Part 2: Eliza's room

All right, folks. Finally, the nursery post. This is the happiest room in our home, and the one with the most precious inhabitant. We spend a lot of time here these days!

I started out designing this nursery knowing I wanted to incorporate a lot of fabric, and otherwise make it very modern in style - Oeuf crib, minimalist, sleek lines, white white white. Somehow though, as soon as we found out little E was a girl, I changed my tune. We had a vintage name picked out, and suddenly I wanted cozy, vintage, sweet, with lots of handmade touches and bits of our past. Just about everything in this nursery was a project of some kind. Every piece of furniture was lovingly assembled, customized or painted; much of the artwork and all of the fabric were custom-made just for her. Of course we could have made this easier on ourselves, but since I pretty much sit around all day dreaming up ways to turn things into complicated, time-consuming projects, this was a dream come true for me. I loved watching it come together bit by bit.

We tried to sprinkle bits of our childhoods around the room, and of course got her started on some toys, books, and keepsakes of her own. Our families also kindly pitched in; Nicholas' parents gave us her beautiful crib, my father and stepmother paid to have the chair slipcovered and converted into a glider, and my mom and stepdad generously paid for all the fabrics and labor. So much love surrounding our girl as she plays and sleeps. Below is the grand tour:

The quilt I made on bedrest now hangs on her crib. Although the fabrics were designed by me, a lovely woman in Oregon named Wendy (found through Alchemy on Etsy) sewed all the bedding, panels, and cushion because I knew my sewing skills weren't up to the challenge. I love how the white ties and box pleats turned out. All the bedding and drapery panels are printed on linen-cotton canvas; the bench cushion and chair are printed on upholstery weight twill.

Eliza's newborn shadowbox: her measurements, bracelets, hat, some little booties I made her (which she quickly outgrew) and the announcement I designed that we handed out to our families at the hospital.

The white dresser is an IKEA hack. I really loved this piece from Pottery Barn which was $900+, but not quite in the budget. I took the handles off this piece we found at IKEA and ordered some pewter English bail pulls to make it a little more traditional. I added the changing topper from Land of Nod. I actually really love this dresser - the drawers are roomy and glide beautifully. Let me tell you, Miller LOVED putting this one together - it was an all afternoon project and the universal illustrations provided as "instructions" weren't exactly clear. He had a big role in this room from an assembling/painting/nailing/doing stuff only tall, un-pregnant people can do standpoint, and was a great sounding board for the fabric designs.

The hutch. A Craigslist find that was originally painted cherry, with brass knobs. It still has a sweet little bouquet painted on top that we couldn't bear to mess with. Most of the stuffed animals and dolls on the hutch were ours. Nicholas' teddy bear, Spacey, is my favorite. I crocheted him a new yellow and white scarf with a leather button to make him a dapper gent for our daughter's new room. The booties in the shadowbox were mine, crocheted by my great-grandmother. Nicholas' baby cup sits on the shelf, as does my little Peter Rabbit music box, and some of our favorite books growing up. The knitted toys are new - they just seemed to fit in well. The silhouette is me, age 2.5 (I had a crazy amount of hair!). That doll with the gorgeous lace dress is actually a Prince William in his Christening gown, brought to me by my grandmother from England when I was little. Annie and John brought Eliza that Paddington Bear from their most recent visit to London; they made it home just in time for her arrival. Highly recommend the retro "This Is..." series! The illustrations are fantastic and it gives its readers a lovely (if somewhat dated) tour of Texas. We also have "This Is London."

Hello from Suzette! This is my favorite corner (and the one I spend the most time in). We converted a club chair that we already had into a glider, and we decided to have a slipcover made so we could wash it. I designed/ ordered the e. fabric months ahead of time, but didn't get the pillow sewn until about 2 days before she was born. The quilt is the one my stepmother made and gave to me at Eliza's baby shower; she is a very talented quilter, and knew I was crazy about fabric so wanted me to help design it. All the fabrics are from Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms line. It is a treasured gift and it such a perfect addition to our nursery!

Above the crib: Eliza's mobile, which I think might be the thing I'm proudest of in this room. I crocheted it over a period of months. I can't take credit for the idea; it was inspired by Emma Lamb's Delilah mobile on Etsy. She's crazy talented! I'd decided I wanted to crochet my own, and googled around until I found one that matched what I had in mind. I decided to drop some hummingbirds down the center, so found a hummingbird pattern, crocheted the different flower motifs, crocheted around the hoop (very. frustrating.) and put it all together. The individual flowers and discs are actually fairly quick to whip together, but it was a pretty challenging project overall. She loves watching it spin, which makes me so happy. I hope once we've outgrown mobile age around here it will hang in a corner of some Miller child's room for years to come.

I designed the Good Day, Sunshine poster with my husband in mind. He loves the Beatles, and I thought it would be one way we could infuse a little more of him into this very girly room. (Sweet MJ took this pic - good shot, friend!).

Book nook: From the get-go, we both knew we wanted a corner that encouraged reading. I wanted her to be able to pull the books out herself to read when she is old enough, so this bench with its little cubbies seemed like just the thing. I had the cubbies styled a bit more interestingly at one point, but we've already been reading lots of books, and well, this is how it looks now.

The best job I ever had was working at the wonderful (and now sadly closed) Toad Hall Children's Bookstore in high school. I loved going there growing up, so it was always dear to my heart, and I learned so much about children's books while working there. I had the idea back then to frame illustrations from my favorites and use them in a nursery someday. The movie "You've Got Mail" used Toad Hall as a reference for their set and storyline, and just like the store in the movie, it eventually folded due to its inability to compete with the heavily discounted books at the big national bookstores. It closed its doors the day I left for W&L, which I've never gotten over, but I always found strangely symbolic and fitting in a way. I always dreamed about opening a similar store someday. But I digress...

Above: Madeline, Charlotte's Web, Winnie the Pooh, Bread and Jam for Frances, Little House in the Big Woods, and Eloise. I scanned them into my design software and then typed up the accompanying passages below. Miller kindly printed them out for me at work, although if they hadn't been such a TOTAL pain to line up straight in the frames I probably would go back and have my printer print them on a heavier cardstock so they don't curl in the frame. My perfectionist self can deal with it. I'm not redoing them.

This giraffe is from Anthropologie - E. loves looking up at him while we change and dress her. We both love the prints on the left of little girl in London, found on Etsy. The painting on the right is from my good friend Dottie, who lives in Amarillo and whose daughter Lisle is 6 days younger than Eliza. We did a nursery artwork exchange that I posted about awhile back. She has been a wonderful and special friend to have through our pregnancies and early days as mamas.

Above the crib: a blessing needlepointed by my great Aunt Billie (Eliza's great great aunt). I have one too that she made for me when I was born. We were looking for something small and safe to hang over the crib and this arrived one week after she was born (!). It is just the perfect thing and goes perfectly with the handmade theme of this room.

3-weeks old Eliza and her dog, who both love playing on the floor in this room. I can't believe how much she has grown from this picture. Now excuse me while I dig into my tub of Blue Bell Light...it's been an unusually long day with the above. She's a delight 90% of the day, until naptime, when she acts like I'm dipping her into a pit of snakes when I put her down. A fun new phase, and lately instead of wine (almost never worth it it seems...sad face) I self-medicate with ice cream.

Thanks for coming along on our nursery tour!