Nursery tour: Daisy’s Eclectic Floral Room

East Dulwich based Laura Stephens of Pistachio Giraffe renovates dated pieces of furniture and gives them a new lease of life. Contrasting offbeat brights with quirky prints and totally colour fearless, this bedroom is home to four (going on 14) year old Daisy who insisted on her mama creating the patchwork chair especially for her. Cleverly, many of the colours of the pieces in the room compliment the chair and we’re also loving Laura for boldly mixing prints and styles of floral making the room girlie without being twee.

Laura’s describes the room as a “safe, colourful, bright, cosy space where my daughter can be creative, hide away, have time with her friends and enjoy a bit of solitude from her crazy 2 year old sister.

It’s definitely evolved. I knew I wanted the wallpaper as soon as I saw it and that dictated the colour scheme. We already had the wardrobe and bedding but brought the armchair, where we can sit and read Daisy her bed-time stories. We brought the chest recently to store dressing up things. So, her needs have changed and therefore her room is constantly evolving. I try to ‘edit’ every now and again to store, or give away, the babyish things she no longer needs.”

Laura’s favourite rooms to decorate in her gutted and renovated home have been her daughters rooms and she only wishes she could have decorated the entire house in a similar vein. As a result, she feels “Pistachio Giraffe is really just an outlet for my passion for kids decoration! I think the wealth of beautiful fabrics, wallpapers, toys out there for kids is amazing and you can indulge the childishness in you whilst creating a really fun, bright space.”

She has lots of plans for the ever evolving space – “I’m currently sourcing some fabric to create a blind to replace the borrowed curtain a friend lent me and now needs back. I have just discovered Fabric Rehab where I will choose a colouful, dotty fabric, with a pom, pom trim. Also, now she has started school, I’m looking for an old school desk to ‘make over’, in an apple themed pattern like one I did for a commission on my website.”

The wardrobe was an ex-display piece from Habitat; the wallpaper is Designers Guild; the chest is from Laura Ashley and the bed and armchair from good old Ikea. I added the rug, for cosiness, from Zara Home. You can get the giant world map and felt motifs from The Conran Shop. They have a smaller version in store and for something that makes a little dent on the wallet and takes up less wall space, try Oskar & Ellen world map from Kidsen.

Laura’s tips: Make sure the key features in the room will ‘grow’ with your child. As long as the basics aren’t too babyish you can change the furniture whilst not having to totally redecorate. I have resisted painting the entire room pink and placated her with pink curtains, cushions etc. Vintage pieces are amazing and will outlast much of the high street stuff. Mixing older pieces with cheaper, Ikea, pieces gives a room some personality. Also, a bit of wallpaper on one wall (which keeps the cost down) can totally transform a room and instantly give it a ‘theme’.