For so long, even without either Jo or I being pregnant or having kids of our own, we’ve loved looking at nursery decor style on Pinterest. We used to think kids’ stuff had to be garish and plastic and nauseatingly vibrant. But not anymore. These days, interiors enthusiasts are curating their kids and baby’s bedrooms with the same amount of effort they’d apply to any other room in the house. Plus, it’s fun, especially with a newborn on the way. I am now just a few short weeks off the arrival of my first baby – a boy – and over the last few weeks, alongside other house renovations (which we figured was a brilliant idea to take on just before the pandemic hit and delayed everything), we took it upon ourselves to get the nursery sorted. Could we create the kind of aesthetic you’d find on Pinterest? Absolutely.
I was delighted to partner with Dulux Ireland for the nursery and the first order of business was choosing our paint colours. Everything else would follow from that. We chose a deep navy blue called Jamie Blue and though we considered going all in with it, as the only colour in the room, we decided in the end to stick with just the one feature wall. We wanted to create a night sky feature with stars, in the hopes (oh the naivety of first time parents) that perhaps it would be conducive with a good night’s sleep for the little man. To balance this striking hue, we paired it with a gorgeous colour called Calm Cloud on the other walls. It’s a soft, soothing grey. Sometimes picking colours together can be challenging but one flick through Dulux’ most recent colour brochure and I had spotted a few instances where these two colours had been matched and they worked perfectly. So there was absolutely no wondering ‘will this work?’ Nevertheless it’s always good to try colours out using actual testers on the wall so you know you’re happy. The new Dulux mini roller testers are incredibly easy to use; between that and the colour visualiser app, you can’t really go wrong.
Even if you think you have the steadiest hands, we know well from our days filming The Good Room for RTE that masking tape is always your friend and worth the time investment in setting up. Frog Tape is the best one we’ve worked with as when you remove it after your painting is done, it won’t take any paint away with it which can happen with some cheaper masking tapes. Then you’re good to go. We did two coats of Jamie Blue and Calm Cloud, we glossed over the skirting boards and architraves with brilliant white and in one rainy weekend the room was ready to be kitted out.
I ordered a sheet of gold star decal stickers from Etsy. You can get them in varying sizes rather than having them all the same; it gives a better effect. It would be easy to go bananas with the stars but remember, less is more. We haphazardly stuck the stars on above where the cot would be positioned and it was also a nice idea to have some of the stars continue onto the ceiling. Aside from the night sky vibe, we thought some zoo animals would make for a nice theme (let’s call it a zoo at night time and just hope the concept doesn’t terrify the child). I ordered 3 large, fun animal prints from IAMFY.co which is one of our go-to places for affordable prints. Now admittedly I ordered them without thinking of frame sizes and I struggled to find frames to fit so we ended up going with magnet poster holders which I found on Amazon (as cheap as chips). They work SO well and you can get them in black, white, with an oak finish or a colour of your choosing. We loved the koala, llama and giraffe prints but there are countless to choose from on FY.
For the wall space beside the window we figured some books on display would work well. We ordered picture ledges as opposed to actual shelves on Desenio, which we then filled with books which we ordered from Eason’s and Josh Jenna Kids. So that’s the walls sorted. For the main room pendant we were gifted a beautiful hot air balloon lamp from Irish kids’ interiors concept store Lucy & Me.
Furniture wise? IKEA all the way. Being heavily pregnant I got away without having to do any of the assembly work myself but as with everything from IKEA, you’d need to allow for a good few hours to get through the assembly job of these kinds of items. The cot and changing table were both IKEA. The rocking chair was a gift from one of my best friends who we’ve asked to be Godmother. It’s from Meadows & Byrne.
The lion rug is something I spotted ages before we knew what colours we’d even go for but there’s very little the likes of Jamie Blue wouldn’t work with. I bought the rug from Bygge Bo concept store (byggebo.com). This tied the zoo theme in nicely too.
The grey star mat was another hugely appreciated gift from Lucy & Me; perfect for tummy time and the kind of soft furnishing you’d happily have in any room of the house, I love this because you can either position it up against a wall or something, or lay it entirely flat. It’s thick, bouncy and soft and perfect for baby’s play time.
And that’s it! The rest of the items you see are various blankets and cuddly toys received as gifts.
It might seem intimidating to browse nursery pics on Pinterest but there’s not a whole lot to it. Pick a statement colour and have fun with it; realistically your baby isn’t going to care what the room looks like until they’re much older so until then, the nursery decor is mostly for you to enjoy, so go forth and enjoy it! It certainly adds to the excitement as your due date gets closer and it helps satisfy the very common need to get nesting.
Watch the video here to see the room go from start to finish and visit Dulux.ie to get deciding on your colours.