Nursery mural complete...

The mural is finished, and we are really very pleased. It looks even better with the furniture in place.

As I posted earlier, Lori James is the artist and she did an excellent job of translating our ideas onto the walls. She does not need my recommendation, but you won't find a more charming person to paint a mural for you. She's done quite a bit of work around here.

She did this in two days, and that's with me bugging her a lot - and I mean a lot. I was mesmerized by the process. It was a great distraction so now and again as I worked, I'd run in and take a peek for a few mins - well, several mins - I actually think I watched her for an hour on one occasion.







The scene that Lori painted is from Newport Rhode Island - specifically The Cliffwalk. You can Google it. I have worked a lot in New England over the years and one weekend, I went to Newport because I had heard of its really nice coastal homes. True, these homes are nice - very nice - in fact, they are mansions from the Gilded Age - the Vanderbilts built one of them that looks like a smaller version of the Biltmore if you've ever seen that (sorry Vandys, you didn't make our blog, but it's a nice house regardless).

Fast-forward a few years, I decided to propose to Kelli, and I thought, where would be a good place to do this. Immediately, New England came to mind because I love it so much up there. We actually got engaged on a whale watching cruise about 2 hours off the coast of Boston, but our first stop was in Newport. I wanted Kelli to see this place since it's not far from Boston - and it's so beautiful! When I was there as a single guy (like 30 yo), it was nice and I could appreciate it, but I never imagined I'd take the woman I wanted to marry there.

So, as we drove across the bridge overlooking this area (the one in the mural), Kelli thought it was beautiful. We spent the day in Newport and hiking the Cliffwalk - I think the entire hike is like 7 miles if you go to the end and back.

This scene is modified of course, we don't have miles of walls in the nursery, but Lori was able to capture the essence of the Cliffwalk and the coastline with some of our favorite homes. She worked from our photos and some of my interpretations/ideas - as well as some interpretations of her own. The house and light house scene on the right side, is one of those interpretations. There is a house on the point, but I don't think there was an obvious lighthouse in the photo, so I had her draw the house and lighthouse from a print in my office. Don't tell anyone!

If you get a chance to go to Newport, take it, it's well worth it. My favorite home there is called Anglesea - it's the second to the right of the Chinese Tea House.

We're going with somewhat of a nautical theme for the nursery. It's not too heavy on the theme though. My next nursery project is that I'm building a boat-shaped table to go along the left wall below the mansions. I think it will be cool. If it's not, you likely won't hear me mention it again.

Have a great week!