Coming from an Interior Design background, it's no surprise I am so passionate about decorating spaces for little people. In fact, lal&nil started by selling beautiful quilted blankets that I designed, - each of them with a particular nursery style in mind. 

I want to offer you some easily applicable tips, so when you are decorating your little one's nursery, you can do it confidently and also without hurting your pocket:

1) Go for paint, avoid wallpaper

Wallpapers are definitely on-trend, but they can be quite pricey. The newest types of wallpapers sold today are supposed to be easy to install by yourself. However, unless you or your partner are quite a handy person, chances are you may need someone to install it for you.

Paint, on the other hand, is a very affordable material. You can also test it easily before committing to it, and it's something you can definitely do yourself - if I did it, you can do it too!

Paint is an incredibly powerful way of transforming a space. I still get asked quite often about the paint colour used in my son's room. It was an Australian brand -Porters Paint's-, and the shade name is "Liberty Green":

2) Choose a 'hero'

See your 'hero' as an investment, something that will lead the eye, tie the room together, and make it completely unique. I would say that in this room, the 'hero' was the lovely handmade twig star. Its colour complemented the wall paint beautifully.

The cane chair is also a bit of a hero, although I could have gone for a more simple chair and spiced it up with a cute cushion -it would still have a similar overall effect in the room.

Spend a bit of time researching small businesses that offer unique pieces, because this is the item everyone is going to ask you about, your little discovery.

3) Colour palette

I am a crazy colour lady and I love referring to the colour wheel, studying the relationship between shades, their balance or lack of it. But...you know what? There's a shortcut to this: pick one of your baby's / children's books. These days there are children's books with incredibly beautiful illustrations, where the colour selection has been carefully studied by the illustrator him/herself.

Pick one page -your favourite one-, then have a look at the colours used, as well as the proportion of each colour:

Which colour is used in most of the page? 

Which others are used only as accents?

Stick only to the colours in this page and, most importantly, stick to the proportions used in the book. Chances are you will end up with a successfully cohesive colour palette.

I suggest you get paint chips from the paint shop in these colours too. It will help you when shopping around for bed linen and cushions, and it will keep you on track. 

4) Lighting

Always underestimated by non-designers, lighting is the best way to add an instant touch of designer worthy charm to any interior.

Look at your own room layout, at your nearest powerpoints, at the functions of each specific area of the room. Ask yourself 'why' lighting could enhance a particular area of the room. This will help you make a practical decision, not just an aesthetic one.

In this case, I went for a very simple but visually interesting way of hanging the ceiling lamp. It didn't require big changes in the way our existing lighting was working: just adding an extra hook and a longer cable. It created a playful effect and directed the ceiling light onto the reading corner.

5) Think of the room as a whole

The number one mistake designers see people do when decorating, is buying one thing at a time, as they go, without actually planning how everything is going to work together.

The key to a nice interior, in my opinion, is not having a lot of all the prettiest things. It's about how you manage the visual relationship between the items, the coordination between them, the harmony or the deliberate lack of it... so try to think of the room as a whole.

Of course, this does not mean that you need to pick a 'theme' and suddenly buy everything related to that theme, you probably agree with me that this is really narrow-minded. But definitely have thought about the overall effect that you want to create with the room: a relaxing environment? or a stimulating one? a charming vintage style room? or a room with a mix of 'old' and 'new'? Go to Pinterest and create a board to help you stay on track in terms of style.

I hope this provided you with some inspiration, and some ideas you can now put into practise in your own nurseries or little children's rooms. Would love to hear your thoughts!

Feel free to browse our website for some ideas, our decor range is expanding soon so keep an eye on us ;)

https://lalandnil.com/