New House Tour: {Vivi's Cat Cave}

When it came to designing Vivi's new room, I knew that we would be making some big changes from her room at our previous house. She was finally ready to switch from her adorable round crib to a toddler bed, and I swapped out her former dresser that was way too big for her needs to a smaller, child size dresser. As far as decor went, I decided that I wanted to completely change things up (although it was terribly sad to part with the stunning Anthropologie peony watercolor wallpaper that was in her old nursery). In this new house, I had a completely blank slate to work with, which is always the most exciting because you can do anything. 

I personally have a love and fascination with birds (not real actual birds, but bird decor. I would die if I had a real bird), so I considered going that route in her room at first. I found some eclectic bird prints that had a cool vibe to them, as well as some funky feather prints. And I was planning to paint an accent wall in a deep, pretty blue, while using gold and white accents throughout, and then pops of color from the funky bird prints. The vision in my mind's eye was really lovely and fresh, although not especially little-girl-ish. I was okay with that, though, because I figured it would give her space to grow into it. 

I was initially planning something like this, with the accent wall painted Blue Danube by Benjamin Moore

But then I started thinking about whom I was designing this bird room for. I realized that I was designing it for me, not Vivi. Vivien Louise does not give a shit about birds, and it didn't really seem fair to force it on her when she has no interest in the subject matter. So I started thinking again; what would Vivi love? And then I realized how the answer was staring me right in the face. Of course--a kitty cat room. 

Marilyn cat print

I immediately got to work trying to figure out how to execute a kitty cat room that was fit for a toddler but that also wasn't completely cheesy. My first step was deciding on what furniture to use in her room. We ended up taking Bobby's original crib from Japan, which is a white Jenny Lind crib, and fashioning it into a toddler bed. You can't go wrong with white Jenny Lind anything, especially in a little girl's room. 

crib/toddler bed

We did a complete switcheroo with everyone's dressers. Alex and I confiscated Vivi's massive dresser for our own master bedroom, and Bobby got a whole new bedroom suit of refinished furniture, so Vivi ended up with Bobby's old antique dresser. It is a sweet little child-sized wardrobe that my mama found and refinished when she was pregnant with my brother, so it's been in the family for a while. It was painted blue and white when it was in Bobby's old room, so it definitely needed a facelift if it was going to have a place in Vivi's new room. I debated on color schemes for a while, but I eventually ended up using a light olive chalk paint on the body and then an ivory color on the drawers. After painting it, I antiqued it with the dark wax. I just happened to be strolling in an Anthropologie store one day and came across the most adorable kitty cat knobs, and I knew immediately that they HAD to go on the freshly refinished dresser. I only bought two for the top drawer, because I thought eight of them might be overkill. An expensive overkill. So I just placed them at the top and then used simple crystal knobs on all the other drawers. It turned out just the way I was hoping, and it couldn't be more different than how it looked before.

cat knobs // art deco tray (similar here)

In Vivi's old nursery, I had a really comfortable rocker; in our old master bedroom, I had my fabulous leopard wingback chair that my husband glared at every single day with complete and utter disdain. So, in keeping with the cat theme, I switched the two chairs when we moved to the new house. Vivi's room gained the leopard chair, and we took the neutral rocker for our own bedroom.

 

 

Shy Little Kitten pillow // leopard chair (sort of similar here)

There were also several things from her old room that I did want to keep and work into her toddler bedroom. We kept the gold and white art deco style rug, the gold vintage chandelier, the gold iron flower wreath, and her vintage chalkboard. I felt pretty confident that I could find a way to make those fit into the new space. 

toy kitchen

When I began hunting for new bedding, I fell in love with the most perfect kitten sheets from Land of Nod. They feature the Little Golden Book hero, The Shy Little Kitten. You may or may not remember that book from childhood (I definitely did). Land of Nod just happened to be using the retro book in a Shy Little Kitten line they were featuring at just the right time, so I picked up the sheets and throw pillow and decided that those pieces would be the major anchor of the room. I then repurposed our custom-made wedding cake tablecloth from our wedding reception and, with a little safety pinning here and there, made it a whimsical little crib skirt. 

Shy Little Kitten sheets // pom pom comforter // cat pillow // ruffle pillow (similar here)

It's harder than you'd think to find a toddler bed (aka crib size) comforter, but I finally found one I loved from Target's Pillowfort collection. While shopping in that collection, I also ran across a stuffed kitty cat head to hang on the wall, and I squealed because I knew Vivi would love it so much. Whenever I hung it up, Alex said, "That's really creepy." But I completely disagreed, since I believe that every room should have some form of taxidermy in it ;)
Plus, I knew Viv would dig it so hard. She can be a little creepy like her mama. 

 

stuffed cat head // rug 

One of my favorite pieces in Vivi's room is the Paw-drey Hepburn print that is in her reading nook. Sure, maybe it's questionable to put a picture of a cat smoking a cigarette in your small child's bedroom, but it's Audrey, people. She can do no wrong. And I just couldn't pass it up. 

Pawdrey Hepburn print

I also felt like we needed some greenery in her room, and I knew I wanted to do a fiddle leaf fig tree. The debate was whether to go for a real one or a faux version. I am a self-admitted plant murderer, so that was my biggest concern until someone else reminded me about Vivi's penchant for eating dirt. That pushed me over the edge, and I decided it made way more sense to just go faux. And I'm not gonna lie to you; I LOVE this fake tree. It was totally worth it, and I'd highly recommend trying one of these out if you are in a similar situation with kids and/or black thumbs. 

faux fiddle leaf fig tree

Everything in the room was slowly coming together, but something still felt a bit blah, like something just wasn't quite right. I couldn't put my finger on it for a little while, but I eventually realized it was the plain grey walls. They weren't doing anything for anybody. I decided to paint three of her walls the palest shade of pink that I could find. Now paint is hard to pick; you think you're good until you get it on the wall, and it's about three shades too bright. That's what I ran into in her last room. I thought I'd chosen a pale pink last time, and then it ended up being much more intense than I had originally wanted. So this time I knew better, and I chose the pinkest shade of white that I could find. Even when they did the little finger swipe on the top of the paint can, the color looked pretty darn white. But as soon as I got it onto the walls, it was inarguably pale pink. (It's actually quite a bit more pink in person than in the photographs).

The pink was pretty on the three walls, but something still wasn't just right. So I started trying to figure out what to do with the accent wall that her window and bed are on. I found a black and white wallpaper that I really liked, but it was almost impossible to track down and was going to run about $800 for one wall. I was so bummed, but I knew there was no way I could justify that cost on a wall in a toddler's room that she may get sick of in three years. Unfortunately, I was so obsessed with the wallpaper that I couldn't get it out of my head. So I decided to really test the limits of my artistic abilities and paint that shit instead. It only took about six days of slowly plucking away at it, but I finally finished painting the entire wall by hand, and I really love it so much. 

The kids were at my parents' house in Georgia while Alex and I were moving in and putting the kids' rooms together. We wanted to finish their rooms first so that they had a "wow" moment when they walked into their new home for the first time. 

 

When Vivi walked in her room, she shrieked with glee: "KITTIES!!!!!" 
Then she went around looking at every single cat detail, cooing "awwwww," at each one. She loves her room so much (to the point that she sleeps with no fewer than 15 stuffed cats at any given time), and I love it because she loves it. So I'll consider that a win for now. Let's just see how long the kitty phase lasts. ;)

Hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for Bob's man cave sometime soon!