Name: Lincoln (8 weeks)
Location: St. Louis Park, MN
Our focus on our baby's room was bright, clean, fun and gender neutral (we waited until his birth to learn the sex). What once was a sad attempt at a home office is now the room of our new baby boy, Lincoln.
Here's a rundown of the room: The rug and most of the furniture is IKEA. The changing table/dresser has been in the family for 100+ years - we just updated it with button knobs from Anthropologie. The metal wire crates, "HI" letters and flash card animals are from Hunt & Gather in Minneapolis. One long Friday night was spent attaching the flashcards to magnet backing so they stay up but can be taken down. We put up a new fan/light and picked up a canvas print from Urban Outfitters.
In a fit of fatherly nesting, my husband Rich (a graphic designer) decided to paint the room white and hand-paint an alphabet on the wall. The easy part started with firing up Illustrator, getting some transparency paper, buying an overhead projector and mixing a few sample cans of paint.
Then the hard part came - scaling the artwork on the wall, redrawing the lines from multiple transparencies and masking off parts of the letters. Then came painting almost straight, semi-circular Helvetica letterforms in between hand cramps and air-drying. After the third coat and some white paint edge clean-up the wall was finished
In short, up-close the letters aren't perfect. In fact you can see pencil lines if you gawk long enough, but that's the point. Rich wanted to make something for our new one that was a piece of him. Pride, flaws and all.
Thanks Angela & Rich! Readers, see more of the creation of this alphabet wall here.
(Images: Angela Higgins)
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Yay, Minnesota! Love that wall - this is one hel-vetica of a room : )! Sorry, couldn't resist.
Awesome. Love the letters. Love the crispness and color. A happy space!
this is such a phenomenal nursery room. I like the fact that b/c of the bright bold letters, you've kept the room white which REALLY showcase the bold letters. How long was the whole process to stencil and paint the letters?
I audibly said "wow" when the page popped up from my Twitter link. Those letters are spectacular.
I LOVE that ABC wall! Reminds me of my fave childhood book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. <3
GREAT nursery. Wonderful way to use primary colors without it getting overpowering.
I love it. Bright, fun colors, educational, not trying too hard to be trendy, great job!
I also love that the crib obscures part of the alphabet. Your husband must be a fan of Bruce Mau and his hypergraphics. Well done!
http://www.brucemaudesign.com/
I LOVE the letters! They look perfect from here! I bet Lincoln loves them too!
Hats off to you for the hand-painted letters! I love the look of the whole room. Enjoy that baby boy!
Love the changing table. Beautiful lines.
I too like that you kept the walls white and made those alpabets just dance off the wall.
Great space.
What a happy room; it is nice to think of the love and patience that went into creating it. I'm sure your baby will love those alphabet letters for many years to come!
uh-maze-ing
such a great idea!
You did an awesome job w/those letters. Until I read the text, I assumed they were decals.
That said, it would be interesting to see them all in black, on that white wall. And, black and white are good for a newborn's visual stimulation.
I love those BRIGHT GREEN curtains!
Way to go Dad! The letters, and the love the represent, are 100% perfect.
I love those letters!!
The Chikka Chikka Boom Boom connection is strengthened by those green curtains.
I think my son's rainbow potholder rug would be perfect in this room!
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/post-3-13503
Because of the black IKEA shelving unit though, I would paint the rest of the walls pure black. I did it in my son's room, and it was stunning. The black would set-off the beautiful changing table to better effect, as well as the crib and lettering wall. The green curtains would look gorgeous and the black storage unit would be better integrated (now, it is a very heavy visual element, both in terms of the weight of the colour, which is not matched elsewhere, as well as the chunkiness of the design -- I know it well, we had one in my son't room too).
I found that black made my son's things stand out more, and seem more brightly coloured. All his toys and drawings were beautiful against the black background.
Love it! As others have said, very chicka chicka boom boom!
Love, love, love it all!!!
So great. Love this room.
I just spent the better part of half an hour trawling the internet for your letters before reading your post! Just gorgeous. If your husband is passing by London, can you tell him to pop in, I'll have the paint ready!
Easily one of my favorite alphabet walls ever shown on here. Love this room!