Nursery Planning & Inspiration

Image from Mamas and Papas

One thing I was always so excited to do when we found out we were expecting was to plan and sort out the nursery. It was something I was determined to have done by the time baby came, and it would be a functional yet cute space. I also wanted it to be something that could last a little while, and suit either gender as we don't know what we're having. But where did I start?

So there were already a couple of things that we knew we wanted for the room before I even started to look at any actual products.

1. We wanted it to have some sort of animal or zoo theme. We love visiting zoo's and animals seem like a fairly safe theme for either gender. Plus, Adam's had his eyes set on a giant panda from our local zoo for the last four years so it was just a given.
2. As cute as white furniture is, I've never been a huge fan of it - mainly because I don't feel like I can be trusted. And if I can't be trusted, how can I trust a toddler? The furniture for us needed to be something that would, again, last and not need to be replaced for a while.
3. It had to have grey-toned green walls with white spots on one of them - random and highly specific? Absolutely. I'd seen a picture on Pinterest when I was randomly browsing one day and I just fell head over heels for the colouring of the room. Adam was basically sent a message of our nursery will look like this and if you disagree then I'll get the divorce paperwork...

So we had a general idea, and I knew I could start to build my vision around these pieces. 

The first thing I did, as I do for any room or visual project, is to build a Pinterest board and scour the site for inspiration, anything I might like. If I saw anything I liked on someones Instagram, over it went to the board. This way I had one main area of everything I liked and something I could start to build off. This included things like shelving, prints, curtains, rugs, furniture etc. Just anything that I found to spark something off in my head. 

From there, I basically went and sat in the room and tried to work out where I thought everything should go, how I could actually see it coming together. I even drew out a little layout like the weirdo that I am. But for me it was necessary - if I knew where furniture pieces were going to go, then I knew what sizes to work with for everything. 

Then came looking for the actual products. I wrote a list of everything I thought I needed and wanted in the nursery. I then went through a book called The Nest Planner to use their checklist, I watched a few nursery tours on YouTube, and I also sent this list to my recent Mummy friends (aka my baby brain trust) to tell me what I actually needed and what I didn't. I then put in a traffic light system - green for the things I definitely needed before the baby came, orange for the things I wanted before the baby came, and red for the things I really didn't need and wasn't bothered about.

Then came the fun - and expensive bit - looking for items. Although my husband was very much like - it's more important to you, you design it how you want - he also wanted to be involved in choosing every aspect. Which is lovely and yet can be annoying when he doesn't like the same things you do. There were many discussions that have gone "if you don't like this, I don't like you", or "eugh you're so annoying". Apparently being pregnant has reverted me back to my teenage years. For the most part, however, we have both agreed on the main things. It was essentially a case of asking people for recommendations on where they got things, but also looking yourself - which can be really fun and also overwhelming. 

Because we knew roughly what we wanted in terms of colours, theme and furniture it helped to narrow down a lot of our search. Having the Pinterest board saved me so much time going down rabbit holes and getting confused over what I really wanted because I already knew. Things only got super annoying if I found something I loved on Pinterest, and then when I found it in real life it was stupidly expensive (looking at you shelves...). Although we didn't have a budget in mind we knew what was in our savings, how much we were adding each month and what we'd be happy to spend on certain things. Nearly £100 on shelves was not one of them! 

It's definitely been a fun project, and I do feel like once it's done it's going to be the nicest room in our entire house. Thanks to Covid there's elements we probably won't be able to get done before baby comes - like replace the carpet - but for the most part we should be able to get there and be sorted. I will absolutely do a full nursery tour on my channel, and do a post on it as well once it's all done - but for now I hope these tips have helped anyone else whose just starting out in the nursery planning journey. Good luck!

What did you find essential in your nursery?