Baby Fairies: Creating a magical place for little ones

By Fathima Riznaz Hafi

Home décor when put together by the right hands utilising talent and creativity brings about a room that is a pleasure to look at and be in. When this talent and creativity is put into designing a baby’s room, it carries the scene to another level – a level of adorability. 

Most mothers-to-be want the baby room perfectly planned and ready before the arrival of the baby but the trick is to find the right person to fulfil their wishes. The Weekend FT stumbled upon Baby Fairies recently and was very pleased with the baby room décor she does.

Baby Fairies was founded by Keshiya Dassanayake and is all about customised handmade felt décor. She mainly makes felt name banners, wall hangings, crib mobiles and birthday banners but is open to all sorts of requests. 

“My customers’ options are unlimited; they can request pretty much anything and I will keep working on it until they are happy with the design. If the customer requires, I can decorate the entire room according to a desired theme – the sky is the limit with me because it can be any theme, any size. At one particular occasion, a customer wanted a few huge plush toys and wall hangings to decorate the wall of their future baby’s room. So I came up with the biggest ever wall hangings I’ve created with a four-foot tall giraffe, a three-foot tall elephant, a one-foot tall blue Macao and a two-foot tall monkey on a branch,” said Keshiya.

“The typical process is, when a customer sends the requirements and details such as the theme, colours, age of the person (mostly via Facebook, Viber or WhatsApp), I make a sketch just for that particular customer so he/she can review, change and finalise the design. Almost all my products are different and unique as they’re catered for a particular customer,” she added.

Not restricting herself to only baby items, she has worked for people in their 20s as well, adorning their rooms with items such as motivational quotes and wall hangings.

She also undertakes Christmas décor such as Christmas tree ornaments, Christmas themed wall hangings and garlands. Gifts for parents and Valentine’s gifts are also in her list. Her main focus however remains on baby products.

How it all started

Keshiya says she’s always enjoyed giving handmade gifts and cards to family and friends and is a DIY lover. She thinks twice before throwing something away and most of the time ends up creating something new out of waste and reusing it. The idea to make this into a business came from her best friend who being well-aware of her creativity asked if she could do a name banner for her daughter out of felt. 

“That was the first name banner I created and my friend was so happy with it. Soon after, she gave me the idea to do it as a business, advising me not to waste my talent. It was a great idea and I started researching felt crafts. It is not a new thing to the world though it’s new to Sri Lanka. Then I made a few name banners and crib mobiles for family and friends to see the response of others; they loved them. After that I started a Facebook page nine months ago to share it with the public,” she said.

Keshiya runs Baby Fairies full-time now and adds that one of the perks is she gets to be her own boss.

Imagination at its best

“I create all the products by myself. Many people ask me whether I’ve learned to create felt crafts from somewhere or I’ve done any course. My answer is no. I just figure out how it should be done and experiment with it a bit. Luckily all my experiments work!

“What inspires me the most is I love working with interesting themes such as cartoons, fairy tales, animals, nature and so on along with vibrant colours. Kids’ world is such a magical place where the imagination is at its best and we can use our creativity to the highest level. It’s really exciting to talk with parents who want nothing but the best for their kids.”

Keshiya proudly reveals that so far Baby Fairies has got a 100% happy customer base and adds the best part of running Baby Fairies is seeing the reactions of her customers. Her goal is to provide high quality creative products for a reasonable price.

She delivers island-wide as well as worldwide safely via trustworthy courier services. Interested customers who are living abroad can also order products through her Baby Fairies Creations shop at ‘Etsy.com’. Three weeks’ notice is requested when placing an order since all her products are custom-made and it takes time to give a neat end-product.