Whimsical Tree Nursery Idea

by Elizabeth
(Houston, Texas)

The inspiration for my whimsical tree nursery idea came from a onesie I purchased at Target. It was turquoise blue and had a cherry blossom branch in brown, flowers in hot pink and a white bird. That was my jumping off point for my theme and colors.

I have never been one to buy "matched sets" of things so most of the items in the nursery were put together from multiple places. My first purchase was two pillows from Etsy.com from the shop Naughty by Nature. I loved the fabric used on the pillows and decided I wanted to make a comforter out of it. I found the fabric at an online fabric store that has since gone out of business. I backed the fabric with some really soft, lime green furry material and tucked in a border of pink ball fringe. It is super soft and was super easy and I don't even know how to sew.

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I ended up buying several more items from Etsy (if you haven't checked out their site yet, you really should) including vinyl birds in turquoise and pink to stick on the walls from Vinyl Wall Art and darling art by Allison Strine. I am a thrifty girl at heart and love the hunt so I set off for the outlet mall. I struck bargain gold at the Pottery Barn Outlet. There I found a bumper, mobile, lamp shade, pillow and cute little blue chair.

I purchased the furniture from JC Penny. I didn't want furniture that's use wouldn't last past the age of 3 so I didn't buy a changing table and bought a crib that converts into a toddler bed and then a full size headboard and footboard. I was lucky enough to find the rocker in the perfect color fabric at USA Baby. They were selling it at a discount because it was a "floor sample".

The hanging light and floor pillows and several of the picture frames were found at Hobby Lobby. I purchased the curtains at Ikea and used fabric glue to attach pink ball fringe. I used the excess as tie backs. I tacked the ball fringe to the wall and found flower pins at TJ Maxx to clip on top and hide the tacks.

The framed bird print leaning on the dresser is a photograph I took and then printed on muslin using my home computer/printer. This is a really easy process. The purple furry round rug was my most recent purchase. I found it at Home Goods. If you don't know, Home Goods is owned by TJ Maxx/Marshalls. They have a fantastic selection of items for your home and the prices are very reasonable. Their selection turns over quickly so there are always new things to check out whenever you go in.





I used Behr "Honeydew" on the walls. Beware. This paint color is not for the faint of heart. This green glows! It is very scary when you first put it on the walls. I have to admit I almost repainted, but once everything was in, it looked really good. It is a happy color.





I am not an artist and knew that I could not paint a tree without having some type of "aide". Overhead projector to the rescue. I happened to have one of my very own but if you don't have one I have seen them for sale on eBay for less than $20. I found an image of a tree I liked that was included in a digital scrapbooking kit at TheShabbyShoppe.com. The kit has some really cute images in it and I am kicking around a few ideas about creating some art for the walls with some of the other elements. I printed the tree out on a transparency on my printer at home and the put it on the projector and viola! An image that I can totally trace!

The only tricky part about this process is trying to paint without casting a shadow over what you are painting! Other than that, I suggest you go for it. If it doesn't look good you can always paint over it. There are so many images that have simple lines that you can put on your wall using this method. The tree only took me a few hours over a couple of days.

I just used a small cheap "artist" paint brush from Michael's to outline the tree and then I turned off the projector to fill it in. I painted the tree trunk in Valspar "Green Tea" and the birds in Valspar "Flower Girl" (Pink) and "Sea Tickle" (Blue). The detailing on the birds was painted with Valspar "Cowboy Boots".

The great thing about the Valspar line of paints (available at Lowes) is that they sell any of their colors in the pint (testers) size for $3.98. For a crafty project like this or to test a paint color first, this is a great bargain. A note, the pint sizes only come in Satin Finish.





For storage at the baby changing station (a built-in desk with a changing pad on top) I used large glass cookie jars (found at Target) for socks and hair bows and wicker baskets (found at Hobby Lobby) for things that will be used often, like diapers, burp clothes, onesies, etc. I found a very small light at Ikea that uses a night light bulb that I have plugged in here so that it will make it easier to change the baby at night without having too much light.

I am happy with how everything turned out. Now I just need a baby to put in there and we're good to go!

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