Painting the nursery

I know this may seem a little premature as we haven't had the scan yet but it was a job that had been on the cards for a while.
Years ago when we moved in we painted the back bedroom a lovely apricot, thinking that it was a gender neutral colour that would suit whatever type of nursery we eventually ended up with. The colour was fine and in fact I think we would have kept it if not for one crucial problem; the texture was awful. Every time I reached in to turn on the light and missed, it was like running my fingertips over a blackboard *shudders*. SBB agreed and so it had to go.
We have a bit of a condensation problem in our house. The exterior walls are freezing - SBB is thinking about taking down the exterior brickwork and fitting some insulating board - but until that happens I've done some research into thermal paint additive. As we needed to redo the back bedroom it presented a perfect opportunity to experiment.

Before

Before

Before

I bought some Thermalmix paint additive, the instructions for which said it leaves a slight texture to the paint when dry - which, given the fact that we were repainting due to a texture problem, was a bit of a red flag. However, it also said that the thermal properties were still effective under a coat of normal emulsion. Perfect.
We went to B&Q picked up some basic white paint to mix it in to and also picked up some coloured emulsion for the top coat. We picked 'Custard Cream' - sounds deliciously edible and is such a lovely colour. There was only one pot on the shelf so I snagged it and carried it around the store, jealously guarding it.

I mixed the Thermalmix into the white paint - people on the reviews had suggested using a drill attachment to mix it but I did it by hand and it was surprisingly easy. I'm not sure if it was the additive or the paint already on the walls, but my 5 litre tub of white paint only just managed to cover the two walls - considering it was supposed to cover about 20 square metres - and you're supposed to do two coats - it was a little surprising and I had expected it to go further without watering it down.
When I'd painted one wall with two coats I tested the temperature and I thought the one painted with Thermalmix felt warmer. SBB wasn't convinced, but we'll see.

I painted the two exterior walls with a slight overlap on the interior walls to make sure the corners stay warmer and condensation free.

I painted them over two evenings and then tackled the top coat over the weekend.

After

After

The long exterior wall (the one without the window) didn't need to be painted with emulsion as I plan to paint a woodland mural on it. I've not settled on a design yet but I've been looking around the internet for inspiration.

Now that room's done I'm planning on tackling our bedroom and the living room - but as we're going to have to ensure everything at the flat's finished first I'm not sure if I'll get round to it before the baby arrives.
However, I picked up a paint chart in B&Q which has got me thinking about new colours....