An enchanting nursery packed with love and charm

Paula Ward and her husband live in Castor Bay, Auckland, with their four-year-old son Jaxon and one-year-old daughter Sloane. While two small children are more than a full-time job, it's obvious, when stepping into the Ward family home, that Paula has invested any spare energy in creating a delightful haven packed with heart. She’s a dab hand at DIY and clearly has an eye for design and a knack for putting things together.

What was your inspiration for the room?
Paula: I had a collection of pre-loved furniture and a rocking horse that I wanted to use so I went about designing a look and colour scheme that suited the pieces. I love old-fashioned cots so we had an older cot repainted in white instead of buying a more modern-looking cot. The room has ended up with a theme quite accidentally. There are several animals peeking out and overall I think we’ve achieved an enchanted forest type of look. It’s definitely a little bit magical, which I love!

Where did you start?
The room needed to be gender-neutral, as we didn’t know what we were having, so I started the decorating process by looking at colour schemes. I had a board on Pinterest and spent many happy hours browsing online. I love supporting small 'mumtrepreneur' businesses – so a lot of my purchases have been online. I went with grey and white as a basic colour scheme, and then once Sloane – our little girl – was born, I went to town with feminine accessories.

What is your favourite feature of the room?
Definitely the feature wall above the cot. I love how eclectic elements have all come together to create a cohesive look. It was fun and easy to create too. Anyone could do it – just have a play with your favourite things. And put in some hours on Pinterest!

Any challenges or tricky bits?
The feature wall came together really well but it was a bit harder to create the other wall to complement it. Probably the biggest challenge though was finishing off the project after Sloane was born, adding all the ‘girlie’ features while she was napping!

How will you update the room as your daughter gets older?
The room isn't too babyish so I plan to just swap out the cot for a bed and the breastfeeding chair for a book corner.

Any special family heirloom-type items?
There’s a little side table in the room that was actually an engagement present for my parents many years ago. I repainted it and now it sits proudly in the corner providing great storage and a display area. I’ve also hung up a little dress I wore at a photoshoot when I was six months old. Many of the knick-knacks and toys in Sloane’s room were actually mine when I was a child. My husband thinks I’m a hoarder, but I only kept the special things and I love the personal touch they now add to Sloane’s room. Some of our kids’ favourite books used to be mine – I remind my husband that it was a good idea to keep them!

Biggest splurge?
Without a doubt, buying a reindeer hide for a baby’s room could be considered a splurge – but I justified it because it is something Sloane can keep for the rest of her life. Or, alternatively, we could ‘borrow’ it and have it in our master bedroom! The cot bumper and quilt came from Danish brand Cam Cam and were also a bit of a splurge. To be honest, Sloane doesn’t actually sleep with the quilt (she uses her sleeping bag), but I did use it as a play mat and now I just really like the way it looks in the cot. I think it’s okay to have things in your kids' rooms that you – the parent – enjoy looking at. Not everything has to be practical!

DIY tips?
Have fun with paint. I painted the triangle feature wall, which was simple and really effective. A painter gave me a tip of using no-more-gaps with your masking tape to achieve a sharp line that doesn’t bleed. And the section of wall with the book shelves on it looks like wallpaper but I actually used a stamp roller from my scrapbooking supplies to roll the design over the wall with Resene paint.