The Nursery Project

Ooh its exciting to get a nursery ready... and I love this idealistic stage before the reality hits and your beautiful nursery gets filled with nappy wipes! (especially true when baby gets to the stage where the best activity is sitting in the cot pulling all the wipes out of the pack you thought they couldn't reach while you think they are sleeping).
We had fun painting this in October... a little early but a lovely way to spend an afternoon when you are excited about being pregnant. It was nice to get the boy involved one afternoon when the girl was out at a birthday party.

At this stage we hadn't had the 20 week scan so had no idea whether we were going for 'blue' or 'pink'... so chose a beautifully simple theme that would work for either and could easily be tweaked to make it a little boys or a little girls room. I love this 'rain grey' colour for a nice unisex room mainly because I would choose it for a boy or a girl anyway -and so much more beautiful than the traditional unisex beige-brown tones.
We eagerly awaited the scan and were told to expect a little girl and so the nursery could start taking a few little touches. I've heard too many stories of friends being told the wrong gender so have tried very hard not to go overboard but couldn't resist just a few little dresses! I've also gone with lots of white baby grows, white knitted jumpers and stuck as much as possible with grey and white. I like it when a baby looks like a baby. White things are just so lovely and clean. I also don't want to deal with the fuss of having tonnes of clothes and outfits with particular tights to wear with particular dresses - there is plenty of time for that if they hit the diva stage so sticking to a simple colour scheme and simple baby appropriate items is the way I'm choosing to head forward!

We've not spent much at all. For the first 7 months of this pregnancy we were scrimping on 1 income and unsure of what would happen once I was on maternity leave so everything has been focused on needing as little as possible, reusing and recycling. The cot used to be Joel's! Its been passed through a few cousins and both of our children and now has a fresh coat of antique white paint. The blankets are all hand me downs and I do love having real knitting that Grandmas have done. One of them dyed a shade of blue accidentally in the wash with a pair of Elijah's shorts - but I quite like it so haven't tried to colour fix it yet! Fred is sitting ready in the cot to continue being a loved teddy bear. He was knitted for me by my Nannan's next door neighbour and finished the day I was born. He's been through many adventures with me and is keen to be good friends with my own children (but will always live right here- with me. I will ALWAYS be his favorite)



We bought the change table/ chest of drawers off ebay. I was looking at second hand ones for a while but came across a seller 'komfyliving' who would make one for me in the size with number of drawers I wanted and deliver it to into the nursery itself - and untreated so that I didn't need to use a chalk paint on it over any varnish. This cost just £109 and I love it. I've gone for my change bag from John Lewis. I had looked at change bags for a long long time and am just not a fan of plastic baby related accessories or slogans. I realised I was looking for the plainest bag possible so decided just to look for a decent sized handbag and when I read the reviews of this John Lewis one I saw some of the comments said it had been a great change bag or the criticisms were that it had been too big for a normal handbag! Its got 3 main sections and lots of zippy pockets to keep all the bits and pieces well organised.

I've seen lots of blogs and pins using this idea of a twig as a hanging rail. I love it and its so pretty. Babies don't need many things on hangers but for the few little adorable things you can't look at enough this is a great way to get your 'aesthetic fix' without having to change your child 10 times a day. I found this twig on the school run. I was going to head into the woods on a hunt for a good one - and having done this every Easter and Christmas for a few years now I know that finding the right twig is so much easier said than done. On my way to the woods I was just finishing off chatting to another mum when my eyes fell on this one - right outside the school gate. I think she was quite bemused by how exciting this was for me but it felt as though it had fallen right out of the sky just for me! I think it may have belonged to a dog actually (sorry doggy) and its first use was to be our advent twig for Christmas. After a big scrub with lots of bleach I have it a watered down paint.  It fitted perfectly in our kitchen window for hanging advent envelopes and now it fits perfectly in the nursery.



We've gone for totally free artwork. Me and the kids stamped these lovely Bible verses onto cuts of wallpaper sample and framed them and the Alice in Wonderland picture is from a magazine shoot in an old Junior magazine that we used for Holly's Mad Hatters tea Party a few years ago... and I quite liked it so we kept it up!

This blanket is my favorite gift. I bought a beautiful Rowan pattern book of baby things when I'd just had Holly 9 years ago and my mother-in-law said she would teach me to knit. I managed some leg warmers and a couple of scarves but this book was just beyond me. A friend of my mums offered to knit me a cot blanket and had sent some patterns for me to look at. I was a bit cheeky and asked her if she thought she might be able to manage this one as I'd loved it for so long. How wonderful of her and in the perfect colour for the nursery. It's just the prettiest thing!


This beautiful rocking horse was passed on by a friend and this is one of our laundry crates currently being used to store a massive stock of 'Little Lamb' washable nappies. I love these crates. I found them on ebay, sold by a farmer, and we have now a stack of them in the lounge. Each member of the family gets their own (filled with the ironing I do on a Sunday night during Mr Selfridge) to collect and take to put away themselves... and an extra one for towels and bedding. The cute little rabbit storage bag sitting amongst them is prefect to store sudocreme and cotton wool and from Red Apple Tree Crafts on Etsy.



Right Baby T - we are ready for you to join us now!