2012, I’m pregnant with baby No1 (due in April) and we are not going to find out the sex, this of course plays a big role in planning. I started looking at furniture and I knew right away that I wanted a dark walnut cotbed, I think I was obsessed with this at the time as I longed for a dark wood kitchen (still on my wish list), and there were a few great ones on the market, Tutti Bambini, Silver Cross and Izziwotnot were my favourites. Heart fixed on this I was happy to then paint the room white as not imaginative or brave enough to consider something else with such a dark cotbed.

Ok, dark walnut cotbed, check. Now to plan the rest of the room. Back in 2011/12 I was also heavily into One Tree Hill, there I said it, no shame here, lol! In one of the later series a nursery is featured which was a heavily dressed and styled work of art, of course, however there was a tree mural in pink that I loved (not the pink part) and I figured it was not beyond my painting abilities to have a go at re-creating it and I decided to go for yellow.

This got me thinking about what else I could have a go at. I then went bonkers and decided that a mural of Safari animals would be a good idea, I knew my skills weren’t up to painting their whole bodies, keeping it all to scale and creating some sort of setting for them, so what do I do? I cheat of course! I decide that it can be a corner mural and the animals can be coming out from behind a tree, then I only need to draw their fronts. I also know I can’t create from my own imagination, but I can do a decent enough copy, so I Google images and find the inspiration I need, got to love Google.

The wardrobes allowed for the room to not be too busy so all we had was the Cotbed, toy box, changing table and a feeding chair.

When planning do consider the longevity of the room, will it grow with your baby, I didn’t really think about this at the time but it has worked out ok for me, Ava has gone from Cot Bed to single bed to bunk beds, each time I have asked her if she wants the walls repainted but each time she has said no, I am not allowed to touch her murals, bless her.

Do think long term on expensive items. Furniture mostly. The cotbed never became her bed as her baby sister needed it and it has only just been turned into a bed for the first time, last month. I am also certain that I will be able to sell it on when my youngest has finished with it, make sure you keep all the extra bits and bolts and instructions!!

If you’re asked by anyone if there is anything they can get to help, think about it and accept. Otherwise you end up with lots of presents all being variations on a theme.

The other key purchases of the room were; Silvercross Cotbed, thank you mum and dad and the changing table and matt, thank you mother and father in law.

Feeding chair – I researched so many and decided not to spend a lot of money on such a specific piece of furniture which has only one use. We ended up buying a tiny patchwork kids chair from an antique shop, when it is no longer in the youngest’s room it will be moved to the lounge and stay in the family for ever, I love it very much!

As we had not purchased any new carpet for her room since we’d moved in, 5yrs earlier, we decided to update at last. Carpets don’t do well with Calpol, really sticky stuff. Either don’t splash on the carpet or get a rug is my advice.

Final touches;  I like to get in touch with my inner granny from time to time so I cross stitched the Noah’s Ark above her changing table which later became a big talking point with her.

My awesome sister-in-law painted us a great name feature for the nursery too and she had very sweetly paid attention to the theme of the room and used the animals from the changing matt too.