Speculation about Victoria Beckham’s baby has moved on from its gender, but not yet reached the stage of planning its inevitable wedding to Kate Middleton’s firstborn. Instead, a “friend” of Posh Spice’s recently told the press that she was expecting to spend somewhere in the region of £150,000 on the nursery for the future fourth-in-line to the Beckham throne. “She hasn’t looked at a price tag for a single thing she’s bought,” the friend gushed. “If she wants it, she gets it, no questions asked.”
It’s an unsurprising admission about a woman who has never knowingly spared an expense, but then nurseries are big business. “After getting married, giving birth is the next big thing in your life,” says Lucinda Croft, managing director of Dragons of Walton Street, a luxury nursery specialist. “Having a baby is such an emotional thing, and people want their child to have the absolute best. For our clients, price is secondary to how their purchases make them feel.”
Her clients have included Diana and Fergie, Madonna, who had a huge mural painted across Lourdes’s entire nursery, Gwyneth Paltrow, who wanted a matching set of furniture for Apple, and Samantha Cameron, who walked off with a chair covered in a bunny motif. “Our cots start at £995,” Croft says, “but if you want to get everything, you’re looking at about £5,000 for the cot, chest of drawers and nursing chair. I know it’s a lot, but the thing about nursery furniture is that it becomes part of the family, and our products become heirlooms, passed down through generations.”
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If you’re starting to view the cost of interior decoration as a form of birth control, however, you can, of course, do it cheaper. “Don’t spend a fortune,” says the interior designer Danielle Proud. “Children grow out of things in the blink of an eye. Parents tend to decorate nurseries for themselves rather than their kids — I covered my daughter’s room in amazing 1960s Shand Kydd wallpaper. I justified it because it was candy colours, and babies like things to be bright.”
“Just make sure you black out the windows,” says Lisa Hopkinson, head of buying for Little Home at John Lewis. “Babies wake up at the crack of dawn and you want them to sleep as long as possible. You’ll also need a nice comfy chair, as you’re going to spend a lot of time and sleepless nights in it over the years.”
While the Beckhams may be happy to redecorate as soon as child number four develops a taste for Dior rather than dummies, most new parents should think about a look that will last. “It can be a mistake to make the nursery too nursery-like,” Hopkinson says. “Buy generic curtains with a spot or stripe pattern, and plain furniture that you won’t have to change too quickly.”
Above all, you want to create a haven, a room of sanctuary and serenity. “I tell people they need a place of calm, where everything is ordered, clean and works,” Croft says. “Because this is where they will spend most of their time, and bond with their baby. This room will be the heart of their relationship.”