I absolutely loved renovating our house, the whole process was a great creative challenge – stressful at times but overall it was so much fun. Every room was special but I’d say that my favourite rooms were the girls’. I wanted them to have a space that was cosy but also elegant, a calm little oasis away from the bustle of daily life, where we could read stories and play before bed. I have also always steered away from children’s rooms that are a little too babyish, rather I wanted to design something they could grow with, as they become bigger girls too.
Before starting working on my daughters’ rooms, I looked for inspiration on Pinterest, Instagram, my stack of old interior design books and a few shops I adore for kids – Amaia being top of the list – to get a better feel of what I love. Then I create a moodboard to tie everything together…
Looking at the space you need to work with I usually start to visualise and sketch on paper how I’d like the room to be divided and organised (kids have a lot of stuff!) so that each corner has a purpose. I found this really helps when choosing furniture and decor items. Number one: a reading nook where I repurposed an armchair we brought with us from LA, added a side table and found an antique hanging shelf which I filled with story books (some of them were my granny’s). Other corners are more practical – a toy chest for example, and a tallboy chest of drawers for socks and tops.
As soon as the planning phase is over, choosing the colour palette for the room is next…I believe a calming, neutral shade is the ideal base to create a soothing atmosphere. You can always play around with wallpaper if you like to add texture or patterns – Schumacher and Living Quarters have some lovely prints. For the girls I let Honor decide what colour she wanted the room to be and she didn’t go for a traditional pink, she was leaning towards warm oranges and yellows so we picked an Earthborn tone called (ironically!) Little Rascal to give that timeless and classic feel to the room.
Once the bases were covered, I moved onto furnishing & decorating – and I love this step of the process. For the nursery, I like the cot to be the focal point and we added a lovely handmade mobile to keep the baby entertained. It’s the same cot Honor used back in LA, and it has served us well! When Honor got bigger, we took down one side so it became a toddler bed. We brought an antique chest back from LA too and that has been a beautiful changing area with drawers full of Ines’ clothes.
For the final touches, Honor displayed our favourite storytime books in her little library, then we added some lovely family photos a throw and puffy pillows on our storytime nook and a pretty vintage vase with freshly cut flowers. There are a few pieces of very personal, sentimental artwork that I also have up in both rooms: a framed letter I wrote to Honor when she was tiny, a bespoke Charlie Mackesy drawing and a beautiful piece of embroidery.
My dress is by Jasper Conran London, and some of the vintage pieces in the pics are from Sharland England
xx,
