Chalkboard drawings in the nursery

Marlon and I finally got to do the one thing we’d been itching to do since painting the chalkboard wall in Tala’s nursery: draw on it! It only took one rainy afternoon (lots of those in Amsterdam) to turn our blank “canvas” from this…

into this.

Want a closer look at the details?

Because of Tala’s name—Tala means star in Filipino—our initial idea was to draw her a night sky with stars. When I saw from the  (gorgeous boards, by the way!), I knew what our centerpiece would be.

Working together, blending dustless chalk with our fingers, we completed Tala’s moon in about an hour. I love that Marlon and I can do things like this together.

Having accomplished a fairly realistic moon, Marlon and I allowed ourselves to just be silly and have fun with the rest of the wall. Working with a loose theme of “things you might see in the sky,” we went back and forth over a few days, adding little elements in our individual styles. I like graphic shapes and patterns with bold outlines, while Marlon likes to make figurative sketches. Can you tell who drew what?

We included a few favorite things from our childhood, too. Can you recognize them?

Another look at the whole wall. I “sprinkled” clouds and stars across everything to tie the different elements together, and to bring the post on the right side into the wall.

Tala is quickly outgrowing her bassinet, which means that pretty soon we’ll have to set up the bigger crib… and that means moving her into her nursery. It’s a good thing that with the chalkboard drawings done, the nursery is just about ready!