Circus Themed Baby's Room

With the days of (relative) sanity in our home rapidly coming to an end—the impending birth of our third child—I was eager to finish his bedroom. For our first child, I pulled out all the stops. With no children in the home, time was a commodity we had in spades. When our son was born less than a year later, I settled on a “Flying Ace” theme with a much simpler build process—primarily a rather simple painted mural. For this child, I was determined to see the design through a bit more fully than I had for Sean’s room. But what to do?

Credit where due

After a few discussions we settled on a “circus” theme. Before I even began the design process, my lovely wife pointed me to the Pottery Barn Kids site’s "Circus Friends Theme"—perfect. It consisted of a simple paint process and some decorative elements. I’ve never been a big fan of painting, so the simple stripes easily executed with masking tape and rollers was very appealing. My (very talented) sister in law was generous enough to stop by and handle the freehand curves for me. After a week of evenings, the painting was complete.

Accessorize

I’ve always loved IKEA. I fondly recall my first visit, spending a few hours wandering around the labyrinth of room settings, finding a new bargain room accessory or kitchen implement around every corner. I took this first trip without two toddlers.

On Sunday we packed up the kids in the car and set out to accessorize the new baby’s room. Mostly they were very good. Annalise typically didn’t stray very far, but after an hour of shopping, Sean was done. In spite of this, I believe we managed to find some really interesting and appropriate pieces for the room, including draperies, a super mod/hip/colorful desk lamp for the dresser, and some inexpensive paint-able frames for the PBK matching circus prints my folks gifted the new baby. I also found the time (thanks, honey!) to build a room-length 6” ledge for the far wall and enlisted Aunt Kathy and Kaelin to assist with hauling his new cherry and walnut dresser into the room.

The small size of the room made it difficult to capture much of the it in any single frame, but I’ve attempted to show as much as possible. I’m very pleased with the result and hope our new son finds it inviting—and, if we’re incredibly lucky—sleep-inducing!

[originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/155]

-- Patrick, Chicago, IL www.TenonAndSpline.com