When our friends asked me to help decorate their daughter’s new bedroom, I felt honored. With another one on the way, it was time for Whitney to move into a big girl room to make way for her new little brother or sister.
Whitney’s mother, Abby, cherished her time spent living in San Diego before getting married and settling down in a coastal town in southern Massachusetts. She wanted to bring the essence of San Diego and the surfing culture alive in Whitney’s bedroom. I will never forget this project—it was so much fun!
Abby commissioned some hand-painted signs to decorate the walls—she wanted them to portray a laid-back surfing vibe, to carryover the color scheme she was already working with, and be personalized to Whitney (the little surfer in training!). Did you catch the monogram in the surfboard above? And even more personal, that’s Whitney below with her beloved dog, Captain. He’s a water dog so it’s only natural he’d be at the beach with her.
We met to discuss her ideas and I peeked in on the bedroom to get a sense of the color scheme and space. Abby and her husband Ryan painted one wall with bold horizontal pink and white stripes and the rest of the walls a light-to-medium gray. They outfitted the bed with Pottery Barn Kids sheets and quilt—the sheets with a surfing theme, and the quilt carrying the color scheme forward.
To get started, I searched images high and low of anything related to San Diego and its surfing scene, and came up with an assortment of ideas: surfboards, hibiscus, old car with a surfboard, flip flops (an Abby request—one I wouldn’t have thought of but turned out to be so cute!) and more. It wasn’t my first time painting surfboards–did you catch this piece I did with my husband for the baby of a surfer mom and dad?
When it came to actually painting the signs, my own style came shining through. I dove into this project headfirst and became completely entranced in it. In all honesty, I perhaps went a little overboard. I painted EIGHT signs! Here’s a view of part of Whitney’s new room:
