I love the excitement of pregnancies. The sonograms, the anatomy scan specifically, shopping/registering for baby items and sharing the joy with friends and family is such an amazing feeling. But one of my favorite things that has always seemed to make everything feel more real is decorating the baby’s nursery. I loved getting to pick out a theme, paint colors, setting up the furniture and dream about what it would be like rocking our new baby in his/her room. I’ve decorated a nursery three times now and here are a few tips from some seasoned mothers:
1. Stick with neutral main colors. More specifically, stick with neutral paint colors for the walls such as grey or off white. This makes it easier to redecorate a child’s room once they’ve outgrown the cute baby animals. Grey is so popular and goes with most other colors and can transition themes well. To add pops of color I would do an accent wall or add some fun pictures on the wall. Grey can be such a hard color because it can quickly look too blue, green, brown or purple. Two of the most popular grey colors are Repose Gray and Agreeable Gray from Sherwin Williams.
2. Don’t splurge on the fancy crib sets. Often times the cute (and pricey) bed sets come with a crib bumper and comforter which babies cannot use because they are considered unsafe by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Instead, invest in a couple of mattress covers and sheets that can be switched out easily because spit-up and poop explosions are bound happen in the middle of the night at some point. Even if you can’t have the complete crib sets, there are some adorable crib sheets out there that will tie in a theme or color to the nursery.
3. Get furniture that is functional. We didn’t have a traditional changing table. We had a smaller dresser that had a cabinet and three drawers on it. We got a changing table pad and (several) covers for it. Bonus tip: I see so many dressers at consignment sales and garage sales that are often times much less expensive than an actual changing table at a store. Such a money saver! The crib that was handed down to us can be converted into a toddler bed. Another money saver!
4. Plan the room layout. I knew we didn’t want our baby’s crib to be right under a window because as he/she grew I didn’t want the cords to the blinds to be within their reach. It was easier to know how I wanted to decorate or decide what we’d need when I knew where the furniture would go. Also, get black out curtains. Baby might not sleep in their own room right away but if you get black out curtains in the beginning when decorating the nursery, it’s one less thing to have to think about when transitioning a little one to their own room. The black out curtains we have come in every color imaginable!
5. Keep everything within reach. Make sure that everything you could possibly need (diapers, wipes, extra clothes, diaper rash cream, burp cloths, snot sucker, etc.) is easily accessible and well within reach of the changing table. When I was a first-time mom, I kept the burp cloths in the dresser across the room from the changing table and it never failed that I would need one during a diaper change. I learned from that and the second time around I kept the burp cloths in the changing table cabinet along with the extra packs of wipes and diapers! As our babies got bigger and wigglier, I would also keep a few toys in the drawer with the diapers to distract them long enough for them not to roll over while they were being changed.
