Royal baby fever is here, and with it a brand new trend. Despite the relentless focus on Meghan's flawless dress sense or Prince Harry's devotion to the Invictus Games, the craze isn't fashion or sports-related. Nope, it's design driven... so, obviously, we couldn't be more interested.
Yes, the royal baby has a gender-neutral nursery at Frogmore Cottage, and sales of gender-neutral, Scandi-inspired home buys are going through the roof, reveals eBay. And while it's not as if the royal couple have done anything startlingly original by choosing a gender-neutral scheme for their son – parents unsure of or who don't want to know their child's gender have been doing it for years – but it is likely to drive forward the break with traditional colour schemes for babies' and children's rooms: pink for girls, blues for boys. And about time, too. It's also been claimed that Meghan chose to decorate the nursery shades of grey Auro paint (so called 'vegan paint' – in other words, paint that's not tested on animals and doesn't contain beeswax or milk).
What do eBay's numbers reveal? Well, online searches for grey paint have outstripped blue and pink paint by 268 per cent and 252 per cent respectively in the past month.
Meanwhile, online searches for brightly plastic coloured toys are being outstripped by searches for neutral wooden toys by 454 per cent. The canvas teepee is also becoming a must-have in gender-neutral nurseries, with online searches rising by 64 per cent year on year since 2018.
'We have seen a demand for gender-neutral nursery paints and interiors as tastes and styles change, particularly after the announcement that Archie’s nursery was to be decorated in a neutral tone,' says Chris Gardner, Head of Home and Garden Trading at eBay.
Other buys gracing the gender-neutral nursery, which was apparently created with the help of a German design company and potential godmother Serena Williams, include the Babyletto Hudson Convertible Crib, which was rumoured to have been gifted to Meghan at her baby shower (private jet to bring it back and all that).
Harry and Meghan have also been said to have turned to smart home tech to make the royal baby's nursery into a secure and serene space for the baby, with smart phone controlled security cameras, child-proof windows, a mood screen (think: mood lights) and a stereo system among the buys. Cue a future trend for smart baby nurseries.
The baby-centric renovation revolution doesn't stop with decor and smart home buys: there's also said to be a mother and baby yoga room within Frogmore Cottage. Anyone who's done baby yoga will know that it knocks them out for ages afterwards, so expect sales of yoga mats to increase, too.
Nursery (top): Covet House
