Max's Winnie The Pooh Lake Nursery

by Cynthia Pelaez
(New York, NY)

My inspiration for this Winnie the Pooh Lake nursery mural was a combination of books and the "leaping frog" crib bumper I chose for my son's nursery. The minute I found out I was pregnant, I knew right away that I wanted my baby to have an amazing one of kind room that fueled his imagination while creating a serene environment at the same time.

The ceiling emulates the sky. It sort of feels like you are a part of the mural. We had the room wall to wall carpeted in plush "grass" green color to imitate the grass. When we lay down it feels like we're at the lake in a beautiful peaceful park.

One of my favorite sections of the room is where I wrote in script "What a Wonderful World" floating on top of clouds. Every time I read that, it gives me such a warm comforting feeling. The clouds were done by using a large sponge and softly swirling it to create a fluffy soft effect.

I used Behr Disney Color paints in Hi-Gloss Enamel. "Cool Sky" to cover all four walls including the ceiling. "Barnyard Grass" for the grass combined with white to tone it down a little. For the lake, I used "Sweet Rhapsody". I wanted to imitate the Carribbean sea color that I love so much. As for the characters, I used saturated colors, like a Bright Red, Yellow, Blue, Brown and Orange.

We bought the "Madison" Life Time sleigh crib by Jardine Enterprises from Babies "R" Us. The changing table is a vintage dresser I had from when I was a teenager. I first painted a primer and then coated with white semi-gloss paint. I replaced the knobs with brushed nickel ones I found at Target.

The armoire is from Walmart.com. We also received a gorgeous rocking chair that sits in the corner for story time. The chair feels like its straight out of a fairy tale.

The crib bedding is "Sammy the Frog" from Brandee Danielle.

I found a cute window valance from the MiGi Splash Collection I also used their table lamp with the striped shade. The colors in the valance and lamp shade match perfectly with the green, sky blue and brown in the mural.

I used fabric baskets to store Max's toys. There is a bookshelf in the corner for books. The changing table has fabric covered storage bins and I found the cutest collapsible frog hamper.

The mural painting took me about a week. I worked on it every day for about 8 hours a day. Once I started, I could not stop. I would just go into a zone for hours. I loved every second of painting and creating my son's room. Every minute I would change my mind, and add something different to make it more spectacular.

There is just one wall of Max's nursery shown in the above picture.

I also painted a Winnie the Pooh and his friends picnic scene over Max's crib.



Also...

I must point out...

the squirrel in the tree is wearing a "Yankees" cap.




My favorite part was the clean up and assembling the furniture and putting the bedding on, arranging his toys and seeing the final result. My husband did the hard labor part, such as assembling furniture and moving it around the room. I would sit on the rocking chair and just look around, imagining Max playing in this amazing room I created for him. It has love written all over it.

This room is his safe haven despite all the craziness out there in the real world...

This room is a place where he will always feel safe...

where his imagination can soar as far as he wants.



Max's Winnie the Pooh Lake Nursery

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