Nursery decor mood board with natural textures theme, featuring floral wallpaper, wooden crib corner, wicker basket labeled 'Toys', wicker pendant light, framed hot air balloon and animal illustrations, and color accents of burnt orange and turquoise.

JOURNAL | RENOVATION

Ava’s bedroom - before and after

When we started house hunting in 2023, we’d just had our daughter and were by no means anticipating starting a huge renovation project. I think my words were ‘I’ll paint and do flooring but I don’t want to be ripping out a kitchen.’ Little did I know, after months of browsing Rightmove and scrolling straight past our house thinking ‘no way,’ we’d eventually view it and both immediately see it’s potential.

Join us as we learn new skills, rope in family and friends to help, get creative and turn this old house into our family home - on a budget!

First up on the renovation to do list - transforming our daughter’s bedroom. When we moved into our house last year, we had no power downstairs, half a kitchen and were washing up in a bowl in the garden, but there’s me buying pretty wallpaper for Ava’s bedroom… I didn’t care about bare concrete downstairs as long as she had a safe and cosy space to call her own.

Compared to other parts of the house, this wasn’t a massive undertaking. Once the electrics had been finished, we could secure down the floorboards and have the carpet fitted, which made a huge difference. I know you’re supposed to paint before you fit carpets, but we couldn’t move in without a safe space for Ava to crawl around in, so that was our top priority and the painting would have to wait.

Nursery with wallpaper featuring colorful animals and plants, whimsical nursery design, kids bedroom design, interior design, kids bedroom ideas
Empty beige room with a window and curtains, a framed picture on the wall, a central ceiling light, and a radiator below the window, labeled "before."