Harold and the Purple Crayon

Over the past couple of months, Jillian has posted about interior design inspired by children's books. (You can see those posts here and here). When she told me about Where's Spot?, I thought it was such a unique source for inspiration. I started thinking about my own favorite children's books and what has inspired me.

The first book that came to mind was Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. This book was a favorite of my brother's and mine when we were growing up. The simple premise of a young boy who could draw his whole world with a purple crayon sparked endless possibilities in our imaginations.

I have found lots of products that remind me of this wonderful little book which I will share with you here.

Harold and the Purple Crayon begins with Harold drawing his bedroom window around the moon as seen here.

I imagine that the designers at IKEA had Harold's moon in mind when they designed this lamp. 

image via IKEA

Harold continues on his adventures by drawing a city full of windows. (This has always been my most favorite page in the entire book.)

I wonder if my apartment building (designed by Winka Dubbeldam) would fit into Harold's world?

image by Archi-Tectonics found via american-architects

Certainly these fabric patterns (again by IKEA) definitely would. Check out this door pattern:

image via IKEA

All of these houses (with cute little windows) in this print look like they were created by Harold himself:

image via IKEA

Especially this little house, a pillow designed by Donna Wilson for Reform School:

Further along in the story, Harold takes a hot air balloon ride.

Which reminds me of this mobile from designer Christian Flensted:

image via flensted-mobiles

I think that Harold would be thrilled to curl up in this bubble chair and dream about his next adventure. 

image via EZMOD furniture

Doesn't it look like both the moon and hot air balloon? Of course for Harold, the cushions would have to be purple. 

And finally, these wrapping paper designs from Whimsy Press remind me of Harold. 

A pattern created out of crayons...of course.

Best of all? This is called DIY Doodle Wrap. Illustrated on one side:

And blank on the other side so that you can draw your own world too. 

images via Whimsy Press