When I was pregnant with Babe 1, one of the first things I made was a big Marimekko Unikko canvas in red and pink to hang on the wall of her new nursery. As we've moved homes it's been the one constant in their bedrooms.
A month or so ago I realised that the fond sentimentality it held for me was not shared by Babe 1 when I found it had been taken off the wall and replaced with yet more Justin Bieber magazine clippings and her new One Direction poster (to go with all the other One Direction posters). It was apparently taking up too much precious wall space.
The moment held a strange mix of feelings. On one hand I felt this kind of deep stabbing angst about her growing up and on the other a kind of deep stabbing love at watching her exert her individuality.
Which brought me to this week and the need to finalise feature wall colours for their bedrooms (yes, very excited that we're getting close to painting Stage 2!). Given that the rest of the house is all white and grey I felt it was important to let them express themselves in their rooms and if they wanted to have colour, then I wanted to embrace it. So what do you do when it comes to sitting with them and pouring over colour charts (which I admit is overwhelming for an adult let alone a small person) and they both start selecting all the colours for the tops of their lists that I would put at the bottom of mine! I'm talking real crimsons and bright turquoise blues, maybe a candy pink or two thrown in. It was such a quandry. Let them exert independence and individuality whilst also getting my own way?!@!#!
In the end it was a really fun hour or so and I prompted and prodded so that we happily found a middle ground and I tried to ensure they felt they'd come to the final decision themselves. The colours are of course brighter than I would have liked but they
love their choices and it's brought on a whole new level of excitement for them which is so gorgeous to watch.
In short, Babe 1 has chosen a kind of cornflower blue - not quite purple, not quite blue for the wall which we'll match with grey linen curtains, maybe a grey rug and some pinks in the linen (a big change from her original electric turquoise).
Babe 2 had her heart set on stripes so we've found a sunny yellow for the wall to match a multicoloured striped IKEA rug with grey linen curtains (a better solution than the suggested yellow, purple, orange and pink stripes on the wall).
I promise photos in a few weeks time... please, please let all this be nearly over in a few weeks time.
