I decided to make the entire top floor of Petit Tresor into a little girl's bedroom/nursery combination because I wanted to have enough space to display a lot of girly toys: a dollhouse, dolls, an English doll's doll's pram, stuffed animals, games, puzzles and lots of books.
Martha McLean is laughing as she reads this because I used to say I had no idea who bought all the toys and dolls she had in her inventory. Now I know. LOL!
I have to admit that I am relatively new to the girl thing, having no direct experience -- most of you know I have three sons. So I am working on my ideal girl's room--what I would have loved to have had as a child. In my imagination the little girl is around 8 or 9 -- still playing with little dolls -- not Barbie and her ilk.
The floor is a re-do of the chevron floor that I started and abandoned some months ago. For one thing, I had the pattern going the wrong way (horizontal), which I only realized after seeing Ray Whitledge's library floor. Thank you, Ray! As always, you had the right idea.
For another, I did not do a good enough job of fitting the pieces together (this seems to be my fate) so I turned the floor over to Tom Walden, an incredibly skilled furniture and floor maker. You can see more of his work here:
http://tomwalden.name/. Tom did a magnificent job, as you can see below. Sorry about the flare--I wanted you to see the beautiful color and could only do that with the flash. Thank you, Tom!
Here it is more or less in place.
The next thing I did was get in touch with Lyndel Smith--she is the painter Leslie Smith's wife--and a very talented artist herself. Lyndel does the most adorable painted nursery furniture (she also does kitchens), and has just introduced a new design she calls "Summer Bouquet."
This is what collection looks like. I ordered the bed and dresser, nightstand, toy box and shelf. Lyndel also made me a bookshelf and a low table and chairs (we're going to be having tea parties on that)--they are not in the photo but hold tight....Leslie was kind enough to bring me the furniture when he came to the Chicago International. I learned at that point that he makes the furniture, which I did not know. So truly a joint effort and so pretty.
Because the side walls in this room are slanted, Bill suggested that he create a half wall on one side to give me more space to arrange the furniture against a second wall. This proved to be an excellent suggestion because without it, all the furniture would have been lined up along the back wall--it would have looked like a bad shop display.
I had Les Chinoiseries "Sunhill" wallpaper in my inventory already and the colors and motif look very nice with the furniture. In fact, I want to highlight the furniture and the accessories with the wallpaper as more of a backfdrop, so this proved a good choice.
Not a great photo, but...and btw, the border got cut off and tossed immediately.
Last picture...trying out the furniture before the wallpaper went in....isn't this going to be adorable?
I haven't decided on how to arrange the furniture, but the shelf above the dresser is going on the wall someplace--it is just resting there for now--and I hope to fill it with dolls and stuffed animals. I have the Stokesay Ware nursery tea set for the table....
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