During pre-natal classes here in France, I remember sitting in a line of soon-to-be mums and learning about the ins and outs of birth. An important event that lasts a relatively short amount of time, all things considered.
What I would have rather been told is how to manage what followed. And since this is an interior design blog, I'm going to share with you everything I'd have liked to have known back then about adapting our home, and keeping it looking as lovely as possible in those early years.
Image: Anne Lemaître
PREPARING THE NURSERY
This is probably the only time you'll get to choose all the decorations in their bedroom, so enjoy it! These decorations will last much longer than anything else (they get through clothes and toys at lightening speed because they grow up so fast) so I really think it's a worthy investment. Plus you'll be spending a lot of time there.
If you like fun wallpapers, look at Cole & Son, Boråstapeter, Maison Janette and Little Cabari. For paint, choose one that is water-based and that has an A+ rating for indoor air quality. I like Farrow & Ball, Little Greene and Argile.
When choosing flooring, I'd say that anything wipe-clean will make your life easier. If you have a large, decorative rug in the nursery or near the changing area that's difficult to clean, roll it up and put it in a cupboard until potty-training is over.
We found our cot second-hand and then bought a mattress from Tediber. I recommend Jollein, Cyrillus and Gabrielle Paris for bedding. Consider black-out blinds or curtains for daytime naps and the summer months (I chose IKEA's Frida blinds), and in terms of furniture, you'll need at least one set of drawers, shelves for books and a few toys, and storage for everything else (scroll down to see my list at the bottom of the page). If you have enough room, get a comfortable chair that would be easy to clean if you spilt milk on it.
For the changing area, I'd recommend having a container on each side (nappies on one side, cotton wipes on the other) and bottle of baby cleansing water with a push-down lid so that it's hands-free. It's important to make this area practical if you're not an octopus. Also useful: a not-too-bright lamp for nighttime changes, a container for laundry, a pile of clean towels or changing mat covers, and a bin.
Image: Anne Lemaître
PREPARING THE REST OF THE HOUSE
I'll start with a few things that helped us from the very beginning. In the bathroom, we use a foldable baby bath from Stokke that stores away easily. (If you have a shower column, you can turn the bath upside down and hang it on the upper shower head to drip-dry). We had the newborn one at the beginning which is small enough to be used on a countertop, and a year later, we bought the larger version and use it on the floor in the shower. For drying and storing away bath toys, I found Yamazaki's slim storage cart on wheels at The Conran Shop and it slides neatly into a small gap between our washing machine and the wall.
In the kitchen, we used a square, wooden tray (31 x 31cm) from La Trésorerie with a muslin cloth on it as a baby bottle drying area, and then stored dry bottles and their parts in a simple IKEA plastic tub (Uppdatera, 24 x 17cm) on the worktop. Although less practical than a bottle-drying tree, they look nicer and will remain useful for years to come. When the time came to start pureed food, we cleared a section in the cutlery drawer for baby spoons and cleared a drawer for baby paraphernalia like small plastic food containers and snack bags.
During the first six months, our baby's play area consisted of a cushioned play mat with arches in front of the sofa and a basket of toys. Then when our baby began crawling, we made a few changes to the space. We got rid of the coffee table to create a larger, open play area and replaced it with wooden stools on either side of the sofa. Our baby quickly learnt how to open the low cupboards beneath the bookcase and so we emptied it and have used it for toys ever since (this replaced the basket). The living room rug didn't survive the pureed-food phase and so we replaced it with something soft and easy-to-clean (this would later go in the nursery and we would replace the living room rug with a nicer one when our toddler was older).
When baby started climbing, we fixed our bookcase to the wall and got rid of a couple of tall, metal bar stools that weren't very stable. The space where the stools once were was soon filled with larger toys like a mini kitchen. And over in the bedroom, we decided to move baby out of the wooden cot after a few escape attempts and bought a floor-level Montessori style bed that our baby could get in and out of easily.
At the dining table, we have a Stokke high chair and are really happy with it. We used the newborn seat in the early months and then switched to the little chair attachment for baby's first meals. We stopped using this attachment when our toddler wanted to climb in and out on their own, and we can adjust the seat height as they grow.
Image: Anne Lemaître
STORAGE
It's amazing how much stuff is required for such a small person. This is probably only relevant to those who might have another one day, and so will want to put things in storage rather than just giving away or selling on as you go. To give you a point of reference, this is what we have had to find space for in our small flat:
Car seat
Baby carrier
Highchair's newborn seat and toddler version add-ons
Activity playmat with arches
Nursing cushions
Baby bottles and an electric bottle warmer
Baby spoons, small food containers and kitchen accessories
Fold-up travel cot
Newborn cot, mattress and bedsheets
Baby sleeping bags (for different seasons and in various sizes)
Fold-up newborn baby bath
Baby bouncer chair
Baby walking cart
Newborn toys
Up-to-date toys that I circulate to avoid boredom / too many toys
4 x 55L boxes of clothes, shoes and accessories from birth to now that have become too small or out of season
Stockpile of nappies and tins of formula milk
And that's just what's in storage!
The final thing I'd like to add is about general housekeeping. Unless you have daily help, keeping a tidy home is really difficult and you just have to accept the chaos from time to time. The best thing you can do is reduce the amount of belongings you have, so spring clean, sort through wardrobes regularly and either donate or store away things that are too small or no longer used (this keeps the laundry pile to a manageable size). With toys, I keep out the favourites and rotate the rest, this reduces boredom and means that there's less to put away at the end of the day.
So there you go, a collection of design and housekeeping tips that I learnt from two years of baby-rearing. Ultimately you just go with what feels right for your family and your home. There’s no exact science to it.
If you'd like help decorating your baby's nursery, or if you love talking about children's wallpapers as much as I do, you can find me here: contact@loisgatelier.com
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