Creating a nursery that grows with your baby is a beautiful way of letting the room evolve without having to completely redecorate at each stage of your child’s development. That would be tiring and very expensive! It means you can easily transition the nursery from a space fit for a baby into one that’s ready for a child.
You might have seen my post about Esme’s Peter Rabbit party marking her first birthday. Well, we’ve watched her blossom for a whole year and in celebration, I want to share how you can create a nursery that grows with your baby. Not so little now 😉
Where to start?
Your little one won’t outgrow their room too quickly if you choose items with staying power and allow for small tweaks. By layering up with age appropriate accents the nursery grows with your child, balancing fun and functionality.
The aim was to create a space where our baby would feel safe and develop their sense of independence, an interest in play and most of all feel loved. It’s been wonderful to see the nursery @thishomegrows transform from ideas into a safe sanctuary where a one year old owns her space.
You might start planning your nursery with a colour palette and selecting furniture for your baby but it’s not long before they grow it. Their personality shines a spotlight on their room and grows it in a way that’s unique to them.
Growing a baby
Everyone’s pregnancy journey is different but I’m sure, like many, we hadn’t anticipated doing this for the first time during a global pandemic. A scary time for everyone and we were about to bring new life into the world. I also didn’t expect my maternity bag to include hand gel and face masks, things that were pretty alien at the time but are now the norm.
Newbie parents frantically ordered online and cleaned out the supermarkets of every neutral coloured sleep-suit in newborn size!? Nonetheless, we made the most of what we could lay our hands on and safely welcomed our beautiful little girl, Esme into our lives. Thank you NHS and the wonderful midwives.
Undoubtedly, the circumstances altered the design for our baby’s nursery. Yet we found calm in the planning and enjoyed being resourceful in our own home. The outcome, a neutral nursery that’s proving easy to adapt for our little girl’s future.
A nursery that grows with your baby
That tiny baby is suddenly crawling then walking and generally ruling the roost in the blink of an eye. Yes, it happens so quickly and your child’s tastes change from one minute to the next. However, there isn’t the time or budget to be changing a room every week. That’s why it’s really worth designing a nursery that grows with your baby without having to constantly update the decor.
Ready for our baby 
6 months of growing
The key is, investing in multifunctional pieces and keeping certain elements of your nursery design neutral. Add personality with accessories and have fun with it! A lot of our earmarked items were ‘out of stock’ but it actually encouraged us to get creative.
To start, we thought about the key functions of the room and how we needed them to serve both us as new parents and our little one for the next few years. The room design needed to facilitate their different needs and interests as they develop without becoming costly.
We decided that the ‘surprise’ of a boy or girl would be extra special when the time came. Therefore, we wanted to create a neutral nursery with Scandinavian-style touches, natural textures, bamboo and wicker with pops of colour. Oh, and animals!
Both of us fondly remember our own childhood rooms and we enjoyed recalling them as we went about our planning. When we’re young, we take everything in like little sponges but, as adults, we stand back and admire our surroundings. Like any parent, we wanted to give our little one the best environment possible to grow those memories from the get go. Consider longevity as well as nursery cute. Selecting neutral tones and pastel shades helps create a nursery that is soothing and comforting for your baby.
Adjustable design
A neutral nursery called for a simple and flexible design. We stripped the room of fifties yellow and freshly painted it in white a few years ago. Now it was time to add some shelving for meaningful items, a chest of drawers for storage and plan space for a cot and double bed. That’s a lot of furniture for one room but with careful planning we found a balance.
A chest of drawers with a padded mat can offer more versatility than a standard changing table for example. Double-duty furniture is adaptable over time and is really important when creating a nursery that grows with your baby.
A lot of the feature items are from IKEA. The shelving units are actually spice racks at £3.50 each and are perfect for displaying books and personal items. The bamboo towel rail was also a bargain at £6 and performs perfectly as a baby-size clothing rail. In time, I knew that colour would naturally find its way into the nursery as our baby grows. It sure has now and enhances the natural textures already in the room.
The double bed once for guests won its place in the nursery design. Adding cushions to complement the colour palette ties it into the room perfectly. It’s been great for the numerous outfit changes, bedtime stories and lots of cuddles! Configuring the room to its best functionality required planning, without it feeling enclosed and still giving room to grow. Good news is, we have a ‘big girl’ bed ready and waiting.
The rug was an investment piece, although on sale at the time from Also Home. It fits effortlessly into the Scandinavian style nursery we wanted and I hope it stands the test of time. These rugs spotlight handcraft and celebrate keeping traditional skills alive.
Not being completely child focussed future proofs your nursery, allowing furniture to be adjusted. Investing in adult pieces that grow with your child assists change with smaller elements at a fraction of the price.
Already, you can see how the nursery’s changed from baby to one-year old and our little girl’s character is very much apparent in the room. I hope to add more playful accessories, tweak the wall art for more grown up pieces and display favourite items to keep Esme excited about her room.
Add history
The process of transforming this room from guest room to nursery was really therapeutic for us. It certainly helped satisfy my need to ‘nest’ and provided the perfect trip down memory lane. In fact, some of my own treasures were recovered from my family home.
Cherished books, soft toys and decorative items once displayed in my childhood bedroom made their way into the nursery. Dusted off and ready to be placed in the hands of the next generation made me feel all warm inside. A bit of personal history adds comfort and can act as a tangible connection between you and your baby.
Recycle & reuse
‘Shopping’ your own home is easy to do and can give old items a new lease of life. It was fun taking things outside to paint and all without breaking the bank. Our wicker chair, then navy, got its second upcycle! The Gumtree buy that just keeps on giving. This time in a soft green that fitted in with the style of the room feeling fresh and neutral.
before 
during
A second-hand vintage mirror saved from our first home, now adds character above a bedside table. Baby animal prints from Posterlounge made use of the grey frames. Other decorative pieces saw some paint and styling imagination in their upcycle. Be playful with accessories, so you can change with your child’s interests. Updating items such as throws, cushions and frames can really change a room’s story.
We even found the perfect home for our Devon map lampshade. A wedding gift that had been packed away waiting to glow in the right place. Items with a story are my favourite and even better when we’ve written them.
Celebrate
We wanted to celebrate ‘childhood’ in our nursery whilst including items that would adapt as Esme gets older. Playful wicker baskets and boxes to house books and toys are really coming into their own. Esme’s learning to put her hand in and see what comes out – a bit like a lucky dip!
I’m quickly learning that children equals storage. A never ending supply of toys means consider storage options early. Incorporate simple storage ideas as a way of keeping the nursery uncluttered. Baskets are great for transferring around the home to different living spaces and still look stylish. Children learn from seeing and touching their belongings, but can also take ownership of them. That includes tidying away 🙂
We both share a love for elephants and, over the years, we have collected them for each other whilst on our travels. Only decorative and not the real thing of course!? They’re dotted around the house in miniature form adding a little heart to This Home. We agreed: what better way to celebrate us having a baby than to introduce these beautiful animals into the nursery alongside a general animal theme. Esme has taken on our hobby (whether she knows it or not) and she’s building quite the collection…
Room to grow
You can see how the nursery’s transformed with our baby into a space our girl is happiest. Her little gifts and treasures bring the room to life and I’m excited to see how it’ll grow over the next year. It’s vibrant and fun just like her and I cannot wait to keep adapting this little environment. A space she can express herself and explore with confidence.
Plan your baby’s nursery so they can grow each other. It’s achievable to create a practical but playful nursery. Sadly, babies don’t stay small forever, so why not express those milestones in an adaptable way. I’m happy that Esme’s nursery is a celebration that grows as she does.
The room’s divided into sections to make it more manageable for the future. It has separate areas for play and sleep, so any updates can be made section by section without overhauling the whole room.
I’m waiting for the personal requests to come and I look forward to involving Esme in those changes. However, Esme’s room is also part of This Home and we won’t be afraid to remind her that we work as a family to grow it.
I hope you enjoyed looking around one of my favourite rooms. Do you have any design tips for planning a nursery that grows with your baby? Please share in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy home growing.
Hols x