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DECOR

BY SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANGIE BAAN

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True friends deliver a baby gift
of pastels, ladybugs and lots of time.

arisa and Hector
Hernandez lived in their
West Bloomfield home
throughout the designing
of their new daughter's bedroom, but
only after Alexa Juliana's birth last
Dec. 27 did they dare do as much as
peek inside it.
"As soon as I told my friend
Melanie Weber [of Oak Park] that I
was pregnant, she said she wanted to
decorate the baby's room," Marisa said.
"But she made us promise we would
not look at it until it was finished."
They kept the promise, though it
wasn't easy with the baby's bedroom
right next door to their own.
"But it was worth waiting for,"
Hector said. "It was just unbelievable
to walk into Alexa's bedroom room for
the first time."
They moved into their home during
Marisa's third month of pregnancy and
the transformation of Alexa's room
began with just one guideline: "We
wanted to pick out the colors," said
Marisa, Melanie's friend since they
were 9 years old, and former class-
mates at both North Farmington High

ic
e

School and Adat
Shalom Synagogue in
Farmington Hills.

STARTI N G

So Marisa, Hector and
Melanie all went to
Babies R Us in Northville.
They chose a pastel pink, green, purple
and yellow comforter, with matching
sheets, bumper guards and mobile.
Then came the baby furniture.
"I was pushing for white furniture
the entire time and cringed when they
thought of putting maple in there,"
said Melanie, an in-house graphic
designer for Crypton Super Fabrics in
West Bloomfield. "The three of us
came to an agreement many hours
later on all the items for the registry."
Alexa's white crib, dresser and
changing table were a gift from grand-

FA".
40.

parents Michele and David Kaplan of
Farmington Hills; her pink, fabric-cov-
ered rocking chair and matching
ottoman were given to her by great-
grandparents Goldie Kaplan of
Farmington Hills and Phil Kaplan, who
died shortly after Alexa was born. A
bookcase was painted by Alexa's great-
aunt, Jodi Eichler of Farmington Hills.
But everything else still needed to
be purchased or created, with Melanie
doing extensive research and spending
hours on the Internet shopping, trying
to stay within a $400 budget. They did
go over budget by about $200, said

True friends Brad and Melanie Weber of Oak Park decorated the room for
Alexa, 6 months, who is with her parents Marisa and Hector Hernandez of
West Bloomfield.

Melanie's husband, Brad Weber, a resi-
dential real estate agent for Real
Estate One of Farmington Hills, who
was enlisted to help with the room.
"She would always find something
else that she just had to have for the
room," he said.

A CLEAN SLATE

The room's carpet was a neutral color
and had recently been replaced, so it
remained. But practically nothing else
did, especially the wallpaper.
"It was really ugly," Melanie said.
"When I first saw it, I was nervous that
it wouldn't come off the walls. But, to
our surprise, it did."
The closet doors, she said, "were
another story. They too, were covered
in wallpaper."
After four hours of trying to strip off
the paper, they decided to replace the
doors. Next, Melanie and Brad sanded
old wallpaper glue off the walls. Brad