Making it Lovely

Category: Eleanor’s Room

  • Eleanor’s New Big-Girl Bed

    Eleanor’s New Big-Girl Bed

    We’ve made the transition from crib to twin-sized bed! Eleanor took to it right away. Brandon and I hyped it up for her (“your big-girl bed!”), and she watched us put it in her new bedroom. We started with Eleanor’s afternoon nap for a week before trying to get her to sleep in the bed overnight, and by that point it was no big deal.

    Look how tiny she is in her new bed! Aw, little peanut.

    I wrote a lot about trying to choose a bed. Vintage wicker peacock headboard? May not survive the toddler years. Toddler bed? Not for us. Adjustable toddler-to-twin? A strong contender. But in the end, I went with my favorite, a Jenny Lind bed.

    I blame my indecisiveness on being very pregnant with August at the time, but happily it led to my working with Land of Nod to help furnish Eleanor’s room. Turns out they’re fans of Making it Lovely as much as I’m a fan of theirs! Brandon and I had already bought the bed on our own, but I’ll be furnishing the rest of the room in part thanks to them.

    They provided the mattress and pillows, and they are super comfortable. I may have fallen asleep a few times while getting Eleanor to bed. The bedding is a pink zinnia quilt and sham mixed with striped sheets from west elm (the same sheets we have on our bed, but in green). We also have a comforter with a pink polka dot duvet cover for when it’s colder. I hung our vintage Tammis Keefe linen above the bed because I was concerned about hanging anything too heavy there, and I really like it. Also, you may have noticed the giant toy with one eye? Yeah, that’s our Muno pillow (Eleanor loves Yo Gabba Gabba).

    I’m looking forward to getting the rest of the room set up too. We’ve started moving things in and bringing in some toys, and Eleanor’s excited!

    * The bedding is on sale for 15% off through the end of May with the code “sleepy”.

  • Tammis Keefe Contented Cats Fabric

    Tammis Keefe Contented Cats Fabric

    Michael Miller recently reissued several Tammis Keefe prints. When I saw the Contented Cats fabric I I had a flash of recognition. My step-mother had that print as a wall-hanging! I asked her about it because I thought it would be cute in Eleanor’s new room, so she brought it over for her on Saturday. Isn’t it cute?

    I suspect it may have been intended as a tea towel originally. You can sometimes find them on eBay, but if you’re looking for the reissued Tammis Keefe fabrics, I found this print along with several others here.

  • Eleanor’s New Rocking Chair

    Eleanor’s New Rocking Chair

    Now that the basement is finished (yay!), we were able to start moving the studio furniture down there, making room for Eleanor’s new bedroom.

    I ordered the mid-century rocker chair shortly after I wrote about it. Here’s a pre-haircut Eleanor, helping assemble her new chair.

    The cushions make excellent stepping stones.

    The chair doesn’t rock that much, especially on a rug, but that’s fine. It is low, but no more so than our Eames rocker. Eleanor loves it, and Brandon and I find it comfortable too.

  • Mid-Century Rocker Chair

    Mid-Century Rocker Chair

    Remember the mid-century rocker chair from the fifth edition of my Making it Yours series? I loved it when I wrote about it last year, but we didn’t have a place for it in our home. Until now.

    We’re going to be working on Eleanor’s new ‘big girl’ bedroom soon, and Brandon would like us to put a chair in there. I hadn’t thought about it because I assumed we’d just sit on her bed, but the attached guard rails are going to make that difficult, so a chair it is.

    At first I thought we could use the Petrie armchair from the adjacent library, but it’s too large. Then I remembered the rocker. “It’s perfect for her room,” I told Brandon. “It’s low to the ground so E can get in and out easily, and she’ll love that it rocks! And it’s cheap (for a chair). I think it’s only $250.” He agreed. Then I went to look for it (and to double check that price), and it was no longer available. Cue the sad trumpet, wah wah.

    Then today as I’m browsing the UO site, I notice that it’s back, and in a cute new lime color. Huzzah! It’s $289, a bit more than I had remembered, but still doable.

    Come on home, little chair! We have the perfect spot all picked out for you.

  • How Low Can You Go?

    How Low Can You Go?

    With a bedside table, that is. I’ve been trying to find a cute round one for Eleanor’s new room. I thought the Martini Side Table would be perfect, but then I realized how short it is. Next to the bed, it would look something like this:

    Too small, I think. The top of the mattress will be about two feet off the floor and the side table is only 16.5″ tall. Compare that with the 27.5″ tall Jenny Lind Nightstand that Land of Nod pairs with the bed, and it seems downright tiny.

    These are in the running:

    • Pop-Up Storage Bedside Table (27″ tall)
    • Manchester Media Stand (25″ tall)

    I like that I can store books on the shelves below, but I’m still pining for the cute Martini Table. I was also considering the Kartell Componibili (the tallest of which is 23″), but I’m not in love with the colors.

    How high/low do you like your bedside table to be? Ours in the bedroom are about 6″ higher than the top of the mattress and that has always seemed like a good height, but I wouldn’t go any higher. The table should probably be at least even with the top of the mattress though, right?

    Edit

    12:45 p.m.
    I did a little more Photoshop work. This is how the bed would look with the Pop-Up Table (painted green). Pretty cute.

  • Decision Made.

    Decision Made.

    Eleanor will be sleeping in a Jenny Lind bed.

    I know the peacock headboard is cool/unique/cute/awesome, but almost everyone that had one when growing up admitted to breaking off the circles. And the Minnen extendable bed is a great size (twin-sized width but adjustable in length), but the thin mattress and difficult bed-making would have bothered me. The only downside to the Jenny Lind bed was the higher price.

    OK, I could have tried to be patient and waited for one (in good condition) to pop up on Craigslist or eBay. I could have even hoped that the poor review was wrong and went for the more affordable one at Sears/Kmart, but then I’d have to pay $90 for shipping. And either way I’d have to find bed rails and slats or a box spring. And prime and paint the frame. And really, with a basement renovation in progress (and plenty of work ahead there), and me being seven and a half months pregnant, the ready-to-go bed from Land of Nod was looking pretty good. And hello, it just happened to be on sale at a store that never puts their furniture on sale, for one day only on the very day I wrote about it? Yeah, I went ahead and took that as a sign. I ordered the bed that day, and Brandon picked it up at the Naperville warehouse Saturday morning.

    Of course, we can’t set it up until we get the studio moved down to the basement. But soon. And by soon, I mean hopefully before the new baby arrives.