The Nursery

I have designed hundreds of rooms in the past including children’s bedrooms but never a nursery and never did I think the first would be for my own baby. But, here we are, a time I thought would never come, only a few weeks away from the arrival of our daughter!

Our spare room has been transformed into a beautiful light and airy neutral room with a white and grey colour palette with hints of subtle pink.

Decoration wise there was nothing we needed to do to this room as it was stripped out and redecorated when we renovated the house three years ago. It was just a case of dismantling the bed and moving the other furniture out.

When shopping around for new furniture for the nursery I knew we needed a cot, preferably a cot-bed, a chest of drawers/changing table and a wardrobe. My first go to places were Mumas & Papas and John Lewis and there were a few pieces that made the short list. I was quite particular with the style of furniture as I wanted more traditional, shaker style pieces yet with a contemporary twist so when I came across the Mia Classic range I knew this could be a winner. I went to view the furniture at my closest store as I always need to see the quality in the flesh, I never go from what I see online. The furniture passed the test, it was both sturdy, solid and durable which is important as it needs to withstand moving house and years of use for any other children we may have. It also looked great, I could picture it all the room.  We went for a cot bed as they are bigger than cots, the cots seems so tiny, and it means the baby can transition into the toddler bed in the coming years. The changing table top also comes off so once you’ve outgrown it, it can be used as a normal chest of drawers.

These are the pieces we choose –

• Cotbed
• Wardrobe
• Chest of drawers/changing table

They come in Pebble Grey and Ivory White, we went for white as there was already quite a lot of grey in the room with the walls and carpet.

Now the big pieces were sorted, we could focus on styling the room.

Just to go back in time, here is the room when we bought the house.

It was all stripped out with a stud wall erected to split the room in two. We also installed new electrics, new window, carpets and re-painted, and it was ready to be the spare room.

Just before we found out we were expecting we put the house on the market (and quickly took it off when we found out). Here are the estate agent photos of the room.

Once we got to the 20 week mark we started collecting various things and the room became a dumping ground for it all. I couldn’t wait to put it altogether.

In the meantime I drew up a quick render of what I envisaged the room to look like, with all the dimensions of the furniture to see how it would fit and best positions for the furniture. As the room is quite small, we knew the wardrobe would be going in the hallway just outside in the alcove next to the chimney breast where it would fit perfectly.

We put aside a weekend to clear the room and put all the furniture together. It was all very easy to construct with very clear step-by-step instructions for each of the three pieces. Although do give yourself a good few hours and two people.

It was so exciting seeing it all come together. I couldn’t wait to get all the bits and pieces in.

Now for the finished article…

I couldn’t be more thrilled with her nursery. It is everything I imagined and more. I can’t stop going in there, sitting in the chair and just looking around. It is hard to grasp the concept that there will be a real life baby in there in just a few weeks time.

Other items are from –

• Moses basket – Moba
• Pictures – Desenio
• Photo ledge – Ikea
• Cushions – The White Company
• Cot mobile – Pearl and Boo
• Cloud mobile – West Stanton
• Ball lights – Cotton Ball Lights
• Rug – Benuta
• Chair – One World Trading
• Mirror – House of Brissi
• Grey baskets – House of Brissi
• Toy pram – Little Homes
• Sash window – Roseview
• Shutters – The Shutter Shop
• Carpet – Rushmore Naturals Camden
• Paint colour – Farrow & Ball Cornforth White

Claire

*This post has been written in collaboration with Mumas & Papas with the furniture provided in exchange for this post, but all writing and opinions are my own. I would never promote a brand or product I wouldn’t buy myself.