'Investing in storage and 4 other things I changed at home to prepare for a newborn.'

Tamara Holland heard a lot of advice on what to expect once she'd given birth to her daughter, Layla. 

The Lifestyle and Fashion Editor of Mamamia shares that despite all of it being well-meaning (and generous), it also wasn't all that helpful. 

"I'm an anxious person so I tried to avoid reading or researching too much about what I 'should' or 'shouldn’t' do to be prepared – and instead kept an open mind," she explained. "I took on the advice I felt suited me and discarded what didn’t."

Tam adds that there was so much conflicting information on how to prepare for a newborn. Ultimately, she knew what the best course of action as a new parent would be – take one step at a time. 

"Pregnancy is hard enough without putting that pressure on yourself to be completely ready," she shares. 

In the lead-up to Layla's birth, Tam attacked arguably what is the most important part of newborn prep: setting up the home. 

Planning for a baby is something you can never entirely be prepared for and Tam would know after welcoming her newborn two weeks earlier than expected.

"My baby threw us a few surprises like coming two weeks early when we still had builders in our home and had barely finished painting her room," she says. "You can never be totally ready."

Here are 5 things she changed at home to prepare for her newborn. 

1. She asked her mum-friends what they couldn't "live without" when they became mothers. 

One of the first things Tam did whilst waiting for her daughter, was go straight to the experts: her fellow mum-friends. 

"I asked the one thing they couldn’t live without when parenting a newborn which proved useful," she shares. 

"So we bought a secondhand Snoo because that came up multiple times, and we got a good quality carrier as we knew we’d want to get out and about and wear her on us."

In saying that, Tam worked hard not to fall victim to over-consumption and avoid "buying all the necessary stuff". 

"You get served so much stuff on Instagram that is apparently essential for every stage with a baby and it’s just not," she explained. "It’s just marketing to vulnerable and impressionable new mums, I wish there was less of that. 

"I’ve been sucked in a few times, like do I need a mulberry silk bassinet insert so my baby doesn’t get bald spots? I almost purchased one at 3am when I was out of my mind tired and then thought, wait until morning and see if you still think you need this."

Image: Supplied. 

2. She painted her daughter's nursery. 

Tam became fixated on her newborn's nursery, admitting she fussed over the interior of the new room perhaps more than she needed to. 

"Really, it just needs to be a comfortable space that's functional for Layla," she explained, before adding she had a vision for the room after a lot of research. 

But first, the most crucial step, says Tam, is to paint. 

"The wall colour we inherited with the house is an unfortunate shade of what we call 'rental beige,' she recalls. "Very average. And the walls are absolutely filthy from everywhere our dog has rubbed up against them."

Tam and her husband chose a warm white paint from the Dulux UltraAir interior paint range in Natural White. 

Image: Supplied. 

"It's a perfect blank canvas for interiors. It’s modern and bright but still has a relaxed feel about it. We went for the UltraAir interior paint in a matte finish," she explains. 

As a pregnant mother-to-be, Tam was cautious of the chemicals in the air after long days of getting her walls looking perfect. Dulux was the first and only paint brand she considered, she admits. 

"We’ve both painted rooms and exterior walls before with Dulux primers and paints, and they’re just really reliable and great quality," Tam shares. "We were lucky that although we didn’t love the wall colours the house came with, they were finished well so they only required minor preparation."

The UltraAir range is even better for DIY painting projects at home, she continues, especially when dealing with kids' bedrooms, nurseries or living spaces. 

"The paint is low odour and has low chemical emissions, so you can move back into the space after three hours of finishing your paint job," she explains. "There was very little paint smell, which is lucky because we finished the final coat the day my water broke."

"We got it done without a moment to spare. We still have two rooms to paint and we’ll be using UltraAir for those too, and I feel comfortable with living in the space with my daughter while we paint."

Image: Supplied. 

After the paint job, Tam set up the furniture for her neutral nursery, filled with warm browns, dusty pinks and pops of check print. She knew exactly what pieces she wanted to make her dream come to life.

"I looked to natural textures like linen and rattan and brought in woven elements to further lean into the beachy feel," she says. "Rather than anything permanent like wallpaper, I went for design elements that can be switched out as she gets older and starts to have opinions about her space."

3. She invested in storage... and a lot of it.

Everything changed when Tam and her husband welcomed their baby girl into the world, including all the new... things... she accumulated. 

As someone who prefers to keep her space calm, clean and clutter-free, she invested into enough storage to keep her home in order. 

"I would consider better storage and have it everywhere," she advises other parents. "Just to have convenient places to put all the stuff you amass. The house is constantly covered in clutter and although you just have to roll with it a lot of the time, I like to have a pretty clean home as it makes me feel calmer and more on top of things. 

"When the environment around me is super messy, it’s all I can focus on rather than just focusing on taking care of my baby's needs."

4. She renovated her bathrooms. 

One of the biggest changes Tam's home went through before her baby's arrival was renovating her bathrooms. 

"I went hard with the nesting phase," she recalls. "We live in what is essentially a beach house and it really had the bare minimum of design or functionality built into it, so we’ve been making little improvements since moving in three years ago."

She explains that her bathrooms simply "had to go".

"We had a dodgy laundry room with an old toilet in it downstairs, which we converted into a beautiful guest bathroom and powder room, and then we fully gutted the upstairs bathroom and knocked down a wall to expand it so we could fit a bath and a big vanity for storage," she says. 

In saying that, Tam made it clear that it's totally fine if your space is a work in progress.

"There is so much content on social media that makes it look like the perfect aesthetically pleasing home is possible with a new baby, but realistically when they arrive, not only do your priorities completely shift, you have to embrace a certain amount of mess and chaos," she explained. 

"So do what you can in the lead-up but don’t pressure yourself to get it perfect just for Instagram – it’s just unrealistic." 

5. She trained her golden retriever for a newborn. 

Another major change when preparing for her newborn was training her dog Vinnie for the new arrival. 

"People warned us how difficult it would be having a newborn and an energetic big dog in the house, so we had to do some training with Vinnie before she arrived to prepare him," she explains. "No more lounging on the couch with us."

Whilst they began training and preparing their gigantic pup before their baby's arrival, Tam says it is still "an ongoing process" that takes time, patience and a whole lot of love.

Image: Supplied. 

"Training our big friendly golden retriever to be considerate of his baby sister is an ongoing process," she says. "He gets so excited when visitors come over and jumps all over the furniture and we can’t have that. 

"We’ve been trying to teach him to go to his bed when anyone arrives, and to be gentle with Layla so we let him lick her feet gently in a supervised way, for instance, but then pull him back from going any further. It’s a process."

Smells like home sooner, Dulux UltraAir get’s you back in your space in 3 hours with ultra low emissions and odour technology.

Feature Image: Supplied.