Sydney’s Ugly Dolls and monsters nursery

Guest post by Esther Robards-Forbes
Montage of Sydney's nursery
What's cuter than a nursery decorated with monsters? Not much, that's what. Submitted by Katryna Brown of Firefly Photography.

When Katryna and Nicholas were on their honeymoon in Maine, they stumbled across a cute little shop selling Ugly Dolls, the adorable and offbeat, misfit yet lovable companions of many kids.

The one-eyed, horned and winged felt creatures are pretty irresistible and with names like Plunko and Puglee, what’s not to love?

Katryna said, “We saw them and were like ‘Oh my God, that’s so cute.'” They joked that when they had a baby they should decorate the nursery with them. And what do you know, they were pregnant a month later!

Katryna said, “We just thought, it’s cute and ugly at the same time. We didn’t want to do Disney all over.”

Definitely not Disney. Except for the awesome full-size WALL-E.

They opted to leave the walls of their guest-room-turned-nursery the tan color they had been out of laziness, Katryna said, (we’ll call it efficiency) and went with a cream border around the middle of the room. Using more artistic talent than I could muster in a lifetime, they sketched several of the characters and filled them in with paint pens. The whole project only took about six hours.

A little painters tape, a little sketching magic and presto chango, you've got yourself a monsterfied nursery.

They even turned their two dogs, a Boston Terrier/Boxer and a Lab/Corgi mix into Ugly Dolls characters and painted them, too.

The family dog becomes an Ugly Doll! Check out the matching under bites.

Katryna took apart an inexpensive mobile and hung several Ugly Dolls key chains from it, which took about five minutes, she said. A friend gave them a painting featuring the character Ice-Bat for Christmas and few of the dolls were added to the crib.

Sydney likes monsters!
That's Ice-Bat, arguably the coolest of the Ugly Dolls.

Sydney, who is now six months old, also has monsters on her shower curtain and a Godzilla lamp and bank on her shelf. The kid is covered up in monsters, but Katryna said, she seems to love it. No wonder the kid’s nickname is Little Monster.

“At first, people were saying she was going to be scared of all the monsters,” Katryna said. “But if she’s surrounded by monsters her whole life, she’ll be used to it.”

For kid number 2, if they have one, the nursery theme will likely be Tokidoki.

Katryna said, “We can’t have a normal nursery. That would just be crazy.”

For the full set of nursery photos, get your click on here.

Comments on Sydney’s Ugly Dolls and monsters nursery

  1. Yay! I’ve been thinking that for baby #2, we should do an ugly-doll theme. So fun! And good to know you can do ugly-doll theme without buying their entire catalog (and breaking the bank). Thanks!

  2. so great ! we have ugly dolls, my son picked them out, moxy for him, and plunko for his baby sister. they dont have hard eyes so miss mouthy can gnaw them ( with supervision, as always ) and they arent disney/princess/superhero oriented.

  3. oh my god! monsters (especially ugly dolls) have been our inspiration for our nursery from the start. we got the same “won’t it be too scary?” feedback, and we give the same response as you. we actually veered in a different direction when my childrens-librarian bestie offered to do a mural — now we’re doing a “where the wild things are” monster nursery. but we’ll probably still get him an ugly doll or two. 🙂

  4. Ok, first, awesome nursery! My daughter has an ugly doll that she got when she was born, and 4 years later it’s still one of her favorite toys. Second, where did you get the life sized Wall-E? that is the most awesome thing ever! please let me know, he is awesome!

  5. Question for all of you — do you call them ugly dolls or monsters? Our son has a large Plunko of whom he is very fond, and I wonder sometimes if we should use the “ugly” with him or not! I hate to overthink word choice, but I do worry about ugly being an early word!

  6. So cute! We’re YEARS away from having kids, but I’ve had this idea in mind for a while and sold my husband on it…even have some inspiration tucked away for when we finally can use it. This will be added. Nice job!

  7. I also love the ugly dolls and used them in our daughter’s nursery although not as a theme. The large dolls now hang from home made “trapeze bars” from the ceiling and are quite adorable!

    Ummm…and WHERE OH WHERE do you find a full size Wall-E??!!

    with admiration for a finished and super adorable room!
    beth

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