Behind the Scenes — Room to Grow

Assembling the crib. Duct taping the crib sheet to the mattress so it would be flat in the photos. The room full of assembled products for the shoot. The boxes and boxes that were unpacked and repacked over the 3-day photoshoot.

The Room To Grow article was a fantastic project to work on. Putting together a dream list of lovely items for a bedroom — it's as fun as it sounds. (And a great chance to feature products from vendors I love. Places like Via Toy Box, Oeuf, Zid Zid, Frazier & Wing, Fawn & Forest and a dozen others.) It was also fun because this is exactly the sort of thing I do in my own kids' rooms — transition them in small stages as my kids grow — so it was a comfortable project for me. Certainly the most fun thing was getting to work with a terrific team: Photographer Gemma Comas. Lili DiLallo the stylist. Amanda Kingloff the editor and Taryn Mohrman the assistant editor.

In addition to being fun for me professionally, it was also really fun personally, because the bedroom was shot in the gorgeous home of Erin and Ryan Wright, dear friends from New York. And each night I would sleep in the guest room of Megan and Ben Sibbett — more dear friends. And occasionally throughout the shoot, other dear friends would drop by the Wright's home to say hello. The photoshoot was in early June and I had just moved to Colorado a month previously. So this work trip to New York, combined with getting to spend time with people I love, went a long way to easing my homesickness.


Embroidery hoops and possible fabric choices. The dresser from a prop house sans drawer pulls. An email break. The fillable lamp.

The main behind-the-scenes aspect I wanted to share is how it's all about what the camera sees. End of story. When putting the room together for the photoshoot, even if something looks really good in real life — say the placement of a certain rug or proportion of a stuffed animal — if it doesn't look good through the camera lens, it has to be changed. How furniture is placed, the angles of pretty much every item, are all determined and adjusted depending on what we see in early images of the space. It's always interesting to see the perfect order of what's shown in the shot contrasted with the chaos at the edges of the frame that doesn't show up.

This also means that you have to choose and order many more items than you'll actually need in the photo — because until you see actual images, it's hard to tell which products will look good in the space and which won't. Sometimes a beloved product just doesn't fit in the scheme and has to be replaced. Since timing is tight during the photoshoot, products are over-ordered just in case.


The stylist putting fabric in hoops. A darling prop bag made from coffee bag burlap (it's a smaller version of the one my niece Sierra gave me). Adorable toys from Persimmon & Pink, waiting on a little wood chair (the chair didn't make the photos). Vinyl decals custom ordered from Graffiti Chic.

Have you ever had felt like our real homes never seem to look quite as perfect as the photos in the magazines? There's a good reason — a decent amount of fudging happens at a photoshoot to make things work. For example, the gorgeous bedskirt we featured on the crib, from Serena & Lily, wasn't the exact right size for the Ikea crib. If it was really my baby's bedroom, and I wanted to use that bedskirt, I would have a seamstress make adjustments to the bedskirt for me. At the photoshoot, we just jimmied the cribskirt with duct tape as needed.


A possible artwork combo on the wall — including pieces from a prop house, from personal collections, from Sarah Jane Studios and Ida Pearle. The crew behind the camera. A bed full of clothing for the baby models. A closeup of the darling desk.

There is real physical work at a photoshoot. And lots of it. Building the crib. Hanging artwork. Disassembling and reassembling the existing bedroom. Then assembling and disassembling the fake bedroom — all 3 versions of it. It also takes a surprising number of people. Our crew was: two editors plus an intern. A stylist and her assistant. The photographer and her handful of assistants. Plus me, the designer. Fun trivia: it was a very international group. Conversation slipped from English to French to Italian pretty seamlessly.



Other fun trivia: we asked my gorgeous friends Jill and Greg to bring their gorgeous twins (one girl, one boy) to the photoshoot to be baby models. We wanted the option of a few shots with an actual baby in the room. The shots turned out beautifully, but (total bummer) didn't end up working when the article was laid out for print. (The upside for me was that I still got to spend a morning hanging out with Jill and Greg.)

I think that about wraps up my behind the scenes tour. Thanks for all your positive feedback about the article. I'm so glad you liked it! For those of you who really liked it (as in those of you coveting the pretty items in the room) here's something cool: Parents Magazine is hosting a contest where you can win it all — $1700 in prizes. For reals. See details here.