A Model Royal Nursery

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

A Model Royal Nursery

Duchess of Kent's Modern Ideas

I" J IT I jF Prince Edward, son of the Duke and Duchess of Kent received many original Christinas gifts, but none so important as the baby sister, who arrived on Christmas Day. Situated on the top floor of a large and dignified house in Belgrave Square, the nurseries, bright and airy, perfectly equipped, and full of colour and comfort, provide ideal surroundings for the development of babies. A long narrow hall gives privacy to the nursery suite by cutting it off from the main part of the house, and a deep pile carpet deadens the sound of footsteps from the outside world. A day nursery, night nursery, bathroom, and lobby comprise the nursery quarters. White, with an accent of deep blue, is the colour scheme that has been chosen. In the day nursery, walls and ceilings are painted white, and the white rubberised floor covering, used throughout, deadens sound, is easy to clean, and is warm to the feet. All the rooms are curtained in glazed chintz, patterned in white scallop shells on a blue ground, and those in the day nursery are lined with white, with a blue-fringed tailored pelmet. Table and chairs are of plain wood, painted to match the blue of the curtains, and the chair seats arc upholstered in the

curtain fabric. The blue sideboard has white handles. A point that will appeal to all mothers is that the furniture has been specially designed with a plain flat surface, leaving no .sharp corners to endanger baby, and no crevices to catch the dust. Coarse, white linen covers, piped with blue, adorn the comfortable sofa and easy chairs. Behind a screen of tooled leather, in shades of brown and gold, stands a white-painted bookcase, with blue lines, waiting to be filled with the volumes that will mark the first essays of babyhood into literature. Pleated white muslin shades, bordered and smocked with blue, cover the twin reading lamps, which have decorative bases of white plaster. Ihe pottery inkpots on the inlaid writing desk are in deep blue. A big square clock over the door is painted to match the wall, and has silver figures. Nursery characters disport themselves on the blue rtig before the fireplace. One door in the day nursery leads straight out of ,the suite, the other opens 011 to the little lobby connecting the three rooms. Everything is white in the bathroom, which has a sunken bath with all the taps outside the bath. Four maps, framed in blue passepartout, make a novel decoration for this room, and a heated metal rail holds an arrav of towels.

The blue and white shell-patterned fabric is used not only for the curtains in the night nursery, but entirely covers the dressing table standing in the window. This is decorative, but also washable. A three-fold screen, covered with (lie washable shell chintz, keeps draughts away from the cots. The larger one, used at night, is curtained. The other, a bassinette, designed for day-time slumber, can be carried from room to room. Trimmings are fairylike —fine cream net and lace over crepe-(ie-chine, with rosettes of narrow cream satin ribbon. Lace edges the pillow slips, and the downy cream blankets are bound with cream satin. A cream wicker basket, lined to match the cots, is tilled with nursery paraphernalia. A round basket, also daintily trimmed, is on a stand, ready to be pulled up to the nursing chair when required. A low, rubberwheeled trolley holds certain necessary equipment. In the white lobby stands a large white trolley, adorned with blue, and holding such things as warm boiled water in <a flask, a jar of cotton wool, a small spirit stove, and all the things a nurse must have at hand. Everything in the nurseries, is, of course, British made.