You don’t have to be an architect to design a baby’s room. Planning for and designing your little one’s nursery can be an exciting time, especially since you get to be creative with shopping and designing.
To be able to design a baby’s nursery is any parent’s dream, but it always comes with a lot of apprehension and uncertainty. These tips will ensure that your baby’s nursery is inviting, functional and safe and assure you that you’re headed in the right direction.
How to Decorate a Nursery Room
Decorating a nursery room is an exciting and fun project for the whole family. It’s also a great opportunity to spend quality time with your kids and teach them about colour and design, so their surroundings can inspire them as they grow up.
The nursery room is where you’ll spend most of your time during the first few years of your baby’s life, so it’s important to feel cosy, welcoming, and functional.
1. Choose a location
When choosing a room to convert into a nursery, ensure that it is far away from tons of movement and prying eyes. You don’t want to allow every passing individual to see your baby, right?
If you can, choose a room at the back of the house. Keep windows closed at all times, or put in some safety bars if ventilation is an issue.
2. Plan a layout
Draw on a dry-erase board and plan the layout of the room. Find out where you want to put furniture and storage units.
Try to plan the layout of the nursery in advance.
You might also consider putting a single bed for a parent to sleep in whenever the baby is ill. If the room’s space still allows it, consider putting it in a closet too.
3. Group things together
Make sure that the layout of the room is practical and allows similar things to be placed near each other. You don’t want to place the garbage can or diaper storage too far from the dressing/changing table.
It may not seem much, but a few steps make a big difference when it gets chaotic with the baby.
4. Hang objects in the proper place
Avoid positioning wall shelves, paintings, mirrors or other things directly above the crib. No matter how sturdy you think the installation of these items is, it is better to be safe than sorry.
Read more on how to make your baby’s nursery more safe.
5. Find a colour scheme that works
When choosing the colour scheme, it is best to pick many colours. Newborns may only see grey, black and white in their first few weeks, but as they grow, they can recognise many more hues like reds, blues, pinks and greens.
Make it fun by painting animals, insects and other whimsical designs that you think are perfect for your child. Since your baby is going through different ages and stages, steer clear of wallpaper as you might want to repaint and come up with a new design later.
6. Lighting is everything
For the nursery room’s lighting, pick out two lamps — one that’s bright enough to illuminate the entire nursery room and the other with a lower light setting, which can be used to read stories or lull the baby to sleep.
Don’t forget to set up a night light too. Lights are an essential part of coming up with a design for a nursery.
7. Choose the correct flooring
When it comes to flooring, you might want to stick to hardwood floors, tiles, or vinyl.
Hardwood floors are easier to clean. You can soften the look by adding a rug or mat.
These surfaces for flooring are easy to clean in case of spills or pee accidents in the future when the baby is bigger. To soften the look, you can add shaggy rugs.
8. Decorate as you wish
Design a baby’s nursery to accommodate decorations like wall photos, mirrors and overhead mobiles.
Don’t forget to tie everything together with a theme as much as possible. These touches will make the nursery room more inviting and personalized.
How about deviating from the usual pink for girls and blue for boys with this classic theme for a nursery?
9. Babyproof everything
Don’t forget to babyproof everything while you design a baby’s nursery.
Cover electric sockets, hide wires, and cover up sharp edges. Make sure not to have anything that dangles in the nursery room to avoid accidents.
Make sure sockets like these are covered at all times!
10. Stay connected
Since you are not sleeping in the same room as your baby, make sure that you set up a baby monitor to let you know if your baby is awake, crying or sleeping.
Nursery Room Decor Ideas
If you’re the parent of a little one, you know how important it is to make your nursery room feel like home. You want your baby to feel safe and comfortable in their space—choosing the right colours, finding the perfect design elements, and ensuring that every aspect of their room reflects your style.
But what if you’re not exactly sure where to start? If you’ve been struggling with decorating your nursery room, we’ve got some ideas! Here are some nursery room decor ideas that will work for any budget:
- Keep it simple
- Incorporate your baby’s name in the decor
- Bring the elements of the outdoors
- Get creative with wall decor
- Make a wall gallery of mum’s pregnancy journey
- Incorporate family heirlooms or flea market finds
- Include books for baby
- Make the room flexible for future use
- Invest in multi-functional furniture and install sturdy hooks to keep the clutter away
How to Design a Nursery in a Small Room
First things first: what’s the square footage of your nursery room? This is one of the most important things to know when designing a nursery in a small room. If it’s less than 500 square feet, then it’s likely that your options will be limited. However, if you have more than 500 square feet, there are plenty of ways to make it work!
So what can be done with a smaller space? Here are some ideas:
- Use the walls: Paint them white or another light colour like yellow or mint green so they don’t take up too much visual space in the room. You can also add cute wall decals or stickers if you want something more substantial on the walls.
- Use smaller furniture pieces: The bigger your furniture pieces are (like cribs or dressers), the more space they take up visually, so try using smaller versions instead! They’ll still serve their purpose just as well but won’t take up as much visual.
- Next, think about lighting. Your baby’s room should have plenty of natural light coming in through windows or skylights if possible—especially if they spend most of their time sleeping there during naps or nighttime hours when it’s dark outside!
- Choose wall art with a large impact but little space—think large-scale prints, paintings, or posters.
- Use shelving to display books, toys, and baby clothes, so they don’t take up much floor space.
- Pick furniture with clean lines and open designs, so it doesn’t crowd the room when you’re moving around in it (and it doesn’t look like you’re living in an aeroplane hangar).
- Go vertical with hanging baskets of plants or shelves built into the ceiling for displaying baby toys above eye level without taking up floor space in front of them (and without blocking any windows).
Image Source: iStock
Nursery Room Essentials
Nursery rooms are the perfect place to have fun and play. It is like a second home for your baby. So, you must give them the best and safest environment.
When choosing the right furniture and accessories, many options are available in the market. But you should choose wisely because it will significantly impact your child’s safety and health.
Here are some nursery room essentials for you:
- A crib & mattress
- A dresser/changing table
- A bassinet/cradle (for when baby is too tiny to sleep in a crib)
- A rocking chair or glider (so you can rock and sing to your baby in comfort)
- A few blankets and pillows so that you have something comfortable to put the baby on while they’re sleeping or being rocked in the glider
- A mobile so that your baby has something to look at while they’re awake, as well as something soothing for them to focus on if they wake up during the night
Updated by Pheona Ilagan
READ MORE:
The Ideal And Safe Air Temperature For Your Baby’s Room
What You Need To Know When Transitioning Your Child From Cot To Bed
Best Crib Mobile Toys to Soothe and Stimulate Your Baby
