A bright and beautiful nursery fit for a princess

Lucretia and Tony Kemp have spent many years renovating what was once a rundown 1970s bach in Auckland’s Hillsborough, into a welcoming home for their family. Like many young families, this has been a work of love accomplished in stages; for many years the spare room at the front of the house was neglected and ignored. But when baby number three arrived, the pressure was on to create a nursery fit for a princess.

Nursery inspiration
22-month-old Amélie now proudly shows off her room to visitors, bouncing between one toy and another. Her room is bright and airy – a perfect location for a morning tea-party with her dolls. Lucretia knew she wanted something feminine, but not too girly.

After the builders completed their work taking out an old ensuite, and turning a wooden tongue and groove lined room into a usable space, the first big decorating decision was which wallpaper to choose for the feature wall. They settled on Abracadabra Confetti Flowers from the Camengo range from Allium Interiors.

Two other interior walls were painted in a cheerful blue, Resene Kumutoto. “We decided to bring out the blues so that we could then add complimentary accessories in pink, like the bedding and lights,” explains Lucretia.

The remaining wall is a bank of floor to ceiling windows. The room soaks up the sun for much of the day, so the custom-made sheer linen full-length curtains help keep the room cool in the midst of summer. Behind it is another track of black-out curtains, which have proved a bonus at darkening the room in readiness for bed. Amélie is especially fond of her string of pretty pink flowery fairy lights which create a magical glow at night-time.

Too pretty to put away
When some of the prettiest things your daughter owns are special dresses, there’s no point hiding them away in the wardrobe. They may be ‘Sunday best’ but you can enjoy them every day if they’re on beautiful hangers and hung on the wall. A silk dress that Lucretia had specially made for baby Amélie by Amelia’s Boutique in Auckland hangs beautifully from a drawer handle.

Many babies are given precious things, often as naming or christening gifts, like Amélie’s Beatrix Potter trinkets. As beloved as she is, doing an entire theme inspired by Beatrix’s forest friends might be going a touch too far, and your baby will quickly grow-out of Jemima and Peter and co. In Amélie’s room, Jemima Puddleduck is the central figure of a small duck inspired collection of ornaments.

And another treasured keepsake, a crocheted baby shawl, hangs on the cot and acts as an extra blanket when needed.Other little touches include a storage cube from Mocka for displaying precious toys, and on top of the tallboy from Touchwood, a pair of pretty shoes from Allium that, once again, are too cute to hideaway.