When we moved to the South last year and opened the windows every morning: we realized that we need to get used to having sunshine every day. Or “need to“: it’s just much more common that the sun shines here, because of the completely different climate with Mistral wind that blows away the clouds. Living in a sunnier climate, with different light, also influenced my appreciation for specific colors: I can’t get enough of all the tones of yellow, orange, terracotta, deep pinks and reds.
At the end of 2021 I had a color consultation with Charlotte Cropper from Lick about our dressing and storage room, you can see the results here by the way. I was already pregnant at the time and knew this room would become the room for our future baby. But despite it all, the main goal was to make the space look much warmer and cozier: we opted for pale pink on the walls and sliding doors, and terracotta pink on the wooden panel doors. We lost the baby in the same weeks that I started the paint job, but we finished the room and were very pleased with the result. It became a space that feels nice and contemporary and the colors of the Heymat x Teklan Mix mat looked so good in there as well.
A few months later I was pregnant again and this summer we found out that we were having a baby boy. I shared some pictures of our “pink room” on my social channels around the same time, and one of our neighbors congratulated me with our future baby girl. Turned out she saw those photos of the pink room, and it made me laugh, and cringe a little bit too. I don’t mind a pink room for a boy but when we started planning some extra furniture for the baby room, I immediately knew there should be more yellow in the room. It looks cool with all the pink and terracotta and a little bit more gender neutral. And still warm because the small north facing window makes everything look much more grey. And yes, the pregnancy hormones got me a little bit obsessed with yellow, as you can see in my previous post about our toilet make over.
But where do you find bright yellow baby furniture? I did not find many options, except for some design brands that create chest of drawers in yellow veneer or lacquered wood, that I could potentially turn into a commode or changing station. Unfortunately, the measurements were slightly off: you don’t want to change a baby on a low sideboard, or on top of a chest of drawers that it too heigh. So I looked around for second hand furniture: a piece with lots of drawers that had the perfect dimensions that I could paint in my favorite yellow. By chance I found an Ikea changing station in the next village: it was not the prettiest piece of furniture but practical, spacious and with a lick of paint… We picked it up, I bought custom mixed yellow paint and got to work. The result: a bright signal yellow piece of furniture with a changing mattrass, and enough storage for muslin cloths, baby care products and accessories. We made room behind the sliding doors as well to store some extra baby stuff.
And as the icing on the cake: a metal locker from Mustard in mustard yellow! They are now also available here in Europe and they’re cool! In the baby room there are very few walls and we will keep using it as a storage room and our dressing as well, so space for more furniture was limited but the Mustard Skinny locker fits right in. It is slim but very spacious: it is similar to a vintage locker: you can actually hang adult clothing inside, or use it to store study books like at university. I love that it’s made of one of the most recycled materials in the world: metal. The Skinny came as a flatpack and was super easy to assemble: you can adjust the shelves to the heights you need. Mustard even proposes matching clothing hangers (for adults and kids) as well as wire baskets and magnetic letters and numbers to decorate your locker. I put a magnetic toy on the locker, that our baby can play with when he grows older. This is definitely a piece that will last for a long time. And like the vintage tall Brancard locker (see here in our old home) we have in our hallway, it will look better with age!
And how cute does the Mustard locker look with all those tiny baby clothes? In a few years it may be filled with Duplo, Lego or other toys, but for now we get to enjoy it as parents 😉
Somehow there’s a bit of a Barbapapa theme going on: it was not intended, but I got the little slippers fifteen years ago because I couldn’t resist them and kept them all this time for our future baby. It’s size 7 years old, so not very useful for the coming years, but hey, they still look cute. Robert bought the pink backpack a very long time ago as well and I thrifted the bath toys that have been moving around the house for years. They’re so decorative ^^ Oh and that pink trash can? It’s a diaper bin. We used a similar one for our daily cat litter scoops and love it because it’s easy to use and doesn’t smell. Also, it doesn’t need any special bags, just regular bin bags. Found this new pink one on Vinted (which is such a treasure trove!).
The Mustard hangers are in back order, so I made some temporary ones from cardboard, works fine too 😉
The crib has a cute story too: it’s actually a heritage piece: my mama and her sisters and brother also slept in it over 80 years ago. My papa restored it before I was born: it used to be painted dusty pink but the shape looked so timeless. The natural wood was varnished and after using it for me and my sister, my parents kept it for fourty years to be used again for our baby boy. We added orange wheels so that we can easily move it to our bedroom where the baby will probably sleep in the first months. Inside the crib a few plush toys: an otter and beaver and owl from the Gorges de l’Ardèche, a little bear and Miffy from when I was small. Of course they won’t stay in there when the baby is here. But they are eagerly waiting for the baby to arrive. Just like us!
This blogpost includes gifted items, like the Mustard Skinny locker and Heymat x Teklan Mix mat and Lick paint (for walls & doors), but was not sponsored. I just really wanted to show how we updated this space to our future son’s room.
