For Young & Old - Mushrooms

The humble mushroom can be spotted (sorry, lame pun!) in many nurseries and children's bedrooms. I particularly like these three rooms- one, two and three.

Mushroom artwork, wall decals, decorations, toys and furniture, there is something a bit whimsical about the spotted red fungus.

Mushroom Stool $59.95 ministyle.com.au
(Also recently seen at Spotlight for the same price)

 And not to be left out, a cute mushroom for mum and her many diamond rings!

Ring dish with mushroom $24 from have you met miss jones



Norwegian Nursery Design

This time last year I was totally engrossed in nursery blogs in search for inspiration for Miss H's room. My focus was to create a unique room, something fresh and totally new. I immediately fell for this nursery, simplicity of furniture with beautiful details in the wall accessories. I did a post here as soon as I saw it but wasn't sure whether the wall was a painted mural or wall sticker. Turns out it is a wallpaper and the Norwegian designer now ships this wallpaper along with many other nursery-perfect wallpapers and accessories worldwide. Visit Sne Design for some gorgeous nursery inspiration.

Petit Collage Tutorial

While flicking through magazines and checking out my regular baby/ nursery blogs I often spy a Petit Collage decoration. I am especially fond of their bamboo mobiles and growing range of posters. Recently I came across this tutorial from the creator of Petit Collage. You can print the above templates and create your own animal collage.Create your own designs, do a series or vary the colours of the same animal, lots of options to create a unique decoration.  

Michaela's Room

I'm pretty conservative when it comes to colour in my home. Most rooms are quite neutral so when it came to creating a big girl room for Michaela, I threw out all my usual decorating preferences and went a little colour crazy!

Michaela made the transition from cot to bed with ease. I wanted her to move well before the arrival of her sister so that she had plenty of time to settle in to her new surroundings. She was also starting to outgrow her cot- she's on her way to being 6 foot this girl!

For the life of me I can't remember the name of the paint colour but as you can see, it's a turquoise/ aqua. We chose the Ikea Hemnes day bed; a popular choice as it converts to a double bed later on with a roll out trundle and 3 great storage drawers. The Queen Anne chest of drawers was mine when I was a child and the Brentwood chair was a gift from my grandparents when I moved in to this house. I spray painted it a few years ago and it fits in quite nicely here. The quilt cover was purchased about two years ago from Spotlight; I love kokeshi dolls. I then went about collecting brightly coloured accessories.
Picture frames, pink flower wall light and floating shelves - Ikea
Butterfly mirror - Freedom
Wall art- Feed Your Soul art project, babushka wrapping paper, Blue Finch Studios Numbers Print, Kokeshi canvas from The Reject Shop, Clock from Kmart
Book storage - Deals Direct
Retro chair - Baby Bunting
Lanterns - Thingz
Coat rack - from childhood
Bunting - Giggleberry Creations
(See Harper's nursery here)

Up In The Clouds

Three sweet cloud craft ideas.

Sew4Home

Bugs and Fishes

Cloud Mobile from Mikaela Danvers



Harper's Nursery

I have been adding to Harper's nursery bit by bit since this first nursery post. It is 99% complete, I'm still eyeing a personalised wall sticker for above her cot. Harper graduated from the bassinet alongside our bed to her own room about a month ago and I'm happy to say that she's enjoying her new digs.
The room was always going to be painted grey; it's my favourite colour and is in keeping with the rest of the house. I went with Taubman's Grey Comfort and decided on white, pink and coral/tangerine accents.
The cot was on sale at Ikea a few months ago (don't think it's available anymore....) and I decided to 'hack' it after seeing this nursery. The fabric panels were made using Heather Bailey Lindy Leaf in Tangerine.
The bookshelf is also from Ikea. On it there are a few ornaments and practical items; bird house (Thingz), tree photo stand (Officeworks), framed birth announcement (Etsy), a lamp and white baskets (Ikea) filled with singlets and shoes and the 'H' I made by wrapping wool around the paper mache letter.(via Ohdeedoh) Mirrored bird cage which is above the cot is from Target.

The chest of drawers came with me from my parents' home 9 years ago.
Paper Lanterns (Gone Bizarre), change mat cover (Etsy), white rabbit and bamboo owl (Typo). Art work is from here, here, here and here.  Rug (Spotlight about 18 months ago). Growth chart (Target)

Bookcase and pink storage cubes (Ikea)
Glider (Ebay find for $30- I have some fur fabric protecting the re-covered cushions from my pukey baby. The glider isn't perfect, the arms get in the way while nursing and I have to sit on an angle but it's a lot more comfortable at 3am than sitting on the floor which I did with Michaela.
Cushion (Spotlight with a few vintage doilies stitched in place), lamp (mentioned here), LOVE print (here) and bamboo bird mobile (Typo)

Now I know my ABC's

An Alphabet Print is the quintessential piece of nursery art. I have this one framed in Harper's room. Here are my favourites to Buy, PIY and DIY. dafont.com is also a great site for downloading unique fonts and creating your own poster, this Circus font is my pick.

Etsy

Sweet William print

DIY using a stencil and fabric or card stock scraps

The Handmade Home

From My Poppet

Sprik Space

Taking shape

I'm 33 and a bit weeks along in my second pregnancy and all is going well. Lots of baby wiggles, low back pain, reduced sleep...........it will all be worth it!! (My new mantra!!)
I've been collecting bits and pieces and ideas for the nursery since I found out that I was pregnant and this week has seen the room begin to take shape. My Dad lent me a few hours of his time and his painting skills to paint the room in Taubman's Grey Comfort. Between the two of us, the room was done in about 2.5 hours. The colour looks great and does have a soothing effect.




I also diy-ed a $2 lampshade from Target in Sandy Henderson Happy Butterfly in Blush I bought from this etsy seller. I bought some fabric bias tape from Spotlight too for the top and bottom trim.
Hopefully I'll have some finished nursery photos to share in a week or so when I've completed some more projects.

Cot bedding???

I never bothered with fancy cot sheets, a bumper or skirt for Michaela's cot as a baby. The only thing I concerned myself with was a mattress protector for those little accidents and a good grobag as soon as she was too big to be swaddled. But now that I'm discovering lots of great blogs and nursery resources, I MUST have a pretty set ready for Bubba 2. As mentioned before though, I'm on a tight budget and sheet/ cot sets cost a packet!! I fell in love with these sets from The Hip Infant the other day.

Working to a budget is a priority and will obviously allow me to spend in other areas. I'm going to follow this great post from Prudent Baby and make one (or two) of my own fitted sheets, hopefully this will encourage me to tackle making a cot skirt too.