To celebrate the launch of our new shop category: Your Vintage Playroom, we wanted to share with you our latest magazine article. Your Vintage Life writes for the fabulous publication with a similar name: Vintage Life Nostalgia magazine. “Play the Vintage way” is an inspiration piece to give ideas on how to create a vintage nursery or playroom.

Play the vintage way

Children today live in a battery operated world. In years gone by, they played with wood or metal toys passed down through the generations, lovingly worn from years of play. Families came together to play board games rather than games consoles. Toys begged you to use your imagination rather than rewarding you for simply pressing a button.

Why not create a vintage nursery or playroom with a sense of nostalgia and innocence. Follow these ideas to take you back in time and give hours of enjoyment watching your kids playing with your old favourites!

 Toys

Metal toys were popular in the ’50s, often mirroring the grown up toys that our parents used such as typewriters and sewing machines. Before now, children were working more than playing therefore had fewer toys, often playing with just a few favourites. These would be hand crafted wooden toys such as dolls, trains and boats.

 In the ’40s, toy factories were given up to the war effort so in the ’50s there was a boom in production. Classic metal toys to fill your playroom are the spinning top, kaleidoscope and musical instruments such as tambourines.

Chad Valley made a great selection of these in primary colours with cute kids on. These can brighten up a toy shelf, adding touches of nostalgia as well providing great play.

In the late ’60s robust plastic toys made by Fisher Price became popular.

A favourite is the record player with lullaby records: turn the winder, move the stylus and listen to nursery rhymes. These are simple, mechanical and importantly, still working today. They also produced a telephone, radio and TV …still replicating the grown up toys just as a decade earlier. Remember the airport, the garage, the school house? It’s not just for older children either: the Happy Apple, chime ball and cot activity centre stimulate early senses and are perfect for a nursery.

Books

We should all read a bedtime story to our little ones, but why not consider a vintage story book. In 1940 Ladybird published their first series for children, which included stories such as Bunnikins Picnic.

These were simple stories told in verse with colourful pictures. Children loved them for their simplicity, parents loved them for their educational value and low price. The Key Word Reading Scheme introduced in the ’60s helped children to recognise simple words quickly and still works today…how many of us remember Peter and Jane? Be careful though as some are not considered politically correct (A is for Armoured vehicle for example)and women may take offence at the role of “mother” which isn’t what it is today! Vintage fans will love the pictures from the ’50s editions with swing dresses, Kelly handbags and pretty tea cups.

These classic books, along with Beatrix Potter and A.A Milne, will remind you of being read to as a child and are still loved today. Collect them with the dust covers on for added nostalgia!

Dolls

Every little girl loves a doll and the vintage ones are best.

 In the ’50s, hard plastic dolls made in England by Roddy, Pedigree and Rosebud were most desired. With their mohair wigs, jointed limbs and blinking eyes, they will really add that vintage look to a nursery. Dress them up in vintage rompers, sit them in a wooden high chair, wheel them around in an old pram, rock them in a wooden crib….all will add theatre to a little girl’s room. For boys, choose a stuffed horse on wheels to help with those first precious steps.

 The finishing touches

Vintage home furnishings soften any nursery with their pastel colours and home made feel, such as chunky knitted cot blankets and character curtains. Why not store toys in a blanket box? Perfect for a little girl with cute flowers, soft styling and roomy enough for all her things. Or make bunting our of their patterned, outgrown clothes?

Keep the room tidy by storing pens and chalks in vintage tins. Early sweet tins often came with children’s pictures on. Huntley and Palmer’s produced iced biscuit tins with Noddy and Muffin the Mule on, Sharp produced toffee tins with an animated Noah’s Ark on, even the early Quality Street tins would look great.

Adorn out of reach shelves with vintage ceramics. Characters such as Holly Hobby and Peter Rabbit on vases, bells and bowls will give a nursery a personal feel. These were traditional Christening presents which would always be out on display.

We have done all of this with our children’s rooms. The result? They value their toys, we save a fortune in batteries and it’s great to hear a lullaby rather than a robotic voice! Most of all, we get hours of pleasure reminiscing our own childhood while they ride their old rocking horse!