So, a little over 4 years ago, I had a baby girl. (yes, 4. I skipped the obligatory birthday post.) At this time, I thought, “I will not buy only pink and purple for my little girl. I’ll do things that are bright colors, but not girly.”

And so I painted her room orange and yellow, partly to reflect the pattern of the beautiful quilt that my friend Emily stitched for her. I didn’t do much else in terms of decorating, since I think doing a full nursery is cute but silly since the baby doesn’t care and once that baby gets a bit bigger they’ll have opinions. I also feel that doing a full nursery is what the marketers want you to do–do a full nursery, then get all new stuff for “big kid” stage, then get all new stuff for “preteen” stage, then get all new stuff for “teenager.” But I digress.

That little girl grew and grew, and stated her love for all things…pink and purple. And thus did she get things that were pink and purple. And these things ended up in her room, so her room ended up being orange and yellow and purple and brown and pink and white and just all sorts of garish.

(The dresser has already been painted in this picture; it used to be the same dark brown as the handles.)

And then, a few weeks ago while I was at Bed Bath and Beyond I saw a beautiful dark purple comforter with hot pink stitching and knew that it would make my little girl all sorts of happy. I also realized then I’d have to paint her room otherwise it would be really ugly. Such severe life problems, I know.

Dear reader, I painted the room purple. Benjamin Moore AF-615 Violetta to be precise.

I painted the dresser and side table white and painted the handles a deep pink. I also painted the inside of her closet the same pink for a little pop of bright color.

Mirrored butterflies on the wall, floating away on the walls over to the top of the bed.

And as for the inspirational quilt-well, as a creator of handmade goods I always feel sad if I think they go unused. As it turns out, the quilt that Emily made for Atticus happened to be a dark purple, and thus we could put that one up instead! So pretty.

Overall, I love it. In my overachieving painting world I would have loved to paint it with an ombre effect, but it’s probably prettier this way. I was also going to stencil on some pink and purple butterflies onto the dresser but decided against it. We need to get better bookshelves and add real shelving to the closet, but that can wait. And did the girl like it?

Yes! She did!

And then she promptly put on an orange suit and clashed with her own room.