Creating the Perfect Baby Nursery for Your Little One

Parenting isn’t an easy job. It requires a lot of patience, effort, commitment, and compassion to do right. To make matters more complicated, opinions on what is “good parenting” shift with each generation. There are a few baseline qualities that most can agree are necessary for being a good parent, but there are plenty of grey areas as well.

As with everything, creating the perfect nursery is another grey area that can be a bit difficult for parents to navigate. There are traditional ideas as well as novel ones and it can be hard to parse through all of them. Fortunately, creating a nice baby nursery for your child can be quite a fun process. It also doesn’t have to be a chore, but rather can be a cool adventure.

Cool New Baby Nursery Trends 

Today’s parenting trends tend to be rather more involved than those of previous generations. Many parents feel compelled to take up a bigger role in guiding their child’s development, and laissez-faire seems to be going out of style. There are of course plenty of merits to being involved in many aspects of your child’s life.

After all, none of us want our child to get into a dangerous situation that could have been prevented by more vigilant parenting. All the same, some things really should be laissez-faire when it comes to raising children. Sometimes, kids need to figure things out themselves and a heavy-handed approach might be harmful in those cases. With that in mind, many of today’s new parenting trends try to strike a healthy balance between the two extremes of a helicopter parent and absent parent, and the same applies to nursery designs.   

Fluidity 

We’ve all seen those cookie-cutter kid’s films where a girl’s room looks like it was hit by a hot pink tidal wave, and a boy’s room is awash in blue or some neutral color. Some children may like gendered colors like this, but as a rule of thumb, we recommend avoiding them for your kid’s nursery.

Instead, design your nursery so that the coloring isn’t gender-specific. As your little one grows, their personality and tastes will define which colors they like, which in turn will shape your kid’s future bedroom. It’s better not to try and decide those preferences for them.

Neutral Interior Colors Can Be Dominant So Your Child Can Partake in Future Color Decision-Making

More Color 

Having said that, by no means should you shy away from vibrant colors. The more color you can inject into a baby room the better. The best way to go about this is to take a leaf out of the minimalism design playbook: use a predominantly neutral color palette but include some brighter accent colors to bring everything together.

Alternatively, brightly colored wallpaper with interesting patterns can spice things up if you don’t much care for neutral colors. Look for wallpaper designs that use natural forms for a look that’s an aesthetic crowd pleaser.

Bright Colors Guarantee Bright Smiles

Blend Old With New 

A hint of retro is perfect for creating a nursery that’s a world apart from the rest. Your child deserves to have a beautiful space to spend time in so why not make their room a place where the past and the present are tastefully intertwined? This creates an aesthetic that combines the reassuringly sturdy things of the past with the sleek optimistic designs of our modern present.

Just be sure that whatever nursery furniture you choose is baby-proofed so no one gets hurt, and avoid anything excessively ornamental like Victorian-style armchairs (those pointy ends don’t belong in an infant’s room).

A Fusion of Past and Modern Could Serve as a Perfect Nursery Interior

Find a Fluffy Friend 

There are few things more comforting to a child than a nice big fluffy friend to play with. This is why a stuffed animal is the perfect addition to any baby nursery. It adds a happy, playful air to your child’s room and gives a touch of whimsy.

A plush toy gives your child some cuddly comfort which is essential especially in a stressful situation, and it gives your kid so many opportunities for playtime. Just be sure that the toy you pick is one your child responds positively to. Some animals might appear scary to your child and therefore may not be the best choice for a stuffed animal toy. Also, never leave the toy in your baby’s crib to avoid the risk of asphyxiation.

Fluffy Friends Are Quintessential to Nursery Interiors

Get a Nice Rug 

Area rugs can also be quite helpful for delineating areas in an open concept layout. They are an excellent way of separating things visually since unlike subtle differences in wall paint color a rug is much easier to notice. Area rugs also help to perpetuate symmetry in the layout by giving you a frame of reference for placing furniture and fixtures. Plus they’re just a really easy way to spice up the open space with color and patterns, and that’s crucial in a minimalist space so that things don’t end up looking sterile.

Rugs Add Comfort to Your Rooms

Interesting Light Fixture 

In their first two years, your child is going to be staring at the ceiling a lot at bedtime, so it pays to give them something interesting to look at. We’ve all heard of the classic mobiles with their twirling planets and birds, but your baby might get tired of seeing that all the time.

A cool light fixture could almost act like a bigger, brighter baby mobile with added practicality. Plus, there’s no denying that a brighter room is going to feel more spacious as well, and that’s important when you're stuck in a crib for hours on end.

Lighting Is Everything in a Nursery

Don’t Leave Your Ceiling Blank 

You also want to give some color to your ceiling as well. A blank white ceiling isn’t gonna do much for you or your kid, so a nursery can benefit from a coat of paint or even some wallpaper. This can be done by reflecting the neutral coloring of your nurseries’ walls on the ceiling. Alternatively, you can make the ceiling stand out with a different color, or even give it a cool natural motif with patterned wallpaper. 

Get Creative With the Ceiling

Think Outside The Box 

One cool way to shake things up in the baby room is to bring in some furniture that wouldn’t normally go there. A lot of nursery furniture can be rather staid and unoriginal, so sometimes you need to think outside the box to find furniture that is both functional and visually appealing.

For example, many baby dressers are very flimsy and have little to no visual styling. By contrast, you can find plenty of custom-made dressers that are constructed to a higher standard of quality. Plus, customizability means you can create the furniture piece that perfectly fits the aesthetic you’re aiming for.

The Unusual May Be Your Best Choice

In With The Modern 

Some new nursery furniture sets can be a low-quality plywood mess, but all the same, you should seek out furniture that gives you modern convenience. There are now cribs that can convert into a cozy little armchair when they’re not in use, which makes a baby crib more accessible and practical.

There are also other modern innovations such as portable folding changing tables that can be set up anywhere, and Wi-Fi-based baby monitors that allow you to keep an eye on your kid from any place. When it comes to raising a child, every little convenience helps. So be your own best friend when it comes time to design your baby nursery and be sure to make room for some modern conveniences. 

Opt For Sleek Furniture for Your Nursery

Tips and Tricks 

Go Green 

Living a more sustainable life is better for the planet but also healthier for you and your child. There are some construction materials and chemicals that can be harmful to your health by reducing interior air quality. Making your home more green can be as easy as doing some small changes.

For example, avoid paints that use volatile organic compounds (VOC). These are what give paint, gasoline, and other petroleum products their pungent smell, and they’re bad for you to breathe in. These VOCs can linger in your house long after your freshly painted walls have dried, so try to use VOC-free paints instead.

If you plan on making some DIY nursery furniture for the baby nursery, avoid chemically treated wood as it has likely been treated with harmful chemicals designed to ward off pests and moisture. These chemicals are designed to bind to the wood but they can come loose if the wood is splintered or otherwise damaged. Once this happens there is a risk that the chemicals could be inhaled or ingested, especially by young children. Instead of buying this type of wood chooses naturally resistant woods such as cedar for maximum durability.

Sustainability Is of Utmost Importance

Safety is Key 

You should experiment as much as you can with your nursery design so that you build something unique and beautiful. However, safety should always be at the forefront of your design process. Keep in mind as you build your baby nursery that it will have to be a safe place for a child that will one day start moving around.

This room will then have to contain a clumsy, energetic kid who falls over regularly, loves to stick things in their mouth, and is always looking to knock stuff over. Be sure that the nursery you build for your child isn’t a place where doing these things will leave them seriously injured.

Make Sure to Baby-Proof Your Nursery