A Birdie Nursery

Baby boy Oliver enjoys a bespoke nursery made with lashings of love and a little Kiwi ingenuity.

Carly Mathyssen and her partner Kris Hassett took a collaborative approach to preparing and decorating a nursery for their pending arrival. Conveniently, the couple not only have a good eye for design, but also the skills and ability to create bespoke features for a creative and cosy little room for their son, Oliver.

What immediately catches your eye upon entering Oliver’s room are the walls – a warm shade of grey with white floor to ceiling trees and birds perching on the branches. It is cute, quirky and unique – not like anything you’ve seen before. And that’s because you won’t have ever seen it before – Oliver’s parents designed the wallpaper themselves and then had it made in Dad’s factory. 

The colour scheme was kept gender neutral, as Carly didn’t know whether she was having a boy or a girl. Grey is a great choice for a neutral room as it works well with white, but also as a complimentary background for baby blues, greens, pinks and yellows. The white furniture works well in this room and draws out the tree design.

The walls in Oliver’s room don’t need much adorning, the wallpaper does most of the talking, but one large piece adds interest and yet another personal touch. The alphabet artwork was designed and made by Carly. Alphabets work well in nurseries – obviously they are a valuable learning tool but they also offer endless creative possibilities. 

The other key feature of this room is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to achieve a stylish look. Carly and Kris chose practical pieces with unfussy style, and they know where to shop for bargains.

Thrifty finds from local distributors of Ikea products include the mosquito net above the cot, the change table and the floor rug. The cubby shelving was found when the couple were window-shopping in Auckland’s Grey Lynn.

Carly made the mobile above the change table by stringing together birds she found at a Citta Design outlet shop. The bird theme was not actually intentional, says Carly, but Oliver seems pretty happy with his bird buddies. “Already he loves the mobile and is really captivated by the bright colours at change time.”

The toy basket from Nood has neutral functionality and style that will extend its lifespan beyond nursery days.

But with all the clever design work behind this interior, Carly’s favourite feature is actually the plain white bookshelf with its practical storage baskets. The reason being she looks forward to adding all the precious knick-knacks and books Oliver will collect along the way.

“I love bookshelves for this reason, a bookshelf to me tells the story of the child and what they love.”