I thought it was important to overhaul our basement bedroom to make sure that our nanny would feel welcome. We started with a lavendar color scheme, but throughout Skype and email conversations with our nanny, we learned that she likes bright colors, and we thought that something more fun would be a better fit, so slowly but surely a coral/orange color scheme took over the room (which originated in the quilt on the bed).
Some people have suggested that perhaps it's not necessary to do quite so much when it comes to setting up a room for a nanny. To this I have two responses, 1) if you have (or can make) the time and enjoy these sorts of activities then go for it, there is lots you can do on a budget by shopping sales and doing DIY projects and your nanny will appreciate all of the time and effort that you put in, and 2) think about the longterm use of the bedroom. We always love making spaces in our home nice so we figured why not decorate a nice space for our nanny that we can enjoy for years to come.
We were fortunate to start with some nice pieces of furniture from our former tenant (the bed and nightstand) and then we went out and purchased a simple desk from IKEA to match, as well a small coral dresser/drawers. We added a slew of personal touches and between the fresh face lift of colors and moving around the furniture to make a desk area, I think the room is far more inviting now. I finished off the room by sewing some pillow cases and matching curtains and making some DIY peg boards. We added lots of photos of our nanny's family and friends to the room too, and of course fresh flowers on her nightstand for her arrival.
My favourite additions to the room:
Playful carpet from Target and floral wall decals from IKEA
Hand painted hardware from Anthropologie
DIY pillow cases
DIY peg board
DIY desk pad
Homesense quilt
The room started with:
- Bed
- Nightstand
We then added:
- Target
- Carpet
- Pen tray
- Coral pillow cases
- IKEA
- Coral dresser
- Desk
- Small orange picture frame
- Coral wall decals
- Large photo frame and floral print
- Anthropologie
- Nightstand hardware
- Lowes
- Wall-mount bed-side light
- DIY (fabric from Target curtain panels)
- Euro sham pillow cases
- Curtains
- Peg boards
- Desk pad
- Homesense
- Quilt
- Best Buy
- TV
- Apple
- Apple TV
- Repurposed previously owned
- Desktop computer
- Silver decorative bowl with balls
- Chocolate nightstand photo frame
- Local buy/sell group
- Square wall-mount nook shelves
ORIGINAL ROOM
BEFORE REDECORATING
AFTER
We had a LOT of fun doing this decorating project and I think the end result turned out pretty well, and most importantly, I think it made our new nanny feel welcomed into our home.
