Spare Room to Woodland Nursery
Recently we have been gradually changing our spare room into Ted's first room. Emphasis on the word gradually! It's taken about a month to complete, just doing bits here and there, mostly at the weekends when Will hasn't been working.
For the first 4 months of Teddy's life, he slept in his moses basket beside the bed. When he got too long for that, we moved him over into his cot. We are very lucky to be able to fit a cot in our room, as well as our bed and still have lots of room to move around. Guidelines state that babies should share a room with you until 6 months of age, so I started re-doing the spare room when Ted was 5 months, hoping to have it finished almost exactly as he hit 6 months.
I wanted a theme that was almost everlasting in a way, something that would ignite his imagination as a baby, be a safe space for free play as a toddler, and yet still last him as he grows into an older child. This meant I needed it to be durable, but also follow a theme that could appeal to all ages. I settled on a woodland theme, as I adore deer, and I found it fitting as our house backs onto the woods. I very much wanted a Peter Rabbit nursery but resisted as I knew I'd have to change it as he hit 3 or 4 years of age and I'm far too lazy for that!
That being said, I knew I couldn't have anything too permanent as the likelihood of us moving from this house in the next 5+ years is quite high. This meant that as much as I wanted to hire an incredibly talented muralist we know to paint the woodland bedroom of my dreams, it would also break my heart to leave it behind.
We were lucky that we'd left the spare room very simple and plain, so we had a great blank canvas to start with. The walls were cream, with a white double bed, white brick fireplace and dove grey bedside table with cream lamp atop. When we first moved in we slept in the spare room as the builders were still working on the other side of the house during the day. I don't particularly have any before pictures to upload but I have added a photo below of my lovely Labrador posing on the bed (naughty Labradog! He waits until Will leaves for work before getting on the bed for cuddles). You can just glimpse the white brick fireplace in the background.
I always find picking a paint colour incredibly exciting and for Ted's nursery I was really drawn to lighter blues and greens. I had already bought the most beautiful curtains in a woodland animal print from Dunelm Mill and I used the Dulux Visualiser App to change the colour on the walls for me. I can't recommend this app enough to anyone wanting to redecorate. It's absolutely free on the App Store. The first green I was drawn to was called Woodland Pearl 4. Will thought this was too pale and thought Woodland Pearl 6 was nicer as it was slightly darker. We compromised and went with the colour I wanted. Not really, we actually really did compromise, and went with Woodland Pearl 5, exactly in between the two shades we liked. I'm never going to tell Will this but I think we could have probably gone a little bit darker with the paint!
If Ted grows up to be anything like his Daddy was, he's going to be the cutest, naughtiest toddler. Anticipating this, I purchased my paint colour in the Easycare format, meaning it washes stains off easier and repels liquid. Perfect for messy toddlers. I bought 2.5l, which turned out to be the perfect amount for two coats.
As I started painting, Will set out making my feature wall. I'd seen this alot on Pinterest whilst I was scouring the nursery tags. It seemed to be prominent in American nurseries; either boat themed ones, or kind of mountain/camp out/wilderness ones. It is...a wooden wall.
Wills reaction when I asked him to build it was "you want me to build you a wooden what?"
I got bought a beautiful wooden cot for Ted, it's a sleigh style, in a very very dark wood, not quite black. I absolutely adore it and I really wanted a beautiful backdrop for the cot to sit against. Initially I wanted a mural but I knew we'd have to leave it at some point and the wooden wall kept appearing on Pinterest so I chose to give it a go. There are a few videos around on how to do it, but we chose to build a wooden frame to sit on the wall first before attaching the wood to it. This meant if we do leave we can remove the wall easily and leave it plain for the next farmer to decorate.
You can easily purchase wood paneling online or in a hardware store. But, being a farmer, Will wasn't willing to pay for anything he didn't have to. So, it took a long time, but we broke apart pallets from the farm to use as the paneling. Once cleaned, we attached them to the frame with Gorilla glue. Even I was surprised by how solid it felt! Obviously Will didn't stop until he felt like it was incredibly secure, we don't want any panels to fall off, especially as they might fall into the cot.
Once the wall was completely secure, and the wood glue all dry, I started to sand it down. I have a great mini sander that I use when renovating old pieces of furniture. Sanding is one of my favourite diy jobs, if a little tiresome. But I wanted the wall to be incredibly smooth so that there was no risk of Teddy getting splinters. I was really pleased with how nicely the wood sanded down, it had a nice soft feel to it with no sharp bits. Last year I made something with wood we had laying around the farm and it was so terrible to sand, it just kept falling apart.
I'd already purchased some very dark wood stain, so once I'd finished sanding, I grabbed a rag and started staining the wood. My goal was to get it as dark as the cot, but still be able to see the texture of the wood. I bought a dark walnut colour stain, and I've added a picture of my first coat below. Even after sanding, all the pieces were a slightly different shade. I could get the finished wall to an even colour if I painted it with wood paint but I worried that painting it would lose texture, so I stuck with my stain. I also really like the look of the slightly differing colours.
The cot had to be the last thing to move in, so once I was happy with my wall, I started with all the other furnishings. We bought a huge teddy bear who sits beside the fireplace. We are lucky that the room has a floor to ceiling built in cupboard that has always been where I've stored baby clothes. I also have some unused toys hiding at the bottom that Ted is too young for, as well as Teddy's little suitcase.
In the far corner is my favourite part of the room. It is incredibly important to me that Ted has the kind of access to books that I had growing up. My childhood was full of books, and I had a huge imagination that still stays with me as an adult. If I'm upset or sad, I find it easy to get lost completely in a story (When I was in labour I was reading Harry Potter). That's why I really wanted a reading corner in Ted's room, a quiet place for us to read together. It's so important to read to babies to help stimulate them as well as aid their development; in particular their communication skills.
Will very cleverly made some bookshelves out of more pallets that I sanded down and stained with the same varnish I used on the wall. We mounted them to the wall beside a large armchair. To complete my little reading corner, I bought a huge cuddly blanket. I also adore the little fox cushion that sits on the chair. Above the fireplace are two prints I bought from the amazing Forest Mama Designs (find her on Instagram @forest_mama_designs). I have a gorgeous bunny and an autumn fox print. I love these so much. I also have some simple fairy lights running across the fireplace; one of Ted's favourite things is sparkly lights!
Beside the fireplace is a shelf made from a piece of oak that was left in the farm workshop, again I sanded it down slightly and painted with varnish. I have a few bits and pieces sat on the shelf; including some lovely wooden animal toys from Lanka Kade, and a pair of old teddy bears that belonged to me when I was a child.
Above the cot is some gorgeous bespoke bunting made for Ted by Country Abodes (instagram: @countryabodes).
My final part of the nursery was our old pine tv stand. When I bought it. it was pine, which I sanded down and stained mahogany. A few days ago I sanded it all down again before painting it with two coats of Chalk paint in the colour Clotted Cream. I finished with a wax seal, and then stained wooden letters I purchased from Hobbycraft with the same brown colour I used on the wooden wall. After gluing them on to spell out Edward, I was finished!
I'm so pleased with the final outcome and so happy that Will helped me to bring all my ideas to life. I have a terrible habit of finding DIY projects on Pinterest that leave me out of my depth and always turn out slightly wrong but with Will's help I really think we managed it! The only issue now is I totally have the redecorating bug again...master bedroom next maybe?!
