So I know I caused many of you (including myself) great pain last week with the butt-ugly pictures of Alice’s room in chaos. And it wasn’t just the chaos–it was the ugly washed-out lighting of the overhead light and poor exposure and color balance. If I never look at those pictures again, I will be a happy woman. So after finishing the room about a week and a half ago, I decided to wait until the following morning to photograph it, when the light was streaming in the window and beautifying everything it touched.
There’s nothing like morning light to make a space feel extra fresh.
Walking in from the hall, this is the first view of the room.
The little hanging butterflies and polka-dot sheet were given to me by my friend Emily, who got them in turn from her friend. Thanks, ladies!
And the quilt, my absolute favorite piece of bedding, was hand-made by my sister Erica.
Thank you thank you thank you!
The little Marcy doll was a purchase my husband made at Cedar Point a few weeks ago.
He hopes that she and Alice will become special friends.
Turning clockwise, the next stop is the changing table . . .
. . . which was the butcher’s block in the kitchen of our old apartment.
I’ll have to stop myself from saying “put that baby on the butcher’s block!”
It just sounds wrong.
Above the butcher’s block is one of my favorite wall-hangings. The other week I got a surprise package from my cousin June, and in it was a vintage Alice in Wonderland paper doll. I put it in a frame and love the results!
The other picture we hung is from a set of three. My friend Eve made me lovely burp cloths–so lovely that I decided to frame the fabric and hang them throughout the room!
Hope you don’t mind, Eve.
And how better to turn a butcher’s block into a changing table than with bins! A bin for diapers and a bin for wipes, both of which just slide right out . . .
. . . and a bin with all of her little accessories: bows, ribbons, shoes, socks, hats, sunglasses, etc.
Continuing our clockwise turn, the next thing we come across is the gigantic closet, which occupies the whole back wall.
Inside, all her little things are organized.
(though we have since installed the car seat in our car–not the ordeal we imagined it might be, believe it or not!)
On the left side, we have a hanging organizer with bedding and cloths.
The big green bag on top has extra diapers that simply wouldn’t fit in the bin.
I think plenty of diapers is a good thing . . . or so I hear.
In the middle of the closet is a tall cupboard that houses clothes:
With bins inside that I can pull out as if they were drawers!
The little skirts, for instance, are all here:
To the right is another hanging organizer, with swaddlers on top and then onesies each assigned a cubby by size and type (long sleeve/short sleeve). It may look a little messy, but I promise it’s all thought-out and structured.
And further to the right are her sweaters, outerwear and assorted dresses.
On the shelving above is her Pak N’ Play, ready to go for all our out of town trips.
One of my main concerns about Alice’s room was the mismatched factor. Besides the crib and crib mattress, which we bought new at our Ikea trip, everything else was recycled from other past rooms. Which isn’t a problem–reusing stuff is great–but I had visions of a horribly hodge-podge room being the final product. Which might make me cry.
I wasn’t reassured it would all work until, well, it worked.
Until everything was in its proper corner, at the proper angle.
Continuing on our clockwise adventure, the next stop is the side table/rocking chair area.
The side table used to house our microwave at our old apartment, and now houses this adorable turtle nightlight from Aunt Jacquie, and breastfeeding paraphenalia inside the cupboard (nursing pillows, breast pump and the like).
The top of the microwave table was so beat up that I decided to cover it with a polka-dotted burp cloth from a set my friend Vessie bought us.
On that final wall are built in shelves that we have definitely put to use!
How can such a small little girl already have so many books???
I’m delighted.
I decorated the bottom shelf with some girly things, mostly gifts that to me represent all the love this little girl is being born into, though she doesn’t even know it yet.
Another framed burp cloth from my friend Eve . . .
. . . these lovely purple cut-out pictures that my cousin Emily made . . .
. . . and a wire basket (from Mama Kitty and Big Jake) full of the pink paper flowers my friend Carrie made as decorations for the baby shower she threw.
I’m so glad to be having a girl. It’s occurred ot me: what the heck would I put on this shelf if I were having a boy?
An . . . airplane?
Who knows.
And our clockwise spin has brought us back to the crib!
I painted that little shelf (from the basement of Mama Kitty and Big Jake) white, and put up a watercolor of flowers my mom painted, and the final framed burp cloth.
I love it. I have such a sense of peace entering this room. We’re ready for you, little Alice!
