Featured Space: Rosemary's Budoir

As we speak, Rosemary is officially down for her first night in her big girl bed. I'd be lying if I said I don't have a few knots in my stomach - partially because I can't believe my baby is growing up and partially because I'm fearing the worst...a sleepless night.

Architecturally speaking, Rosemary's room hasn't changed since it was originally built in 1947. While some of the other bedrooms were modified when the addition was put on in the 60's...Rosemary's room remains true to its original footprint. When we bought the house, this room was baby blue, the floors were covered wall to wall in blue carpet and it appeared to be set up as a guest bedroom of sorts (perhaps for grandchildren since it had two small twin beds).

It was a charming room though from the start with its sloped ceiling, 2 windows (one facing South flooding the room with light) and its original light fixture that is absolutely adorable (here it is...still in tact today)

One other thing I love about the room architecturally is its doorway. I love how Rosemary and Gloria's doors face eachother. While at times, this complicates a few things with one or the other of them screaming during nap time (waking the other of course)...I just love that they are so close to eachother:


While the room itself had a lot going for it - it needed a little 'customization' for my leading lady. The wall color for Rosemary's room came directly from her floral rug that my mother-in-law and I found at a buying show for $40 (100% wool!) Here's a picture of that on the no-longer-carpeted-and-refinished-floors:

I think yellows are so hard to choose from a tiny little swatch. They either end up fluorescent, too orange, too green, etc. I don't think I could love a yellow more than this one.

In the sun, it has a peach tone to it - but remains a soft and sweet yellow that isn't overwhelming (Benjamin Moore Honey Harbor). We chose an eggshell finish for the paint in the kids rooms so it has some wipability to it.

I love French Provincial style furniture and struck gold when I came across the childrens consignment store "Bella Bambino" in Burnsville. They have a fabulous, ever-evolving assortment of vintage furniture. They do the work of finding the pieces and having them professionally enameled while you have the pleasure of enjoying quality made, solid wood furniture...at a little more cost than a good Craigs List score. It's cheaper than buying new furniture, comes with extra paint for when the kids color all over it with crayon and you can furnish a whole room for under $500.

My favorite piece is the China hutch.


This piece was actually a fixture in their store that they used to display merchandise. I basically begged...no, literally begged them to sell it to me and was OVER the moon when they finally agreed. All of the cabinets, drawers and shelves allow me enough room to be able to store all the girls linens in there - opening up a ton of room in our main hall closets. Plus, it's just a nice substantial piece for Rosemary's generous sized room.

I had so much fun scavenging for bedding for Rosemary's room. Obviously I was looking for something with the right colors from the rug and walls, but also something that wasn't too baby-ish and that could stay in the room for a long time. I finally found this quilt and sham at Marshall's for $25!!!!!!!!


It's by Cynthia Rowley (if you remember the "Swell" brand at Target...it's one of the designers from that line) and I absolutely love it. While the material itself is nothing to brag about (it's incredibly light weight which I was a little bummed about), the small details really make it worthwhile. It has a small border of an off-white eyelet lace around the perimeter backed by an unfinished ruffle in the same fabric as the quilt.

I paired it with a set of coordinating sheets I found at Target, a soft yellow blanket and an eyelet lace bedskirt I found for free at Bella Bambino! All I'm missing is the perfect accent pillow.

I have a few things up on the walls in Rosemary's room that add some personality to the space, the main one being the large upholstered bulletin board that Jeff and I made for her.

My friends at Bella Bambino gave me the frame for free along with the fabulous idea to convert it to a display area for Rosemary's pictures and art. This was a nesting project Jeff and I took on when I was about 39 weeks pregnant with Gloria. All we did was cut the shape out of cardboard and use spray adhesive to attach cork board to the cardboard. Finally, a thin layer of batting wrapped with our chosen fabric and wha la! I finished by purchasing these miscellaneous fabric flowers and butterflies from Archivers and hot gluing them on upholstery tacks.


And the room just wouldn't be complete if it wasn't branded with Rosemary's very own logo. My friend Terry Braun designed this logo for Rosemary and then created this piece to be hung proudly in her room.

Terry made this by cutting the shape out of a thin piece of wood using a laser (yes...a laser) and then mod podging my favorite paper from Archivers on the front. The ribbon is the perfect touch and, courtesy of Rosemary's new big girl bed, it now has the perfect spot to hang.


Here are a few wider angle shots of the room during the day:





Of course a room never seems to be complete. I still need a lamp for Rosemary's bedside table, window treatments for her windows and some sort of art/photos on the main bare wall. But if there weren't more things to find, what reason would I have to go to my favorite Homegoods? But of course, the best feature of all of the big girl bed - plenty of space to snuggle up and read stories before bed:-)