Before & After: This Woodland-Themed Nursery Makeover Lives Rent-Free in My Mind

As families expand, it’s normal for children to inherit bedrooms that once belonged to older siblings. (I must cheekily add that because I was the firstborn, I always got the bigger room first before my brother.) But when the rooms change ownership, it’s natural to want to reinvent the space to match the person living there. 

That’s exactly what Kate Ward did in her daughter Olivia’s bedroom. It was once her son Joseph’s room. He moved to another space after his sister was born. Kate says she decorated Joseph’s room “during the height of gray interiors” and wanted to inject more color and personality into the space for her daughter. 

Even though Olivia was only a few months old when her bedroom was reimagined, Kate believes her daughter put trust in her to do a good job. “I was inspired by a nursery design on Studio McGee — it had a pink pitched ceiling and patterned wallpaper, and I fell in love with the design,” Kate explains. “I found a beautiful woodland-themed wallpaper with muted pink and green shades, and paint from Lust Home.

Lust Home’s Smashed Avo (currently unavailable), which is painted on the bottom half of the wall and decorative beading, complements the greens in the wallpaper, and Lust Home’s Plush Blush (also unavailable) draws attention to the ceiling. The room also features some light wood tones from the Sebra crib and the DIY IKEA dresser (Kate used Maison Déco wood effect paint and added a scalloped trim). 

Now that the room is only for Olivia, Kate says they spend a lot of time playing and reading before her daughter’s bedtime. “I love the pink ceiling and the wallpaper,” Kate says. “They add color to the room but in calm, muted tones. My daughter loves the prints on the wall — she’s always pointing out the rainbows on them!”