Fairy Garden Mural

We have been meaning to make this mural happen for a while now. Each house Derek and I lived in I have christened with some hand drawn wall art. Even before kids came along I spruced up the dingy back wall of our neighbor's garage as it was flush to our backyard deck. 

I added color  (blue, green and orange) conveniently matching my Crate and Barrel fiesta dishes, table cloth and pillows. Painting that icky yellow-tinged wall a vibrant robin's egg blue and adding our little orange tree transformed our Los Feliz yard into a garden oasis. 

Before

Freshly Painted

After

This past October Derek and I went back to our little California  abode for the first time together in 4 1/2 years since we left. The orange tree was still there. 

Upon becoming pregnant with baby # 1 we jumped on decorating the nursery. As we didn't know the sex, we went gender neutral with soft yellows, greens and a baby jungle animal theme. 

We moved cross country to Chicago when Maeve was just 3 months old. "Bummer about the mural," my friends would say. So after months of unpacking, decorating, adjusting again to Chicago and life with a baby, the mural was recreated. 

When we moved the girls got the cutest room to share. It's big and bright with nooks and crannies, lovely dormers and built-ins. We simultaneously transferred my 2 year old and 4 year old from crib and toddler bed to matching twin beds. 

The room is painted the softest lavender color (here when we moved in!) with this ingenius built-in  dresser. The knobs are  lavender polka-dotted pulls from Pottery Barn Kids.

When you have two little girls the pink and purple really DO take over through every imaginable article of clothing, toy, hair bow and tutu. And even though my oldest says her favorite color is "dark blue" and my youngest proudly shouts that "Lellow" is her fave, we all decided to go for a super pinky/lavender girly scheme...Fairy Garden style.

It all started with the banner that I got at the annual Lake Forest Antique Sale, Antiques & Treasures In The Field. Then the clouds came. They just seemed like such a fun, whimsical and somewhat graphic element added to the dormer. To lay under the cloudy dormers on my little girl's bed is dreamy.

Next we did the tree project. We painted the tree on Maeve's side of the room. I wanted some height over her bed to balance the height of the banner. Also I thought some sort of 3-D element would look cool. Thus the weeping willow rag banner tree was born. Maeve calls it her "giving tree". We read under it every night.

The design process began. The girls came up with a list of things they wanted in their mural. Here is Maeve with some preliminary designs she drew up;)

• fairies
• flowers
• hills
• butterflies
• an owl
• a cottage

It was really important for Maeve to be a major part of this project. She loves art. She did a TON of the painting. I painted outlines of flowers and strawberries and she filled in color. She did a lot of pattern work too...where I would say, "Take the blue paint and make a dot in each flower shape." She got it immediately. And if there was paint outside of the lines...oh well! That would be added charm of a hand done children's mural.

Over a 1 week period around naps and any 30 minutes we could grab, we layered color and texture. 

Notice her fairy wings...and tattoo. Perfect combo.

The girls decided that we needed a cute little owl in our tree based on one of their favorite bed time stories...Little Owl's Night by Divra Srinivasan. We would make him look kinda like this...but sleeping...

And paint him in this color scheme pulled from bed pillows.

Crazy Owl sketch...Maeve thought this was hysterical.

Our new feathered friend

Maeve's Fairy

Nina's flowers and fairy came as an afterthought. I had already done the clouds and banner on her side of the room. After doing the mural on Maeve's half, though, I saw that it needed to continue on the other side for balance.

 Nina's fairy

The girls love their Fairy Garden Room. They have been picking strawberries and playing endless fairy games. This was such a fun decorating project for both me and the kids.

We are still not done, however. Still adding little craft butterflies and possibly letters spelling their names...oh and the cottage...hmmm, where to put the cottage...?

Is more just, well, more stuff? The nice thing about a kid's room is you can really have some fun...go a little crazy with color or theme. 

Your tiny client embraces the fantasy totally. ;)

As they say in fairy land...All you need is

Faith, Trust and a little Pixie Dust!

Head/Base board: Pottery Barn Kids

Bedding: Home Goods

Rug: Pottery Barn Kids (clearance-$25!)

Hanging Shelves: Babies R'Us

Fabric for Tree: Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts

Paints for Mural: Blick Art

Floor Lamp: Pottery Barn Kids