sonny" artwork was made by a close friend of mine. She asked for a piece of the striped fabric and came up with this beautiful piece of art. She hand sewed all the buttons to create Sonny's name and underneath it are mountains with little green trees! Sonny's actual name on his birth certificate is Son. It is a Vietnamese name and it means mountain... so that explains the mountains.

We asked Tina if she has any tips for our crafty, craft-loving readers, including people who might be intimidated by making their own toys or baby gear:

My advice to those who want to make their own items: go online, search through photos of things you like, and search for tutorials. There are so many books and patterns out there for baby products and most of the time you can go through the pattern and simplify it to fit your need. There are a few things I won't make -- like baby carriers -- just because of safety reasons. I just don't think I could make it as sturdy. If you can't make it, I recommend second hand/consignment stores. It's a great way to recycle, reduce, reuse!

Great advice! Thanks for sharing, Tina.

If you want to see more of Tina's craftiwork, check out her blog and her Flickr streams.