Hello all!
Well this week has been the craziest of my life! Today marks one week since our little man made his arrival - a whole 4 days earlier than his 'guess date', and a whole 2 or 3 weeks before I'd convinced myself he was going to turn up! Needless to say I've now learnt my lesson that I can't bank on having 'extra time' to nail that to do list!
Whilst babe naps, I thought it about time that I reveal a little tour of that beautiful baby room of his! I shared some sneaky-peeky snaps on my insta stories of the colours we were using to paint a mural back in February and I know lots of you were waiting to see what we'd done!
So - we basically wanted to create a light, fun room with pops of colour and pattern that babe can grow with and enjoy. As a tiny bub I'm hoping that the contrasting colours and bold pattern of the mural will give him something eye catching to gaze at from his cot. We didn't want to go crazy and stick to a rigid 'theme' in the room that everything centred around, or play it super safe with a traditional 'neutral' nursery palette. So this felt like a nice middle ground! Previously the room was our pretty unloved spare room which had inevitably become a dumping ground for all the things that didn't really have a home around the house!
We used Little Greene paint, as they're an environmentally conscious UK based manufacturer and the paints are non-toxic, meaning I felt happy slapping it all over the walls whilst heavily pregnant and not having to worry about fumes {though we did of course have the windows open and lots of fresh air anyway!}. I wanted to go a little bit further than just applying the colour directly to the wall as I was really keen to tie in other elements around the room with the same colours. So I also hand painted a little canvas with a little life motto for our boy that I hope he'll be inspired by, which I framed and hung above his book shelves on the opposite wall. I also had plans to paint some wooden stacking toys with the paints too, as they can be used on wood & I think that'll look rad, but alas that'll have to wait as that was one of my 'still to do' jobs on the list when he arrived!
I basically sat down with one of their paint chip samplers and just ripped out a bunch of colours I liked to see if I could put together a little palette to work with. The paints I used, from top to bottom are: Brighton, Blue Verditer, Mambo, Thai Sapphire & Angie {which, after having watched this seasons Ru Paul, I can't say without thinking VAAAANJIE, MISS VAAAAAAANJIE}. It's definitely worth going by the colours of the actual paint chips rather than any image online as the two are really quite different - with the paint chips {obvi} being the exact colour.
The inspiration for the big old swoosh of colour came from faraway pal & absolute fearless interior design queen Evie Kemp, who painted a big old Bowie inspired swoosh in her living room recently. My lovely sister-in-law Kate came down for a weekend and together we hand-painted it - I just kind of winged it with the shape and drew right on the wall in pencil first, then we just roughly measured around making sure the blocks of colour were a fairly even thickness across the board. I'm so in love with how it's turned out!
The Details: low bookshelves*; tall bookshelves*; artwork {painted by me!}; frame*; et print {old stock}; luckyboysunday doll
When it came to choosing furniture we were really keen to steer clear of the cliche 'nursery furniture' items and opt for more timeless pieces that could change purpose and continue to be enjoyed as baby grows. I really don't see a need to buy weird disproportioned mini furniture that you're only going to have to replace a couple of years down the line!
The cot is the exception here, of course - that's the one baby piece we couldn't really avoid! The one we chose is a simple IKEA Gulliver number that's sturdy and simple - its only £100 new but we decided to grab one second hand on Gumtree as for £15 you can't really go wrong! We did however invest in a really lovely natural fibre mattress for it from Little Green Sheep.
The Details: cot {old IKEA gulliver}; mobile {homemade}; mobile holder; crib net {homemade from my Crown & Glory wedding veil}; sleepyhead*; moon pillow {homemade}; fluffy cushion*; moon & stars blanket; blush swaddle {UK stockist}
Anyone who knows us knows we love mid century design, and that look is definitely something we've carried over into this room. Here's hoping babe will appreciate this lovely stuff one day!
The beautiful shelving units are from West Elm and are from the same collection as the bedside tables in our room. At the moment they have various baskets of muslins, blankets and clothes, with a few of my fave little things we've collected for baby. I have visions of them being switched up to hold baskets of toys, lots of books and other easily accessible things once he becomes more mobile!
The Details: Linen bird rattle; woven basket*; spectacles muslin; heart patch; spotty wash bag*
The Details: Sanrio creatures {picked up in Japan on our honeymoon for bub}; dog print; plant: Monstera Adansonii
The Details: rad books; agate bookend*; photo automat preggo strip taken at Fred Aldous in Manchester; plant: pilea peperomioides
When we moved in we ripped up the gross threadbare carpet in this room and I sanded {badly, lesson learnt there} and painted {badly, yep, another lesson learnt} the floorboards white, it makes the room super lovely and light BUT, not great for tumbling toddlers. So we chose this gorge rug that's similar to the ones in our master bedroom & my rug of dreams in the studio!
The Details: rug*; grey felt tub; basket*; open weave basket; building blocks {old range from Flying Tiger}; roly poly rabbit; plant: monstera
One of my faaaavourite pieces for the room is this gorgeous chest of drawers. It was the first thing I chose for babe's room and kind of the central thing that decided what the rest of the room was going to look like. It's perfect as his changing table right now, with all his cloth nappies and reusable cheeky wipes {more on that topic to come!} in the top drawer & his teeny tiny clothes in the other two! It's just the right height & we got a little non slip mat to go under the changing wedge itself so it stays put!
Jack bought me the little Vitra toolbox years ago for bits and bobs in my studio and it's now perfect for popping next to the changing mat to hold the cheeky wipes, our little spray bottle to moisten them and other soothing baby butt products!
The details: mid century dresser*; changing bag*; changing mat; amber spray bottle
I especially love the little shelf above that I've popped some little trinkets on, like the picture of us from our engagement shoot, and the little ceramic constellation covered cats that I made as our wedding cake toppers.
The Details: pink planter; toast tile; tall vase {similar}; cats {homemade}
The Details: life is good print; rabbit slippers; grey felt tub; cloth nappies*
I was really keen, whilst I still had the time & babe was in utero, to make some special touches for his room. So, along with the typographic painting I also made a cute little customisation of my moon pillow, a space-themed mobile to hang above the crib, and a crib net from my stunning nebula veil that I wore on our wedding day {and didn't want to leave unloved in a cupboard for ever}! With the help of my crafty superstar pal Kate, we also made a huge moon play-mat which I'm in love with and you can see over on my insta!
Beside the crib we created a little reading/feeding nook with the lovely recovered Danish chair from Florrie & Bill that we bought several years back. It fits the space perfectly and it's a super comfy spot for a snuggle - especially in the early hours, listening to the bird song from the garden.
The Details: chair; fluffy cushion*; moon cushion; mustard cushion {charity shop find}; malted milk cushion
The Details: mirror*; sensory name blocks; ceramic rainbow {handmade by me!}; plants: pilia, spider plant & fiddle-leaf fig; shearling all in one; striped romper; two-toned gilet; pink romper; heart patch; hanging decoration
The mirror above really reflects the light around the room, and provides a sweet little spot for hanging some of bub's favourite outfits. I couldn't not fill the room with plants but I'm super mindful that as soon as bub becomes mobile we're probably going to have do some real reshuffling of the plants around the house!
All in all, the room has a really lovely, warm, cozy feel to it. I think we've achieved our goal of creating a sweet little space that can grow with our boy. I really hope you guys like it too!