I Painted My Daughter's Nursery Mural While Five Months Pregnant (Here's How It Turned Out)

I Painted My Daughter's Nursery Mural While Five Months Pregnant (Here's How It Turned Out)
My daughter Freya was due June 1st, but she showed up on May 28th, just at the end of the month like she couldn't wait. Before she arrived, we had a whole house to rearrange. My husband gave up his office so it could become her nursery. And because I'm an illustrator, that meant one thing to me: I was painting a mural on those walls no matter what.

The Plan (And Why It Didn't Go to Plan)

I originally wanted to paint the mural over Christmas break. Life had other ideas. We were still moving the nursery out of my husband's old office, we had last minute house renovations going on, and the room just wasn't ready. So Christmas break became design time instead of painting time, and I sat down to sketch out exactly what I wanted this room to look like.

I knew I wanted Scandinavian folk art as the foundation. My family has Scandinavian heritage, and I've always loved that style, the shapes, the patterns, the way it turns animals into something both simple and a little magical. But I also knew it would end up looking like my work too, because I was the one painting it. That mix felt right.

 

Designing a Woodland World for Freya

I designed a forest scene: a bunny and her warren with two baby bunnies, a deer, an owl, and a fox, all with that folk art feel. Then I added two cats on the wall above her crib.

The cats weren't random. Freya is named after the Norse goddess Freya, who rode a chariot pulled by two cats. I couldn't design her nursery and leave that out.

Once the design felt right, I sketched it out on my iPad, then projected it onto the walls so I could trace and paint from there.

The Reality of Painting a Mural at five Months Pregnant

I had this idea that I could knock the whole thing out in a weekend. I did not. The room had been a dark green before, so it took several coats of primer just to get the walls even and ready for paint. I ended up taking time off work, and if I'm honest, I got a little nervous watching my belly grow while the walls were still half finished.

Looking back at my photos, I started painting on the primed white walls on January 20th, and my last progress video is from February 4th. I genuinely don't remember how many hours that was. I just remember finishing it and loving how it turned out.

Two Years Later

Freya is two now, and I have a video of her sitting in that same room reading a book, surrounded by the bunny warren, the fox, the owl, and her two cats above the crib. That's the part that gets me every time. A room I designed before she was even born is now just... her room. The place she reads her books.

If You Loved This Mural

The animals from Freya's mural live on in our New Mom Journal, which carries the same bunny, fox, deer, and owl pattern throughout. If you're decorating a nursery or picking a gift for a new mom, it's a nice way to bring a little of that same woodland world home.
Paper products Journal Woodland Animals and Cats Hardcover Journal

Woodland Animals and Cats Hardcover Journal

Woodland Animals and Cats Hardcover Journal
$25.00
$25.00

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I Painted My Daughter's Nursery Mural While Five Months Pregnant (Here's How It Turned Out)

I Painted My Daughter's Nursery Mural While Five Months Pregnant (Here's How It Turned Out)

|Nicolet Barclay
Before Freya was born, I turned my husband's old office into a woodland nursery, painting bunnies, a fox, an owl, and two cats for her Norse namesake. Here's how the...