If you read our blog, you know we love working with Matt Monroe of Monroe Workshop. Over that last several years, we’ve used his handmade furniture in many of our projects – a beautiful log bench in our Wolf Pup Room for Siblings, a custom live edge kids’ desk for our Cabin Inspired Kid’s Room featuring Baby Horse and Baby Horse Little Darling, an original, custom floating shelf/changing table for our Baby Wallaby Nursery, and our favorite Credenza sits below our majestic 30”x40”American Buffalo limited edition print in our Dining Room Makeover.

To say we have a working relationship with Monroe Workshop is accurate, but it doesn’t nearly describe how fond we are of Matt and his crew. Seriously, you couldn’t find a nicer guy who happens to be insanely skilled! 

So, we’re thrilled to pull the spotlight away from his furniture for a moment to feature Monroe Workshop’s new series of Toys – a charming coterie of critters. The genesis of Monroe Workshop’s first two toys–his robot horse and robot monkey–was a clever way to minimize waste. Matt says: 

“As a fan of wood, I hated to throw our scrap away–all the toys are made of furniture grade hardwood. So, I started making the toys to give as gifts to family and friends.”

Matt featured the robot monkey on instagram and the demand was immediate. He and his crew have been working like busy elves this year and have unveiled a charming new collection of animals to add their menagerie. Here are our favorites!

Cecily the Pig is giving our Piglet a run for her money. We love Cecily’s mismatched ears which Matt sources from a local shoe manufacturer’s scraps of Italian leather.

Matt gave Avinash the Elephant a huge dose of personality. Not dissimilar to our Baby Elephant.

You can almost hear Jean Pierre the Longhorn Bull bellowing. His stare is just as intense as our Long Horn Steer Close-Up.

Ravi the Rhinoceros may be small, but he’s every bit the brute our Baby Rhino is.

We think Gemma Lou the Giraffe would get along with our Baby Giraffe just fine.

The toys are named after family members. Well, all except for Gary the Robot Monkey. Matt says, “I just like the name Gary.”

All of the toys are made of domestic hardwoods in Monroe Workshop’s Los Angeles shop. They’re available at monroeworkshoptoys.com.

Matt says to keep an eye out for a barn and possibly a jungle-scape tree house for more play opportunities. We can’t wait!

For our latest wallpaper pairing, we returned to one of our favorites: Baby Deer. She was one of our first Animal Print Shop prints and even though she has lots of company now, our love for her hasn’t diminished. We’ve been chomping at the bit to use a Hygge & West wallpaper (BTW, Hygge is pronounced: Hoo-Ga) and knew we’d found the perfect compliment in their soft blue Petal Pusher pattern. Even better, Petal Pusher is a design by the uber talented Joy Cho of Oh Joy Studios.

Hygge & West was founded by childhood friends Christiana Coop and Aimee Lagos – loving the vibe of Danish design, they created their wallcovering company around it – Hygge is a Danish concept loosely translating to life’s small pleasures, be they cozy homes in winter or bedtime stories with your kids. The “West” in Hygge & West is western as in the United States. We love that their wallpapers are all hand silk screened AND Hygge & West works with so many talented designers. Oh Joy finds herself in amazing company next to Julia Rothman, Rifle Paper Co., Heath Ceramics, Justina Blakeney, and many others. 

Petal Pusher pairs beautifully with Oeuf’s clean-lined, modern Rhea Crib. We especially appreciate the slight Danish taper of the legs. The sweet polka-dot crib sheet is from Etsy seller Holkuda who hand prints on the softest fabric ensuring restful sleep for the little slumberer. And our favorite detail is the pop of fuchsia from a custom Kantha baby blanket made by our good friend Heidi Merrick (we’re trying to convince her to make them for sale!). And if blue isn’t the direction your design is headed, Petal Pusher also comes in a range of other gorgeous colors, from gold to blush to black.

Finally, if you follow our blog, you know that we love ourselves a vintage nod. In this pairing, we used two: the brick pattern vintage Moroccan rug and a large white Gainey pot from the 60’s. We’d never seen a rug with such a vibrant, rich blue color, let alone in a brick pattern (if you’re in Los Angles, you can pick this rug up at Hannoun Rugs in Culver City). The Gainey pot is from Sharon’s own collection. Sadly, Gainey stopped making their signature ceramic pots in 2013, so if you spot one at a thrift store, don’t hesitate to buy it!

The finishing touch is a delicate mobile from Brooklyn’s Fort Makers. The designer, Noah Spencer, says he takes inspiration from human fascination with the universe. We love its delicate lines and gentle movement, and we think it is the perfect compliment to the pairing of Baby Deer and Petal Pusher. We also think Petal Pusher pairs beautifully with Baby Camel! 

Our email inbox is full of questions about this room. It seems we left out some coveted items on our source list (we’re looking at you vintage rocking horse), so we whipped up a quick post dedicated to all the sources right here in one place. We’re so happy the spaces we create are inspiring folks beyond the walls our prints hang on–when we came up with the concept for The Animal Print Shop Nursery Project, that’s exactly what we set out to do.

The shelves are coming up next week in Baby Rhino Nursery Sources: Part Two.

We love that our nursery art can be appreciated by kids and parents alike. Wouldn’t it be great if music for your little ones could be the same? With their new album, Pioneer Lane, the Watson Twins put their beautiful sibling harmonies into a collection of original family folk songs that you can enjoy along with your kids.

You may remember Chandra and Leigh Watson from our shop visit and they are the amazing voices behind the music for our Little Darlings video, which they wrote specially for us and inspired this album–we’re so touched!

http://vimeo.com/54256570