One day as I was walking through the local market I saw some fun animal print fabric hanging up on one of the stalls. I quickly calculated that I needed at least 6 metres if I was going to make curtains and cot linen. Unfortunately the chap running the stall only had 3.5 m left and couldn't get any more. It was only £3 per metre and was a good quality thick cotton, so I took it and decided I would figure out what I would do with it later. Possibly one curtain and some appliques. That was when I was decided that the nursery would have an animal theme.
I managed to purchase a 40m roll of 1000 grade lining paper in B&Q and used that to paper the walls and ceiling. A tin of Lemon Sorbet emulsion from Wilkinsons covered the paper. The gloss, undercoat, ceiling emulsion and radiator enamel was already in the shed left over from other decorating projects, as was the packet of wallpaper paste!
I decided that a mural would be good. I had a couple of other bits of left over paint so I mixed the lilac with some white to make the light blue colour, and some lilac with some yellow paint to make the grey colour. The animals were painted using acrylic paints the same as the ones in my daughters art box. I only used about a quarter of the acrylics so I have them for another day!
I bought three of those boxed stretched canvas frames that you would usually paint on, but decided to cover them with some of the fabric to hang on the wall like pictures. I just pulled the fabric tight across the frame and then using drawing pins to hold it to the back of the frame.
The light fitting and curtain were bought in the closing down sale of our local Chiltern Mills, whilst the carpet was a remnant that had been reduced down for quick sale in our local carpet store.
I laid the carpet myself and used carpet tacks to hold it down. I don't like gripper rods around children, I've witnessed too many scrapes caused by the bent over nails that hold the carpet in situ!
Total cost of fitting out the nursery - £81.97, a third of my budget!
Fabric (Stockton market) £9
Wallpaper (B&Q) £6.48
Paint (Wilkinsons) £9.99
Acrylic Paints (Opitec) £7.39
Canvas Frames (Opitec) £4.60
Curtain (Chiltern Mills) £3.35
Light Fitting (Chiltern Mills) £0.66
Carpet (Local Carpet Shop) £10
Polyester stuffing (Boyes) £6.50
It's looking good but as the room is small it's difficult to get all the detail in one picture! The images show the finished mural and the three canvas frames I covered with the animal fabric.
Now all I need is the cot. Although I wanted a tallboy and a bookcase I managed to pick up a tallboy and a childrens chest of drawers on eBay for £24. They are beech effect with blue door & drawer fronts and match the colours in the mural, the carpet and curtain perfectly!
I also want a load of floor cushions for sitting on when I'm feeding the baby and for later on when Amelia wants to play.
I have established that two bags of polyester stuffing for the floor cushion is rather pricy. Next time I think I will buy some oversized cuddlies at a boot sale, wash them in the machine & destuff them, spreading the filling out so it will dry properly. I will then use that as the filling for the other cushions I want to make!
I sprayed the floor cushion with a coat of waterproofing spray that I found in the shoe cleaning drawer. Hopefully that will help prevent staining and give change to mop up any spills from the cushion before it has a chance to soak into the fabric - thereby helping the floor cushion last longer!