Your Perfect Nursery

by Naomi Coe

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Your Perfect Nursery is a tutorial and style guide with information presented by Naomi Coe. Released 6th April 2021 by Simon & Schuster on their Tiller Press imprint, it's 240 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

There certainly is a lot of planning and change involved in growing a family. It's a lot of excitement of course, but also potentially stressful to planning and decorating a nursery. This is a very well curated book of advice and design help for systematically planning and executing a nursery design from ideas to completion by a friendly and experienced designer whose specialization is nurseries.

The information is presented in a logical and easy-to-access manner. The introductory material includes a general overview, ideas, and (importantly!) safety concerns before any of the actual work begins. The author then moves to chapters on budget planning, floorplans and layouts, choosing themes, actual furniture, storage, decor, textiles, contracting larger jobs (lots of good info here for -anyone- dealing with the contracting process), and finishing touches.

I liked that the author has an encouraging, sensible, and practical style without strangling readers' creativity or whimsy. I also liked the information on sustainability and adaptations/metamorphosis after the purpose built nursery needs to grow and change. There's a short subchapter on adaptability for adoptive parents who might not know the child's exact age, as well as planning for siblings sharing a space. The author uses a significant amount of effort and emphasis on safety - of furnishings, of the actual furniture, of the chemicals and processes used - all good and worthwhile advice. The appendix includes shopping and resources and links for further reading. Most of the retailers and resources are aimed at readers in North America, but many of them do provide shipping services.

The emphasis in this book is high end designer aesthetic but I found a wealth of good information for people across the budget spectrum. The photography throughout is very good. The photos are in color, clear, and easy to follow.

Four and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.