Made By Mom – Nursery – Rainbow Mobile

If you’ve been following my last few nursery posts, you’ll know already that I’ve been sharing some of the fun and creative DIY projects I undertook while I was pregnant with my first son to create a stimulating and beautiful Rainbow and Stars themed nursery for him. This week, I’m excited to share with you the process behind creating the centre piece of the nursery – his mobile, which also doubles as the ceiling light fixture!

When we moved into our home a little under a year ago, we were moving from a shiny city condo overlooking the waterfront to a large townhouse that, while technically still within city limits, certainly feels like life in the suburbs. We wanted to find a home that would be right for starting our family in, and while I love the home we found, some of its finishes left me craving the glossy details of my downtown condo.

Number one on this list were ceiling light fixtures – in our new home, all of the bedrooms were fitted out with those square glass light bulb shields, which to me have always looked like tissues hanging from the ceiling. It was easy finding lighting options for the other rooms, but I had an impossible time finding something that would be right for my little boy’s nursery room – it is a smaller room, so the fixture couldn’t be anything too large or ornate, and I wanted something that would match with all of the other finishes but not compete with any of the many decorations, including a large felt hanging mobile I was planning on making that would look like a stuffed rainbow and clouds with raindrops falling below for my son to stare up at.

Suddenly, inspiration hit – If I could find a rainbow umbrella, I could mount it upside down from the ceiling to act as a light cover! It would match perfectly with my mobile idea!

Of course then, I couldn’t find felt in the right colours, or in large enough pieces, to make it the way I envisioned. And then I couldn’t find a rainbow umbrella, either. Such is the luck of a DIY-er!

What I did find, however, (in truth, what my best friend found for me when I sent her out looking on my behalf as I was reaching my due date at this point and nesting was in full effect!) was a blue umbrella with little clouds on it and foam pieces she picked up because she couldn’t find felt.

She called me from the store to ask if these would be okay, and I was heartbroken but determined to make the best of it – after all, I was supposed to be looking for rainbows in the rain and stars in the darkness, right?!

When my friend arrived with her shopping, things felt even worse – the foam sheets she brought were far too small to make a mobile out of, and the blue umbrella actually had little smiley clouds on it, which when flipped it upside down to cover the lightbulbs, looked like frowny faces instead! That, of course, would not do!

It was much later that evening that inspiration struck – as it typically does – and all of the elements suddenly came together in a way I couldn’t have ever planned for but which now looked even better than I had originally imagined. I merged my two ideas together and hung the umbrella right-side-up to showcase the smiley clouds and stars and the lovely rainbow on the handle – far superior to the rainbow umbrella idea I had originally had! From the outer spokes, I hung invisible beading thread with stars and raindrop cut-outs I made from the foam sheets in rainbow colours – which had the lovely appeal of looking as though they were dropping from the sky and falling around the umbrella, which now hangs over my little one’s crib keeping him constantly amused and inspired! As an added bonus, because I simply strung up the umbrella to my bare ceiling light using more beading thread, when the light is on or when the window is open, the umbrella spins in the air, creating a natural mobile effect without any battery power or noisy motor!

And a final lesson to all overstressed moms like me who might happen to be perfectionists, too – DIY doesn’t just mean “Do It Yourself”, I like to think it means something more akin to “Discover It for Yourself”, as the most meaningful or beautiful projects typically don’t ever turn out as planned, and are always the better for it!

By Aleisha