Tour an Adorable Nursery With Hand-Painted Details and Plenty of Whimsy

Creative consultant Elizabeth Cook and her family recently moved to their “forever home” in Columbus, Georgia. Around the same time, she met and fell hard for the work of local painter Emmie Ruth Wise. “I knew I wanted to incorporate her artwork in our home and because I had such fond memories of my childhood bedroom, we started with a mural in my daughter’s room,” Elizabeth says.

“I grew up in a very happy yellow-colored room adorned with hand-painted bugs, butterflies and flowers,” she explains. “The room was painted by a special education teacher who painted on the side. Fast forward almost 30 years, and I wanted to create a similar space for my daughter.” She envisioned a retreat for Louisa, now 26 months old, where her imagination could flourish — and she, Emmie Ruth and her network of talented friends got to work on making it a reality.

Emmie Ruth embellished the nursery over the course of about six weeks. She and Elizabeth collaborated on the design, and Elizabeth brainstormed on social media via an Instagram poll for suggestions.

Elizabeth also tapped into her community of friends and colleagues in the lifestyle business — and flexed her own considerable shopping and decorating skills — to outfit Louisa’s space. That lovely green button-tufted headboard, for example, is an auction find ($100 for two!) she reupholstered in Cowtan & Tout fabric with a matching bedskirt. Those atmospheric curtains? Restoration Hardware via eBay. The Mottahedeh monkey bookends? A wedding gift. The pretty faux plant on the nightstand? A two-dollar score from Stein Mart. Come on in for a full tour of Emmie Ruth’s delightful artwork, Elizabeth’s thoughtful additions and inspiration to design a room you’ll still be thinking about 30 years later.

Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree “is a book that my family enjoyed growing up and it has a great message, which is why we ultimately decided on this for the space,” Elizabeth says. More childhood reads make cameos in the room, quite literally: the Beatrix Potter collection on Louisa’s nightstand is Elizabeth’s own, from when she was a little girl.

Elizabeth offset the colorful cast of characters surrounding Louisa on her walls by choosing classic, snow-white Bovi bedding and a pretty Lenora by Dina Yang pillow. The nursery is the very first space Elizabeth tackled in her family’s new home: “I hope the rest of the house bears a similar resemblance in feeling nostalgic, fresh and soulful one day!”