I’m so excited to bring you a little tour of my daughter’s nursery today.
Decorating a room for the baby is one of the most exciting parts of being pregnant and it's such a nice way of welcoming a new arrival - it's the anticipation of waiting to discover who will be appearing to fill the space!
If you haven’t seen my post about the renovation of No.80 - our house is a labour of love. It was formerly subdivided into three flats in a Victorian building that we’ve been slowly converting back into a family home.
It’s still a long way from finished, and I certainly wouldn’t call myself an interiors expert at all, but I am enjoying the process of decorating. I loved putting together our son Theodore’s nursery which we then updated into a toddler bedroom when he was about two and a half, and I’ve enjoyed doing the same for our daughter Romilly Hero.
Take a look…
So Romilly arrived back in July 2018, but for quite a while her room was a bit unfinished. At the time, Theodore was still coming into our bed a lot at night. Because of this, we decided to keep a double bed that was still in there from when it was a guest room, so that I could sleep in Romilly's room and feed her in there during the night without an active toddler trying to climb in. Having a double bed plus a cot in there meant it always felt like a space in limbo.
Then, when we decided to redevelop the top floor of the house into our master suite, Romilly's bedroom was used for storage during the building work, so for a long time it was stacked pretty much floor to ceiling with furniture and suitcases full of clothes. There was just about room to shuffle from the door to her cot!
Now that the top floor is finally almost complete, we’ve been able to turn it back into a proper bedroom for her, and I’m so glad.
Her room is quite a nice size and is the side bedroom of the house, next door to our own current bedroom, which will become the guest room when we migrate upstairs to the new master suite soon. It has a nice, big window, high ceilings and plenty of floor space to play.
There are still a couple of things to do. All the carpets on this floor of the house are still the awful beige nylon ones we inherited when we moved in, so we’ll get them all done at some point - they are just inoffensive enough that they come at the bottom of a huge list of home renovation priorities.
Second, I’ve been trying to source a vintage style armoire for the room for ages, with no luck so far. At the moment, Romilly’s clothes are little enough that they can all be stored in her chest of drawers, but at some point she is going to need more storage - so I’m on alert for something to fit.
If I can’t find one to makeover, I have my eye on the Charroux Mirrored Armoire from Kingdom Furnishings. It’s handmade from white cedar hardwood and all the carvings are done by hand, so I’m hoping it's a piece that she will have and love for a long time.
I’m not a huge fan of pink, so like most of the rooms in the house, we opted to keep the decor fairly neutral and just add a few more feminine accents rather than going full on princess - that may change as Romilly gets older and more vocal!
The walls were a bit of trial and error. I had originally chosen a colour that was supposed to be a grey with purple undertones, but when Sebastian was halfway through painting it, it turned out it just looked straight up lilac on the walls (for those of you who are old enough, think the Bang on The Door ‘Groovy Chick’ duvet you were so proud of in the 90’s and 00’s).
It didn’t suit the space and it had to go, but we decided we didn’t want to repaint without also getting the room replastered, as it was one of the only rooms we hadn’t done. So with Romilly due any day, we literally ended up getting the plasterer back in and re-doing the whole thing!
Luckily, it only took a week to plaster and paint as we were then in the middle of a heatwave. I’m so much happier with the finish now, but it goes to show, folks - always do a tester pot first!
The new shade is from the Hemsley Ultra Flat Emulsion range and is called ‘Lovington Pewter’ - a soft, warm grey that provides a subtle backdrop. The room should transition into a toddler bedroom quite easily, and the colour can be paired with lots of other shades as she gets older.
We added this large ‘Spring Meadow’ canvas from Laura Ashley. We ordered it a while ago, intending it for our own bedroom, but when it came, there were a lot of pink tones in it that didn’t fit with our room, so it's found a home here. I love it for Romilly's room, because its feminine but not too infantile, so it will suit the room for a while.
For the main light, I wanted a feature that was quite clean, but still interesting, so we went for this Artichoke pendant light fitting from Trouva. I love the texture, which reminds me of feathers or flower petals, and the white picks up on the colours of her furniture.
This chest of drawers is a vintage find that we revamped with a lick of white paint, and we swapped some of the handles to give it a more eclectic look. I absolutely love doing up old furniture, as it's just so much more solid than modern flat-pack pieces and often features beautiful details like the carving on these drawers. I think we must only have paid about £30 for this and it suits the room so well.
The bronze-effect Hare lamp was a find from The Range, which is my not-so-secret place for cost effective lighting. It’s such a cool piece that is playful but also quite grown up in a way - and I think it looks way more expensive than it was! A cream storage basket from Carver holds some essentials - including her cute summer straw hat from H&M. She also has a couple of little trinket boxes, and her swan money box, and a cream laundry basket, also from Carver (all the mamas out there know the constant laundry cycle - the struggle is real!).
Above the chest of drawers, there's a beautiful vintage oval mirror that I got at Hemswell Antiques Centre. For a while I wasn't sure where it was going to live in the house, as I've had it for a while, but it suits this room.
Next to the chest of drawers is her wooden dolls house (this was a complete steal from Aldi, who stock a range of really nice wooden toys around Christmas each year). Then she has her little vintage white wooden school desk and chair - these were a hand-me-down from her cousin - and a little personalised wooden abacus that was a gift from friends.
The window is quite large so I didn’t want anything too fussy to dress it - when we use curtains, there’s a lot of fabric there and it can look a bit messy - so we opted for this blackout roman blind in the Emma Bridgewater Circus print.
I first saw this print on a dinner set in a little children’s boutique and absolutely fell in love with it - it's so whimsical but not overly girly. You might spot the matching moneybox on the windowsill, alongsider her white metal star lights from Lumiletters.
The personalised monogram toy box was a gift for Romilly’s first Christmas, sourced from Not On The Highstreet. It’s a great thing to get as a first Christmas gift, because they're too young to want lots of toys, and it gives you a place to store the ones they get afterwards. Plus, they make a beautiful keepsake.
We also bought Theo a toy chest for his first Christmas, so I guess you could call it a family tradition. It has an upholstered top, so it doubles as a little seat as well.
I bought the cushion with pink and white stars separately from eBay, and on top she has a little grey velvet cloud pillow, her swan ballerina toy from Jellycat and a little cuddly llama. We've stacked her small collection of books up next to it, but she will eventually need a bookcase I guess!
By the window, we have a grey velvet wing chair from Homesense. I used this instead of a glider for breastfeeding in and reading stories, so it's a little area of calm. This chair was something we bought for Theo’s nursery originally, but we passed it on to his little sister to make room for his play tent.
I’ve added this Emma Bridgewater Popcorn cushion, which adds a splash of pink. The grey floral painted storage trunks next to it and the silk cherry blossom decorations are both from The Range.
You may notice that we don’t actually have a changing table. We bought one for Theo and I found it literally never got used!
I tended to pop his changing matt on the floor, at first through convenience and then because he got bigger and could roll off the top, so you couldn’t turn your back at all!
It ended up being a bit of a waste of space, so we decided not to make the same mistake twice - all our nappies and changing bits just live in the cream storage basket under the chair, which is another item from Carver.
The cot bed is the Marlow design from Mothercare, and we had it as a hand-me-down kindly given by my sister in law when our nephew outgrew it, as Theo is still using his cot from Kub as a bed. We opted for simple linen in a white and grey stripe from Vertbaudet.
Above the cot, I've added a couple of small decorative touches - this 'Love' neon script light, and the plaster unicorn bust are both finds from B&M - I love the whimsical touch they add.
At the head of the cot, she has her personalised 'Romilly' canvas, which was a present from friends.
Next to the bed is this glass-fronted storage cabinet - this was another upcycled find from our neighbourhood Facebook page.
It was originally bright green when we got it - I think we paid £10 or so for it - and it looks so much better with a coat of cream paint. I've put storage baskets in there lined with grey linen from The Range to hold vests and baby grows, which she still wears at night, and I'm planning to put her shoes in there, but as she gets bigger it will probably get taken over by toys and games.
On top, she has her colour-change pink bear nightlight from Amazon, a couple of silver trinkets she got as gifts for her christening, and this fairy mirror from Past Times which was a present from my Dad.
Then she also has a few favourite toys close to hand - the panda is from Gisela Graham, the doll was brought back from Paris by her auntie, and she got the 2018 commemorative Steiff teddy from her great-grandmother - they make such a pretty little display.
By the door, we've set up her pink stripe canvas teepee - find these from HausProjekt on Etsy- as a nice cosy corner for her to play with her little wooden Onshine tea set. I especially love the Alice in Wonderland bunting from Sophie Allport that we decorated the top with. And then she just has a little hook over the door to hold some of her coats and her little Cath Kidston spotty bag.
So that is our little girl’s nursery tour - her own space in our home that I look forward to watching evolve and grow.
Into interiors? There will be many more of these coming as we work our way through our home renovation project, so check back over the next few months for more...
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