Nursery Style, Now!

Back in the late 1980s I wrote a book on Nursery Style with my friend Felicity Bryan, at the time I had three very different little boys (my sons Hugo, Henry and Felix) each wanting their own distinctive space in our family home. It was a joy to write, and between us we created some beautiful rooms that reflected all that was brilliant about the styles of that time.

Fast forward almost thirty years and I am absolutely smitten with being a grandmother – twice over, following the birth of the much-adored Rudy, a brother to Willow! Having young children in the family is magical, and it has made me think again about ‘Nursery style’. Proud daddy Felix (whom many of you will know from his work with me here at HQ and the co-author of my book, Room Recipes for Style and Colour) has been transforming Rudy's crib with Chalk Paint®. (Photograph coming soon!) The crib was a gorgeous gift from Elsa, my Stockist at Wood Picker in Athens - On her website she encourages us to consider that “with creativity and goodwill we can renew our home”. I love that, and it is so true of creating things for our next generation.

Nurseries take on a particular and a rather special importance, don’t they? They are a space created with so much love and so much expectation. Debates over the relative merits of pink or blue – or that old failsafe, yellow, rage on. You may have seen my paint in the news last year when it was rumoured that Kensington Palace had purchased three of the ‘pinkier’ colours from the Chalk Paint® palette (Henrietta, Antoinette and Emile) prior to the birth of Princess Charlotte, and that in itself was a pretty big clue as to the gender of the new addition to the Royal Family!

I posted on Facebook recently, looking for inspiration for my new grandson’s nursery; curious to see what others had created for their own children, grand-children, nieces, nephews… You know I adore seeing all your pictures, from entire rooms to single pieces. In my post I included pictures of the very funky travel-inspired nursery by Ashley Kaisk, which included a simple, classic chest of drawers in Duck Egg Blue and I simply couldn’t resist the sweet prettiness of baby Rosa’s cot (painted by Isabel in Scandinavian Pink).

I should probably reiterate here that both Chalk Paint® and my Waxes are completely Toy Safe and – importantly – won’t leave a lingering odour, which means you can use them freely to create wonderful, distinctive pieces to reflect all those wonderful, distinctive children in your life. As ever, please share your pictures with me – I’m still trying to decide on what I will create for Rudy!

Yours, Annie