 Once
upon a time, there was a little girl named Morgan Kern.
Like many other 4-year-olds, Morgan
fancied being a princess and liked all things related — the dresses,
the stories, the castles and even the idea of kissing a frog to
release a Prince Charming.
Lucky for her, Morgan’s mother
fancied being a fairy godmother in that she liked granting her
daughter’s wishes.
Also lucky for Morgan is that her mom,
Sara Kern, is an interior designer with her own business, Marrin
Designs LLC in Milwaukee. And, for the recent Milwaukee Institute of
Art and Design graduate’s thesis, Kern had to build a full-size play
land, which is in the back yard of the family’s northwest side
Milwaukee home.
 "I
learned all about spaces, and I really enjoyed doing it for
kids," she says.
She enjoyed it so much that she decided
to build a castle for Morgan, one that would safely surround her bed.
With the help of her husband,
Christopher, the two used plywood, sonotubes and concrete forms and
spent the better part of two weekends doing just that. They built a
castle with a window at the foot and the head of the bed, and a door
that opens at the side to enter; above that side door, the words
"Princess Morgan" are stenciled.
Kern says the goal was to build the
castle to surround the bed without overpowering the room, further
decorated with a child’s chair shaped like a frog wearing a crown,
photos from Euro Disney and the familiar Cinderella dress hanging on a
wall.
"I wanted to build something for
Morgan," she says. "And she was into princesses."
The hardest part in building the
castle, Kern says, was the stenciling and painting — they used oil
paint, which took longer than anticipated to dry.
The castle was to be a surprise for
Morgan, too. "She had no idea," Kern says.
And her response showed it:
"Ah!" Kern says Morgan exclaimed. "She was very
excited. She just loves it."
Kern says Morgan was sick a few months
after the castle was complete, and mom cuddled up with her daughter in
the bed. "It’s so cozy," says Kern, pointing out the
ceiling’s light green, soothing paint.
Kern says it’s satisfying to build
something for a child, and since she and Christopher did the work
themselves, their only cost was supplies — about $200. It’s money
well spent to live happily ever after.
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