Gideon loves books and we are lucky enough to have a built in bookshelf in his room. On close inspection the tickets were the perfect size to glue onto the front edges of each shelf. I brushed on Modge Podge on each edge and pressed the tickets down. Then - since I love to color coordinate - I couldn't help organizing the books by color as well - alternating each shelf. Once I had the books organized I had two whole shelves left for displaying some of our vintage circus treasures. In addition to using a page from a 3-D circus book, I dug up a retro Fisher Price Roly Poly Bear, a fun Little People clown, a plastic candy holding weiner dog, a colorful stuffed Humpty Dumpty and a vintage magnetic monkey puzzle. See below for before and after.
Gideon's room has been a labor of love and I am absolutely thrilled with how colorful and fun it has turned out to be. For the ceiling Mike and I wanted it to feel like we were under the Big Top - so we created our own stencil and painted the ceiling a vibrant blue. Around the light fixture Mike painted a star pattern using gold metallic paint. Gideon's bedspread and circus wall canopy are from Ikea. I found the curtain valances at the thrift store and scoured the fabric district for gold/white striped fabric to make the drapes with.
It took me several months to find all the art and other decorating items for Gideon's room. My crafty neighbor Cathie Filian http://cathiefilian.blogspot.com/ gave me a vintage book full of amazing circus illustrations. Using a thrift store frame, Mike and I finally chose this incredible tiger to hang on Gideon's wall.
