Tuesday (Schmidt) Spray is a crazy-good illustrator, designer and maker, and we’re so glad she works with the Think.Make.Share team in Hallmark’s Trends Studio. Today, she’s letting us into her home to share how she brings her love of handmade art into her daughters’ rooms.

During my career, I’ve been fortunate enough to get plenty of opportunities designing and illustrating for baby and kids products. It’s one of my favorite things in the world to do. So, naturally, the first time I found out I was expecting, I was chomping at the bit to get started on designing the perfect place for my new little person. I didn’t realize just how much I would enjoy this process. Up until this point, I had been making things for all the little people, but it became a much more intimate experience when I was considering my person, and what I would want especially for her.

Vivi is now two-and-a-half and has a little sister coming any day now. My task (i.e. total joy) was turning Vivi’s room into a playful kid’s space while also creating a new room for the baby. I get pictures in my head of things I want; when I can’t find them in a store, my entire house quickly turns into a DIY bedroom ideas workshop.

For instance, I knew I wanted a tee-pee for Vivi’s room, but I wanted it to be very sweet with a tiny touch of boho. So to the fabric store I went. I stitched the canvas and added all the little fringe, lace and tassel details. Then I made big poofy pillows with fun tassels and giant pom-pom embellishments. For her first nursery I had made a faux-bearskin rug, and this paired perfectly with the newly created pieces. At night we have a tiny star-light that projects stars all over the inside of the tee-pee. Needless to say, we spend a lot of time snuggled up in there reading. I needed Vivi’s crib for the baby, so it was the perfect opportunity to buy a tiny, tiny little bed for her. I couldn’t find any bedding that was whimsical enough…or mermaid-y enough. So I used my own illustrations and had fabric created, then made her bedspread and fun accent pillows. Because I was printing the fabric anyway, I also made a tiny set of matching bedding for her little doll’s bed.

I am crazy about ordering beautifully illustrated books, because I adore the amazing artwork and storytelling. These are little works of art, so I have to display them. We made book ledges for Vivi’s books. Because I wanted the ones that wouldn’t fit on the ledges to face forward, I had my husband whip up a cute little book trough, too. Vivi loves to flip through the books and pick out her bedtime stories. Other things we created for the room included little cloud shelves to accent the tee-pee and lots of artwork made by us and our favorite artist friends (Allyson Lassiter, Flora Chang, Esther Boyd, Lisa Hadley). I’ve also been known to purchase a greeting card or two and frame those. (P.S. We have some amazing artists around here that create tiny works of art and sell them for super cheap in your local Hallmark store.)

For the new baby I wanted to go super girly, but with a slight Hollywood Glam…which means GOLD!! We started with one piece of artwork and pulled its dusty rose, black, soft cream and golden yellow colors into the room. I love making mobiles, and I wanted something fun for this new baby girl to daydream to. I made a plush-kitty ballerina and then created a magical little stage for her to twirl around on. I spray-painted most of the parts for the structure (beads, laser-cut wood, dowels) gold and then made fun fringes and tassels out of coordinating fabrics.

With the revival of wallpaper, and my love of drawing, I decided to design custom wallpaper (with my husband’s help). I’ve always been a fan of doodling on the walls—in my mature age, I just wanted to sophisticate the process a bit. I was also super into swans this time around. The swan pillow in the rocking chair is an image I created that also inspired my Hallmark baby collection, coming soon to Hallmark stores).  (The other swan-shaped pillow was created specially for baby by my friend Cece Merkle.) I also painted the swan above the crib and made a soft swan blankie and pillow to match the wallpaper.

We laser-cut little scallop shelves to hold a toy and little vases I had made for her along with a very special plush creation made by my friend Lisa Hadley. The rest of the room includes art created by us and friends and a super-great Ebay table-lamp score. I hope tiny girl loves this space we created for her.

Photography by Jane Kortright.

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— Tuesday S.