Name: Magnolia Kate
Age: 21 months
Location: Rochester, MN
Room Size: 10x10
I'm very excited to share this nursery with Ohdeedoh readers, because this nursery was designed by me! I started working on it long before I started writing for Ohdeedoh, and like many of you, I drew tons of inspiration from all the beautiful photos and cool projects featured here. Creating this space was especially fun for me because although Magnolia is my third child, it's my first actual nursery. Budget constraints were so tight when my first two babies were born (my husband and I were in college) that designing a nursery seemed like a fantasy to me. So this time I knew I wanted to go all out, not in a spendy way, but in a DIY handmade mania way. That's probably why it took me 2 years to finish it.
What was your inspiration? I knew I wanted to stick with a vintage circus meets Little House on the Prairie with a touch of my grandmother's house in the 70s theme, you know, like if Laura Ingalls married into a Bavarian traveling circus family instead of marrying Almanzo and then retired and drove a big yellow Oldsmobile and ate tea sandwiches at bridge club parties. I tried to explain that to the salesgirl at BabiesRUs, and she had no idea what I was talking about. That's when I knew I was going to have to make everything myself.
What's your favorite element in the room? I guess the crib mobile is my favorite, because I struggled with the color palette so much, and then I ended up using those colors all over the room. It's sort of like the design vortex.
What is your proudest DIY in the room? That's a tough one. I made so much of the stuff in this room that it's hard to pick out my favorite. I like the stove because it's so rock solid sturdy but all the sides and top slide apart and lie flat for storage. I'm pretty proud of that. I love the wall of stuffed frames because I was shooting for giving the twin bed a snug daybed sort of feel. The frames are mounted really flat to the wall and then secured all the way around with heavy duty velcro so they don't bang around. Maggie loves to get in there with lots of books. Oh yeah, and that spinning merry-go-round book caddy. That was fun to make, although Maggie pulls off all the books and puts plastic animals on there and spins them. And the little lamp next to the bed that's full of plastic toys. That was inspired by my older sister's collection of gumball machine toys that she had when we were kids. And the lion door knockers are made out of plastic lions that I found in the dollar section at Target. I can't believe how much they really look like door knockers. And the toys. Lots and lots of toys I made. And the floating log shelves. I love how those turned out. So easy to make, too. Oh, oh, okay, last one...the wood veneer fox wall hook. I was so happy with how that turned out that I carried it around for a week.
What was your biggest challenge? The oak-colored bi-fold closet doors. Those things drove me nuts. I stared at them for hours trying to figure out what to do with them. So finally I painted them and added the lion knockers.
What is your dream source? Home Depot.
Resources:
crib: cheapest Jenny Lind I could find on Amazon
lingerie chest: Craigslist
Humpty Dumpty lamp: Ebay
rug: $15 from Home Depot, dala horse motif added with this tutorial
stove: see it lie flat here
lion door knockers: see decapitated plastic lion bodies here
Tutorials:
little yellow kid chair
faux birch log table
merry-go-round book caddy
electric fox lamp
Easter egg music box
Other stuff I made: crib mobile, curtains, gold square pillows, lion pillow, ruffled plush hedgehog (free pattern here), floating log shelves, swan boat, red riding hood car, toys in the wall crates, carnival toy lamp, ruffled ceiling light shade (to cover the awful brass thing up there), card catalog wall shelf, stuffed picture frame wall, crib quilt, plush squirrel, fabric and buttons clock, wood veneer fox wall hook, Hey Diddle wall plaques
I hope these projects light a DIY fire in you. They sure were fun to make and none of them require special, expensive tools or crazy advanced skills. And just so you know, out of all the toys I've made, Maggie's favorite is an empty Gatorade bottle filled with Froot Loops.
(Images: Katie Steuernagle)
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oh it is precious! please tell us how you made the ruffled lampshade. did you make the striped suitcase too? i love the sailboats and the toys in the crates..and the stove..it's all so darling. you have done a great job! my baby is nearly 10 months old and i am still not done with her room!
What a sweet and lovely nursery! I actually stumbled upon your blog a few days ago after seeing a link on modgepodgerocks. Love the fox lamp!
One of my favorites to date! Well done!
OMG
what a stunning room and what effort and detail on the part of mummy......
a joy to look at............
very, very intimidating. I may never post any of my children's rooms now. What happens if you all laugh ( loudly) at my efforts?
I will bookmark this room, just because.
Adorable! My favorite line: "...where Laura Ingalls married into a Bavarian traveling circus family." Lol. Can you share the tutorial for the little stove that comes apart? How exactly is it held together? Pegs? It's genius!
P.S. It also took me 2 years to put together my daughter's room, since we wanted to make a lot of the stuff ourselves as well!
This is one of the best nursery's I've seen on Oddeedoh! It's so sweet, and special because it was made by hand with love (and with a budget)! The stove is adorable, the rug is adorable, the closet doors, such a nice touch.... love it!
oh. my. word. I love this room. Normally, I'll point out specific things I like in a room but where to start with this room?! I need specifics on how that lion pillow was made. Did you paint the face? LOVE her name too.
What a lovely room. Unlike a lot of the nursery tours, this one looks really easy to live in. I could see myself hanging out in there all day if it was my little one's room!
I love the ruffled lampshade to cover an ugly fixture idea. I have a few fixtures that could use that kind of treatment.
Also, all what a lucky third child! My third doesn't even have a nursery (and if she did, I doubt it would look as nice as this one!).
I would've loved to have seen the look on the face of that Babies R Us salesperson while you were explaining your "theme"! Bwahaha! I'm sure you were the talk of the stockroom later. ;)
The stuffed frames just rocked my world.
Oh wow. I’m in deep love. Love the color palette, the faux birch shelves and the storybook quality to everything. There’s so much whimsy, but nothing is too precious and cute. It’s a room that grow easily. And the stuffed frames? Truly inspired. I will be copying those in my daughter’s room. They’re the exact thing I’ve been looking for, but nowhere near creative enough to devise on my own. Thank you for sharing your talent with us.
Darling nursery, but what I'm really stunned by is that your daughter has my daughter's first and middle name! Who knew there'd be two Magnolia Kates!
I second the comment on the stuffed frames. What a perfectly lovely idea. Thanks for the inspiration. Such a lovely little haven you've created for you and your little ones.
Thank you very much!
I would be happy to write up a tutorial for the ruffled ceiling light shade in the upcoming days. Basically it's muslin with 2 of those brass craft store hoops in it.
The suitcase is from Michaels, and I painted the stripes on it.
The best way to see how the stove is held together is to see it disassembled in the above link.
Thank you again for the kind comments!
And, tookie, I cannot believe you also have a Magnolia Kate! We named her after the restaurant (Magnolia Cafe in Austin TX) where we were working when we met.
There are so many things I love about this room, but the mobile is my absolute favorite. It's sweet as can be!
Forgot to add...
the lion pillow is a basic round box pillow with yarn poms poms sewn on around the edge. The face is painted on.
Thank you again!
It's so much fun to see this room! VERY SPECIAL -- I love everything in it, (LOVE THOSE FRAMES!) And I want to hop in that log car with Little Red Riding Hood and drive off into dreamland -- Your kids are so lucky to have a mom like you.
This has to be one of my favorite nursery tours! Everything about this space is divine! Kudos!
http://girlwhimsy.blogspot.com
Wow! This room is beautiful. I love rooms that look like children live there and this certainly does.
Also, the play stove is SO CUTE!
I really like what you did with the bifold doors. I would have never thought of that!
this is a very sweet room with so many beautiful elements. you just can immediately see the love. my favorite part that caught my eye was the frames over the twin bed. LOVE.
This room feels so real to me - I love it! Where did you find the day bed? I have been looking to add one to my daughters (21 months and her room is still evolving) but I can't find the right bed.... now I realize it's been in your daughter's room all along! ha
I found the bed on sale at JC Penney. I think it's a Pottery Barn knock-off. They call it the "Abbigail". I just checked again, and it's on sale for $299, which makes me think it's pretty much always on sale.
This is absolutely beautiful. What are the yellow and blue paint colors/brands that you used?