A Retro Inspired Baby Nursery
Baby Nursery: A peek inside
It felt really strange to go through my entire pregnancy knowing that Ted's nursery wasn't going to get done until he was 4 or 5 months old. I love to be organised, plan everything and not having a baby nursery felt really odd! However, it was the project that I was most excited to do. If you've been following my blog or social media accounts then you probably know that we've been doing up our house since January, ever since we moved to West Yorkshire. Ted's room was a bright purple room, terrible walls, old purple carpet, glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, a sink, concertina dividing wall (?!), oh and more purple! When we were pulling down walls in the rest of the house, this room was where me, my husband, my daughter and my huge bump lived for 2 months.
I have amazingly fond memories of being holed up in the bright purple room when the Beast from the East was lashing it down outside, we were snowed in for weeks and everything was covered in dust but Eden and I would sit in bed and watch Netflix and eat biscuits. It sounds horrendous doesn't it, but oddly it was such a lovely time!
I digress... So the 'Purple Room' was one of the last rooms on the never ending list to be finished. We called in the plasterers when Ted was 4 months old. I finally had the mental strength to be able to deal with all the dust again and we were off! New wall went up (my husband's greatest achievement), plaster went on and the cleaning commenced. I flipping HATE plaster dust.
Fresh plaster is such a pain to paint so we had to really coat it up and this took the longest out of everything. White on white on white. We decided to split the walls in half and paint the bottom half a gorgeous chalky blue from Farrow & Ball - Oval Room Blue. This blue was a colour that i'd seen on Pinterest and after many hours of Pinning, i realised that I was really drawn to retro inspired boys' rooms. The blue that we'd chosen had a nod to vintage French school rooms. We taped up the room and painted the blue around the entire room, including skirting boards and radiator. This helped the room to not look stripey and also covered up the ugly radiator.
We didn't have a huge budget for the nursery as we'd spent most of the money on the walls. However, I persuaded my husband that we really really needed a huge rainbow wall hanging from OYOY design and this was the launch pad for the colour scheme and design. The wall hanging paired with items from my shop like the white storie stool, wooden market stall pretend play toy, the rosy pink Lapin & Me lamp, all help to balance the old with the new.
Vintage finds
I wanted the nursery to be mellow and have hints of retro throughout and this was really fun trying to find vintage pieces from various places online and offline. The old school desk was a find from our local vintage shop, an absolute steal for £30! We had to saw off the legs due to a little bit of rot but this actually helped to make it the right height.
The peg rail above the desk (from H&M) is perfect for hanging little pieces of art, toys and displaying some of his gifts that have been hidden away until now. I love how this rail will constantly evolve, keeping his room feeling like it's growing with him. I wanted Ted's room to feature dinosaurs and so the Triceratops canvas banner looks awesome hanging in this corner.
Another vintage purchase was the 1960's magazine rack that I found of Facebook Marketplace for a very reasonable £10. It houses lots of lovely books that are easily accessible whilst he is so small. I'm sure we'll have to scale up in the future!
With Eden's room, we bought small sized furniture; a small bed, a small set of drawers, small shelves. Why?! Kids have more stuff than anyone else! So this time round we opted for normal human sized furniture. We found an old, upcycled wardrobe in a local reclaimation shop which was perfect and loads cheaper than a brand new one!
Collecting things from the past
The fireplace, in its former life, was...you guessed it PURPLE so with a little lick of metal paint it was banished! It now houses some little trinkets that have been collected over the years. A little vintage van from a flea market in France, some postcards prints from a holiday in Mallorca many moons ago, a hand drawn ABC book from my childhood and a recycled tomato can now living life as a plant pot.
I'm a huge fan of belly baskets because you can literally cram a billion toys in there and Olli Ella do some amazing sizes. Storage is always key! Ted has inherited all of Eden's toys and there a few from my childhood in there too!
Supporting small makers
I have realised this year how much joy I get from supporting small makers so I made sure that I bought all Ted's prints from small designers. We opted for a retro ABC print from Max Made Me Do It, the awesome pink leopard from Wonder & Rah, Loved wooden banner from Cotton Clara, his name plaque from Gooseberry Fool, Triceratops banner from Dino Raw at Acorn & Pip, and his retro Lemony print from Wolf Noodle.
So there it is, a baby boy's nursery with (hopefully) a vintage charm that will last over the years.
Love,
Lucy
