Today, Be My Baby author Laura Greaves shares her daughter’s animal-themed nursery. We love how colourful and fun it is!

Mark and Laura Greaves, who live on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, knew they were having a girl when they started decorating but, far from reaching for the pink and frilly, they went for something a little more eclectic. “All white, minimalist kids’ rooms are not for me,” Laura says. “I initially wanted the room to have a dog theme, but as it came together that expanded and evolved to include all types of animals; it has a bit of a zoo vibe now I think!

“It was also really important to me that the room be tactile and enticing for little fingers to explore, so there’s a whole range of different textures from the fluffy sheepskin rug to the smooth wood and velvet upholstery on the rocking chair. One of her favourite things is lying on her change table and running her hands over the raised polka dots on the curtains.”

Laura didn’t want to spend too much on the basics (I”’d rather blow my budget on adorable clothes for her!”), so she repurposed and upcycled a few things. The chest of drawers, for example, was once bathroom storage, and the vintage rocker was a wedding anniversary gift to Laura from husband Mark. He bought it on Gumtree, then restored and reupholstered it himself. Impressive or what?

Laura already had two “fur children” and she splashed out on a custom mobile depicting Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers Tex and Delilah! The plain Ikea wardrobes’ doors will soon be papered with her latest purchase: Thibault’s Best in Show wallpaper.

“It’s funny because, in my book, the heroine has to pull a nursery together out of nowhere when she suddenly finds herself having to care for her best friend’s baby – she borrows a lot of stuff and comes up with a few, er, creative design solutions! I always thought I’d be a bit haphazard myself when it came to creating my baby’s nursery, as the rest of my house is what I like to call accidental chic, so I was a little surprised to find I had quite a specific vision from the word go.”

Although the pair knew they were having a girl, they didn’t want anyone else to know! “I knew people would want to see the nursery as it came together, and I didn’t want to give away her gender by having lashings of pink everywhere! The few pink accents I did have in the room before she was born I would stash in the cupboard whenever anyone came over! Green is my favourite colour and I knew even before we found out the baby’s sex that I wanted a green cot, so the colour palette developed around that.”

Just not interested in any of that that “pink is for girls nonsense,” Laura thought it more important that the room be filled with things she loves, and that she thinks her daughter will love, regardless of gender associations. “If she adores princesses and party dresses as she grows up then that’s fine by me, but I don’t ever want her to think she has to conform to some narrow idea of what femininity is.”

Laura says the room feels warm and inviting, and also interesting. “There’s quirky details everywhere you look. It feels like a very personal space to me. Although at the moment it’s mostly a reflection of my personality, I’ll encourage her to put her own stamp on her bedroom as she grows up. The nursery is also very light and spacious, which I love. That’s one of the advantages of living in an Art Deco house: huge windows!”

Where to buy:

• Mocka Aspiring Cot in green, $169.95 (currently out of stock). Also available in white and can be converted to a toddler bed with a conversion kit.
• Debbie Kendall Enlightened Hound (dog-inspired typography) prints via Etsy.
• Custom dog mobile, made by Miranda Rommel and based on the pair’s dogs Tex and Deliliah, from Fiber Friends Online.

Laura’s first book, Be My Baby, was published by Destiny Romance this week. Available via Amazon, Kobo and Google Play.