The great green room in “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown, with pictures by Clement Hurd

Goodnight Moon captivates baby Madeline as much as it did her mother, so for Maddie’s first birthday I’m building a roombox of the great green room. Here’s a picture (taken at dawn, actually) to mark when the idea came to me — and to show those of you unfamiliar with great modern literature and art — what the great green room looks like.

One of the notable features of Clement Hurd’s pictures is his use of flat, vibrant color. After several color studies, turns out it’s pretty much kelly green, vermillion and bright yellow. The how of the colors — whether to use paint or paper or polymer clay — is a figure-out-as-I-go-along. Similarly, what will be crafted from cardstock, built of wood and painted or modeled in clay. I am printing custom fabric for the curtains at Spoonflower. I briefly considered trying to 3D print some of the objéts, but there’s not enough time for me to learn the technology before her March birthday. (It has prompted me to enroll in a 3D class at Skillshare, though :)

For the walls, built of foamcore for lightness, I chose cardstock to cover, but I painted the floor.

Vermillion

Many color and materials decisions were made.

Windows are trimmed in painted 3/16 x 1/8-inch basswood. I edited the views of starry night sky in Photoshop and taped them behind the plexiglass, temporarily for now.

The fireplace is built from cardstock, with a wood mantle. The fire will be illuminated.

Here you can see my sawdusty fingers holding the mantle cut from 1/16 x 1/2-inch basswood. I matched the pinky-gray color and painted the assembly with acrylic paint.

The great green room before the Bunny family moved in

You can see in the window trim gaps how not-90° I cut the foamcore, *cringe* but the curtains will (mostly) hide that imperfection.

Next is the bookcase, built of 1/16 x 1/2-inch basswood. When I was matching the yellow to paint, I noticed that the inside of the case is gray. What a curious detail. But hey, true to the great green room as painted by Mr. Hurd am I.

First coat of paint(s)