The nursery was the first room that I wanted to take on, with our daughter being three months old when we moved into the house, the hope was that it would be ready for when she turned six months old and moved into her own room. Obviously from the second that I found out I was expecting, I was scrolling Pinterest searching for nursery inspiration and saving pins that I liked to a board, waiting for when we moved house and could properly plan out the nursery room knowing what size and shape the room would be. I highly recommend Pinterest as a starting point for thinking about any room, as the more pins you save, the more similar pins are thrown in your direction and you very quickly end up with a mood board full of images suited to your taste.
Once we had moved, deciding which room would be the nursery was the first decision, we went for a room at the back of the house as the sun was constantly on the rooms at the front and they got very warm throughout the day, so a cooler room seemed the smarter choice.
In all honesty, I don’t find it hard to imagine a room the way I would like it when either viewing houses or looking at a room with a red carpet and yellow walls as a ‘blank canvas’, which happened to be what we started with for our daughters’ nursery (see ‘before’ picture below). In fact, I would go as far to say I have too much expectation and confidence in a transformation idea, and more often than not it would not be possible, if it was not for my father-in-law pulling out all the stops.
As you can see some features that seemed to be a common theme on my Pinterest board were panelling, mute/earthy tones, rattan/wood storage and a feature wallpaper.
In the past I’ve a tendency to keep all rooms quite neutral and add colour within the furnishings (cushions, throws, lamps etc) however my husband insisted that we include some colour in the nursery… I started off with ordering some wallpaper samples, paint colour charts, blind materials and carpet samples and putting them together to make the best decision for the room as a whole, rather than just individually for each aspect.
Aside from Pinterest, other sources of inspiration came from Jess’s Instagram @thehoppyhome, and the nursery she has just completed for her son. I loved the shelving she had a joiner create and the way she had incorporated colour into the shelves and kept the walls neutral. I wanted to do something similar with a small cupboard we had in the nursery to begin with.
I also took inspiration from Zoe Sugg’s nursery on Instagram @zoesugg, that she had completed for her daughter. It was very colourful and included pattern, which isn’t something I would usually go for, but the colour palette included mute and earthy tones that were very to my taste, proving that colourful dosen’t have to be gaudy.
With all that in mind, I made my final design decisions…
I was going to have one wall of high panelling, painted in colour ‘Masquerade, Light 332′ by The Little Greene Paint Company. With a feature wallpaper above, named ‘Apelviken Apples and Pears’ Wallpaper in ‘White Green’ by ‘Worldofwallpaper.com’, also available on John Lewis. I thought the tones would go well together and our daughters love of trees meant that this was the only real choice between wallpaper samples I had narrowed down.
I also decided on turning a small cupboard within the room into a shelving unit inspired by @thehoppyhome and to paint this the same colour as the panelling, ‘Masquerade, Light 332’ for the rest of the walls, I decided on a colour called ‘Slaked Lime 105’ again by The Little Greene Paint Company, and once again inspired by @thehoppyhome who has the majority of her home painted in this gorgeous off white.
For carpets, I went for a neutral beige, choosing as plain a colour as possible whilst keeping in mind that this was a carpet to last a baby/toddler through to… teenager? (Who knows how long carpets last, but we will soon find out.) I chose a more durable/wipeable carpet rather than a luxurious soft one for this room with it being a nursery, who knows what will end up on the floor.
Finally, for blinds, I chose ‘Paleo Linen Vintage Cream’ from Blinds2go.com, and went for a blackout option roller blind. With Blinds2go.com you measure up for the blinds yourself. I have had these in previous houses and have never had any problems, there is a guide on their website of how to measure up and it gives you a little leeway, they are also incredibly easy to install (so I’m told).
With all the base design decisions made and items ordered…..it was time to get the father-in-law on board, as much as I like to think I can do, nothing is actually possible without him. If you don’t have your own brilliant father-in-law, maybe my guide can help you… to follow shortly!
