When I was pregnant with Aiden we continued the renovation of our Glebe St house by converting the 3rd bedroom into his room, though we didn’t know he was a he. It was at the back of the house and was nice and quiet, so seemed like a good choice for a new baby. It was also pretty small and babies are pretty small, so they don't need much stuff, do they?
Our 3rd bedroom was the typical room that most houses have; where all the junk went! It was full of boxes of comics, a crappy desk that we didn’t use, boxes of random stuff we had nowhere to unpack to and probably didn’t need, a sewing machine…. Just a whole lot of stuff really. Lots of people have this kind of room. If we were to have a room for the baby, as well as a second bedroom where guests could stay, something had to be done.
We went to Brisbane that year for Christmas and I was desperate to get back and start work on that bedroom. I was entering the third trimester and all the pregnancy books said you get really tired leading up to the birth. I wanted to get the room finished before that happened.
Once we moved all the crap out and found other places for it (mainly the tip) we had a tiny and very tired room. I needed to fit in storage, a change table, a cot, a chair, a little table, a bin... hmmm...I thought babies didn't need much? I (eventually, we) started by painting the room. For some reason I just want to be up a ladder painting when I am pregnant. Must be a nesting thing. I’m getting an inkling to paint the casual TV/dining area in our current house in Bridge Rd. Maybe just one wall?
We painted 3 of the walls in Dulux Antique White USA, and one wall a deep blue/green (sorry I can’t remember the colour!) I wanted to brighten up the room and keep it light, as well as create some depth and contrast to the Expedit bookcase from Ikea, we already had. I thought this would provide great storage for a baby because each of the cubes can be used for different functions and you can buy all sorts of options to insert in the cubes for flexible storage. I bought some little double drawers, some cupboard doors and some wicker baskets to fit in some of the cubes. The bookcase took up a good part of the wall but wasn’t very deep so it didn’t take up too much floor space of the room.
After the painting was complete we selected and had installed new carpet. Even choosing relatively cheap carpet, it was still $600, which included new underlay, installation and taking away the old carpet. The rest of the upstairs had to make due with the 20+ year old carpet! Spoilt baby! We added a Stokke Sleepi Cot and change table and a wicker chair that our friend Jacqui gave us when she moved to NZ. I added a little table from Spotlight which cost $17 because it was the last one and had no screws. A trip to the hardware store and a little paint and its been a very handy table!
To finish the room I added a large wall sticker from The Wall Sticker Company called Tree of Life. I paid a little extra to have them customise the colours to match the room. I sent them the colours I wanted and they sent me pictures in the chosen colours for me to approve. It arrived in a couple of weeks, and it really completed the look, along with new curtains and a new light fitting.
Unfortunately I don’t have any “before” photos but here is the finished result.
I thought I would tell you about Aiden’s room in Glebe St as we are about to decorate his room in our Bridge St home. We have lived here for 1.5 years and the pretty pink and green girly room is about to be transformed into something more suitable for a 2.5 year old cheeky boy. Will tell you all about it in a future blog post!
I thought I would tell you about Aiden’s room in Glebe St as we are about to decorate his room in our Bridge St home. We have lived here for 1.5 years and the pretty pink and green girly room is about to be transformed into something more suitable for a 2.5 year old cheeky boy. Will tell you all about it in a future blog post!
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