I recently interviewed a new(ish) mum & fantastic friend about her experience decorating her first child's room, it can be a little daunting to take this task on before knowing what you are even doing as a mum but Melissa did an incredible job.
1 Where
did you draw inspiration from to design the room?
Mostly from the internet, boutique baby shops, vintage shops and other
friend’s nurseries
2 Was
there a theme to the room? If so how did you execute it?
Definitely! We didn’t find out the sex of our baby so I wanted the
nursery to be unisex but with plenty of character. I’d seen decals on etsy
before and loved the idea of the nursery being filled with fun shapes and
colours as well as images that would allow my child to use their imagination as
they grew so an animal theme felt perfect.
The walls are covered with a gorgeous big tree, monkeys, birds and a
giraffe. Now that Henry is a 1 the first thing he does every time he wakes up is
points and waves to his animals, I love how much joy he gets from them! I also
wanted the main base colour to be white and chose all white furniture to
reflect this. I have always been interested in vintage furniture so tried to
choose vintage or vintage inspired pieces where possible as long as they were
also functional as I was working within a small space.
3 Did
you know the sex of the child before planning the design, & did this affect
the colour scheme?
No I didn’t and that totally influenced it as I wanted something gender
neutral and felt white accents created the perfect blank canvas for the room.
The decals are very colorful too so work well on white and we plan to change
them to a “boy” theme as Henry grows up and develops his own interests.
4 Where
did you source the furniture? Was this more difficult than you imagined?
Yes it was! The one thing I really wanted to be perfect and wouldn’t
compromise on was a nursing chair. I turned every baby shop in Sydney upside
down and found they were all really functional and lacked the “feature chair”
statement (as well as function) I wanted. It was only while I was in Melbourne
on holidays that I saw the perfect chair in a boutique baby shop in South Yarra
(they now sell them in Sydney!). It was perfect and I have so many precious
memories already in that chair, I am so glad I waited to find the perfect one.
Our vintage change table was also something I was thrilled to find and
ended up buying it off a friend who had purchased it from a second hand store 5
years ago. I found that change tables were massive solid slabs of wood that
weren’t entirely practical so really wanted something with some character and
plenty of room for baskets and storage was a key consideration for us. One of
the best things we did was buy a cot with a drawer underneath, it holds heaps
of things without taking up any additional space. I love it!
I found Fantastic Furniture was fabulous for cheap and colourful storage
solutions (such as cubes and bookshelves) too.
5 What
was the most challenging part of the experience?
Finding space for everything! Nurseries tend to be small and there’s so
much that needs to go into them, but I’m really happy with Henry’s now that the
moses basket is packed away and there’s more space in the middle of the room.
We spend a lot of time rolling around on the floor in there!
6 Is
there any pieces you splashed out on? What were they
My nursing chair. It is the Glider by Olli Ella (http://www.olliella.com.au/furniture/).
It was a massive splurge but it was also my 30th birthday present
which is how I got it over the line ;) I don’t regret a cent of it, it was
handmade in the UK with love and care and it has provided the perfect seat from
which to love, nurture, feed and rock my bubba to sleep through many days and
nights. I love it!!
Now
that your child is living in the room, what would you say works best and what
would you change?
We found that kids come with so many things you just need storage galore!
So we’ve just moved our beloved changetable into storage and replaced it with a
big chest of drawers that holds heaps of stuff and you can pop a change table
attachment on top of. It works really well in the room.
I also found that having a dark room was pretty conjusive to sleep for
Henry as a little baby so put a big black curtain up which aesthetically
bothers me but helped him sleep through bright summer days so I can forgive it
for looking so ugly! Would love to have some funky kids blinds made though to suit
the theme of the room.
We get a lot of joy from having a small, low book shelf in Henry’s room
as he loves pulling books off it so we spend a lot of time together reading on
the floor.
I’m also really pleased with the wardrobe we bought as we opted for a
cheaper adult wardrobe from Harvey Norman and then added in an additional rail
below the existing one to maximize hanging space given their clothes are so
tiny they don’t need as much room to hang!
