Designer Nurseries

Nurseries are not just about picking animal print themes, though this can be the fun part....

Designing Your Baby's Nursery

Although hundreds of babies are being born every minute, it's not every baby that gets to stay in a really cool room.

So here are a few ideas and tips for designing your baby's nursery.

Brighten up Your Nursery with Color

Color schemes are great. You can lift the nursery decor or create a theme with a strip of brightly colored wall paper.

You can change wall colors fairly easily and they add a lot of character to a space.

When picking a color, it's best to get a small test pot from your local paint shop and test a patch on the wall.

This is because often a small color swatch of paint appears quite subtle - until you paint a whole wall with it.

So have fun testing out colors. And if a color scheme turns pear shaped, don't stress - you can always paint over it.

designer nurseries

A cheerful animal theme nursery

Nursery Themes

A strip of wall paper with prints can also be the foundation of a nursery theme. Nursery themes can make it a more engaging place for your baby.

You can incorporate the theme in the crib bedding, wall paper, light fittings, curtains and toys. Some adventurous parents even paint a custom themed mural on the walls. If you're feeling brave, this can be creative outlet for your child in later years.

There are plenty of themes to choose from: animal themes, air planes for boys, fairies for girls, Thomas the Tank engine and other favorite cartoon characters.

One thing to remember is that children have extremely vivid imaginiations. I remember being terrified as a child by my animal curtains (though only at night when they came alive.)

So as your child grows up, you might want to check with that they like their nursery theme, and reassure them that they're always perfectly safe in bed.

Color Theory for Nursery Decor

The links below map out some of the basic color rules. These rules are made to be broken, though I'd recommend (especially for painting walls) trying out a test spot before committing to painting a whole room.

Eco Paint
Great way to choose non-toxic
nursery paints
Color Theory Tutorial
Excellent tutorial on color design
Color Theory
Explore how color affects emotions, appetite, vision, design, art, trends, and its basis in science

Not Just for Kids

This clean modern looking nursery has a space for adults to relax. This is a good idea, as you will often end up spending a fair amount of time in your child's nursery.

If you design the nursery so that you can relax in there as well, you'll be ahead from day one.

It's also a good idea to select materials that are easy to clean: wooden or lino floors, high gloss paint, cotton curtains and machine wash bedding.

One thing's for sure: your nursery will get a lot of living use over the years as your baby grows up.