North-West facing baby’s nursery UK

4 years ago

Hello there!

I am hoping you can help!!!

We purchased a 17th century farmhouse with very high ceilings, beams, brick walls and stone walls all exposed.

Our baby boys bedroom is 4 meters by just under 4 meters, tall slopping ceiling with exposed beams. One wall is brick painted off white, the other wall that the very large window is in is exposed stone. The other 2 walls are plastered and painted off white. The wood work is painted in F & B skimming stone. Our babies furniture is a warm taupe/grey. The window frames are very dark grey.

The room can feel quite cold with it being North West facing. We haven’t a clue what colour to paint it. I love neutrals, our home is a mix of skimming stone, off white and elephants breath.

We hope to add a little pattern in to the room via the Roman Blinds. The cot is upholstered in linen and he has a linen button back chair with a smudgy leopard print cushion. Accessories in the room are a marble and brass side table with blackened brass giraffe lamp and linen shade. We hope to install a cream carpet.

We are going down the safari route as I love it and he loves animals.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you so much,

Alex

Featured Answer

minipie

4 years ago

It’s a beautiful room. For me, it’s the rug and boards that are stopping it looking cosy. Both are beautiful but the rug is small creating a bare feeling.

A carpet covering all or most of the room would be cosier feeling, and warmer (a north west facing room under an exposed roof in an old building may well be cold in winter?). Comfier on the skin once your baby starts crawling and walking too :).

I imagine you may not want fitted carpet, however there are companies which can make a rug in any size you like, basically they cut a large piece of carpet to size and trim it round the edge. Personally I would get one of these in almost the full room size. Here is one such company but there are others: https://designer-carpet.co.uk/rugbuilder?length=4&width=3.5&brands=32,6428&types=9,47&styles=713&colours=709&center=18295.

Another thing that would help is low lighting, a couple of lamps make a big difference, with fabric or rattan shades to make a soft glow. Be careful of trailing wires once the baby is older of course :)

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Comments (15)

Sonia
4 years ago
Hi Alex, do you have a picture of the room? Very difficult to imagine without a picture.
Marylee H
4 years ago
Hi - an efficient way to tackle this, would be to measure the colours of the fixed finishes in the room, (stone/brick) with a small device called
a Color Muse. It sends colour detail to an app on your phone.

A vital bit of this information is to which Hue Families those surfaces belong. From that data, it’s possible to find paint colours to harmonise
or contrast with them. It cuts out a lot of the pfaff of comparing paint chip after paint chip - especially useful when creating a palette of near neutrals when their Hue parent is not always immediately discernable.

Skimming Stone belongs the Yellow Hue Family. It has a Lightness of 82.8 (0=black to 100=white) It has a Chroma (0 being neutral) of 6.15. So it can be described as a near-neutral. And it has a Hue Angle of 88.21° setting it in the warm section of the Yellow Hue Family. It is possible to plot the Hue Angle’s of any paint colour, or measured surface, on to The Color Strategist Wheel, in order to keep track of how they relate.

We can use the data for Skimming Stone to find darker/lighter/cooler/warmer/greyer/more colourful versions from a variety of paint companies. Or indeed to find complementary colours etc.
PRO
The Cooks House Interior Design
4 years ago
Hi Alex. The room sounds lovely. You mention it feeling cold - with a north west facing window it will unfortunately get the more grey light most of the day. Do you want the room to feel warmer/cosier? In regards to colours - consider what else is in the room already e.g. furnishings, accessories and if you are not wanting to get rid or change any of these then look to see what colours are similar or different. You may have tones of one colour, this could then become part of the overall scheme. You mention linen - is that in a light colour? You also mention brass details and some animal print; therefore a darker yellow/brass could be an accent colour to focus on for other details e.g. blind.
Alex Holls
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you all so very much for your help! I will upload some photos. It may help but I think we may end up going for a light taupe or off white. I’d like it to feel a little more warmer and cosier. It’s a beautiful room and we have bought him such lovely furniture I just want it to feel lovely for him and snug. I’ve dreamed of having a baby for many years so I guess I’m just wanting it to be perfect and flow nicely for him. Thank you all once again and apologies for the delay, he’s taking up lots of my time! Ha ha.

Alex x
Alex Holls
Original Author
4 years ago
Not all his furniture is currently in the room his cot and side table and lamp are in our room currently.
PRO
Haysey Design & Consultancy Ltd
4 years ago
Hi Alex,

Ah, that looks stunning, such beautiful furnishings! You have excellent taste and that sounds like the perfect choice of paint to keep it light, welcoming and soothing simultaneously.

As Marylee rightly said, F & B's slipper satin has yellow undertones which is the perfect colour to capture and warm up that cool natural light.

F & B's Pointing and Wimborne White would look excellent with this colour too, or Earthborn's donkey ride. Nice warm neutrals to warm things up but keeping to your stunning scheme.

The Cooks House Interiors are absolutely right mentioning picking out a colour to bring to the room, we call it a colour pop - so, maybe adding little hints of yellow here and there in accessories (as small as a teddy's ribbon, or a tiny part of a wall painting, a yellow daff in a vase on the windowsill, or thread in a throw) will also warm the space up beautifully too. Echoing a particular colour in this way (such as yellow or a yellow based white) will tie it all together really nicely with your brass accents.

If you're not a yellow fan, you could try adding hints of a yellow based green. That will help tie the inside to the outside with your lovely view too and keep it looking classy!

Good luck!

Do post a picture when you've painted the room! I'm excited to see what you do!
Alex Holls
Original Author
4 years ago
Hi minipie,

Thank you for your comment! We have a carpet going down hopefully soon, we’ve just had the radiators fitted today and then the boarding will go down and a lovely snug and cosy carpet will be going in.

I have the most beautiful giraffe lamps too. I’m introducing a little colour through some animal heads on the walls.

Thanks so much, it’s such a beautiful room. He’s got an incredible view as well!

Thanks for your time.
Alex Holls
Original Author
4 years ago
Hello Hasey design,

Thanks so much for your time and such lovely compliments. I’m loving all you have said! I’m definitely going to look at the colours you have suggested. I will most certainly post a picture once completed. Thank you again, Alex x
Sonia
4 years ago
Gorgeous room, lucky bubba! Warmer neutral off whites that I think will work is F&B Pointing and Dulux Timeless. They have a tiny hint of yellow without turning to cream. I also think a pale sage green would go nicely such as F&B Cromarty but it can look a bit too grey in a north facing room. I have it in my north-east facing living room and I love it.

POINTING

DULUX TIMELESS

CROMARTY
Alex Holls
Original Author
4 years ago
Hi Sonia, thanks so much for your comments and taking the time to write to me. We have a sample of Dulux timeless, how funny that you recommend it! It actually looks very grey in the nursery, we tried it on the wall this evening. I am however going to check what it’s like in the morning. I’m just not a green fan unfortunately, all of the wood work in our home was painted green originally and we’ve painted everything skimming stone to lighten it up, it looks so much better with the stone and brick walls.

Thank You again,

Alex
Sonia
4 years ago
Hi Alex, light is everything when it comes to paint colours isn’t it? Colours can look completely different in different rooms. So it looks like that room needs a bit more yellow like Pointing maybe? I’m not a colour expert by any means but even the palest of yellows warm up a room. F&B White Tie looks nice and warm. Good luck with decorating your lovely room.
Juliet Docherty
4 years ago
What a lovely room. I would say that in rooms that have a north aspect the very palest colours can look washed out and even cooler than expected. As you/ve already painted the woodwork Skimming Stone (my favourite colour) are you wanting to keep it this colour? The woodwork needs to work with the wall colour, so if a different wall colour was to work better, would you repaint the woodwork? My sons room is North West facing and Timeless looked very cold. We used a Deluxe Ivory which just looked like a warm white with woodwork in Shadow White. Skimming Stone is beautiful but could look too cold in a North West room. Anything stoney looking will warm it up and look really good with accent colours such as red or teal. Strong colours with very pale neutrals and near whites can look a bit harsh. Have you already ordered the carpet? A striped carpet could be a good idea and very forgiving. Another way of adding interest is to paint the ceiling something colourful, such as this....
Hollywood Hills · More Info
Alex Holls
Original Author
4 years ago
Hello Colour Happy,

Thank you so very much for commenting on my post. We are leaving the woodwork skimming stone as we have it throughout the house and all internal doors are skimming stone too, it actually looks less cold in the nursery for some reason, I’m not sure why? I would love to go for a very light taupe, as that’s what the skimming stone looks like in the natural light. I’ve taken some more pictures. We only have a local paint shop open so are fairly limited to what we can get at the minute due to the lock down as we’d rather sample it first. I’m thinking we may just choose a Dulux colour incase we hate it and then we’ve not wasted a fortune on farrow and ball. We will only be painting the two plastered walls. I love the idea of a striped carpet, I may look at cancelling our order and have a look into this. I have to avoid loops due to a naughty Persian cat! I love buff wicker and we are planning on ordering a huge wicker toy box, I think this will add texture and a bit of warmth too and match his Moses basket. Although I am sat in here now, the room doesn’t feel too bad although it’s very white his taupe furniture warms it up. The cot matches the linen and the colour on the chair too. I’m still so confused! Love the idea of a painted ceiling but we don’t fancy going up there at the min! I’d love to paper one wall and I’d picked the b and q watering hole paper in the cream but it’s out of stock now.

Thanks so much for all your advice.
Xx
Eva Green
3 years ago
What a stunning nursery Alex! Can I ask where the furniture is from ?