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Decorating Your Baby’s Nursery
Decorating your baby’s nursery can be a powerful way of starting to bond with your unborn baby. When nesting kicks in, use it to its full advantage to pour all your energy into creating a beautiful, personalised room for your new arrival!
As a newborn photographer and children’s photographer, I see a lot of nurseries. I’m so often struck by how much care and attention have gone into creating gorgeous rooms.
As a bit of an interiors addict myself, I’m always noting charming details and fun ideas.
15 Trends for Nursery Decor
Bunting, stars and garlands
They’re here to stay!
Animals
Everywhere! On prints, bedding, toys, blinds. Most children love animals, so it’s pretty much a fail safe choice for a baby’s bedroom.
Blush pink with pale grey or gold
These are pretty colour combinations, and very soothing.
Gold is wending its way into baby nurseries too – in little splashes like lamps, and in larger areas like patterned wallpaper.
Grey can be a good colour choice to incorporate for making the bedroom a bit darker – some babies sleep better in a room that’s not super bright.
Outdoors
Bringing the outdoors in with tropical designs or giant florals on wallpaper brings a wonderful freshness to the room – as does having lots of real plants in the room too.
Bold colour choices
Even on a feature wall, like a dark grey wall, bold colour really brings a nursery to life.
Playful paint designs
Triangles of different colours, or geometric designs with different shades (you’ll need a confident decorator for this) look great in a nursery.
Sky
Clouds, moons and rainbows are classics, but have that very charming dream-like quality that works so well in nurseries. A moon pillow is something of a design classic!
Grown-up rugs
Brightly coloured rugs can keep a nursery feeling as though it’s still a part of your home, reflecting your own tastes too.
Gender-neutral
Gender-neutral colour schemes. With more and more attention being paid to gender stereotypes and expectations, gender neutral bedrooms are becoming increasingly popular. Quite right too!
Practical tips for decorating your own nursery:
Budget and safety:
There’s a great set of practical preparation tips here, including thinking through your budget, safety, storage and layout options: https://porch.com/advice/ultimate-checklist-best-baby-nursery
Storage and practical considerations:
If you’re at the early stages of thinking about decorating your nursery, there’s a great article in the Huffington Post with simple tips on making sure your nursery is safe, has lots of storage, as well as deciding on colour schemes: https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/04/12/decorating-a-nursery_n_9676906.html
Adaptable spaces:
It’s worth also thinking about how the room will work when your newborn is a little older – they’re on their feet so quickly, you’ll want to be sure that it’s reasonably baby-proofed from the start. Are cables out of reach? Are there any sharp corners a foot or two from the floor? Will the furniture still be useful for a toddler? Have you left space for toy storage (approx. 10 times as much as you think you’ll need!) and books?
Ideal Home also has an article that’s well worth a read for its practical ideas on how to accommodate a changing table in a small space, choosing furniture that you can still use as your baby grows up, making use of shelving for children clothes, re-vamping furniture with a lick of paint if you’re decorating on a budget, considering more grown-up colours or introducing a feature wall. Simple ideas that are easy to implement! Check the article out here: http://www.idealhome.co.uk/childrens-room/childrens-room-ideas/nursery-decorating-ideas-18-ideas-66636
There are some great articles on Houzz (of course!), for example:
Stockists and product designers:
Here are some businesses delivering beautiful and fun children’s design:
- Garlands, dream catchers, cot mobiles: www.garlandsgalore.co.uk
- Great Little Trading Company: www.gltc.co.uk
- Nubie: www.nubie.co.uk
- This Modern Life: www.thismodernlife.co.uk
- Funky Little Darlings: www.funkylittledarlings.co.uk
- Scandi Born: www.scandiborn.co.uk
- Diddle Tinkers: www.diddletinkers.co.uk
Nursery design on Instagram:
If you haven’t already, have a good look on Instagram for inspiration. Some great hashtags to keep an eye on are:
There’s a LOT of amazing nursery design out there!
It’s also worth keeping an eye on specialist nursery designers on Instagram, they share wonderful ideas that you might find really inspiring:
Nursery decor on Pinterest
Pinterest is another goldmine of inspiration! Try searching for
An interview with a maker who specialises in nursery decor
I have such a soft spot for handmade products for the nursery – what a lovely way to bring a sensitive and delicate touch to a baby’s bedroom.
Researching current trends for decorating nurseries, I came across Velveteen Babies and was so struck by how beautiful the products are that I couldn’t help but find out more about her approach to designing for nurseries!
Read on to find out about how she works, what inspires her and for some great advice on where to seek inspiration for decorating your own baby’s nursery.
What led you to designing products for nurseries?
When I began, there was very little available on the market that blended appealing characters or themes for children with contemporary design and colours.
I always wanted to create a brand that would appeal to children but also to their design loving parents.
I didn’t see why becoming a parent meant compromising and having to create a nursery from items on the high street that didn’t reflect the parents love of design and style.
I also despaired of gendered ‘girl or ‘boy’ room schemes.
What advice would you give to parents to help create a stunning nursery?
Use Instagram or Pinterest to help guide you. I’d also suggest you think of a scheme that will ‘grow up’ with your child rather than creating a nursery with limited shelf life.
What’s your number one tip for decorating a nursery?
Invest in accessories that you can use even as they get older, and avoid anything too matchy matchy.
Do you have any design suggestions for parents looking to make their nurseries more creative?
Wall stickers are a really simple way to pick up the playful print designs trend.
Instead of painting or papering designs, create your own with some of the vast array on offer.
I love the confetti styles and sprinkles that are available in pastels with grey and accents of mustard.
Wall stickers
What are the key elements behind designing a contemporary nursery?
Warm minimalism is a key trend across interiors everywhere at the moment, and it’s a really simple and effective style for a nursery.
Add warm white walls, natural wood accents and create a gender neutral, calming and nurturing space.
Natural muted colour tones of soft greys, rusts and naturals for accessories will lend warmth.
The essential nursery accessory is a wooden peg hanger from which you can hang a few special decorations or a few sweet pieces of clothing.
Natural baskets in raffia, grass or palm mixed and matched is perfect storage for this style of nursery too.
Is there anything you think parents should avoid doing when decorating a nursery?
I don’t think it is worth spending hundreds of pounds on a changing table or a ‘nursery suite’.
Instead, buy a standard wardrobe and a chest of drawers you can place a stylish baby changing basket atop of.
That way, you’ll have furniture to use forever rather than expensive and time limited nursery furniture.
Our cot is actually the basic style from Ikea, but I invested in beautiful Tana Lawn Liberty Cotton bedding that will probably last longer than the cot!
How did you go about decorating your own nursery?
I built a mood board on Photoshop using images I’d pulled from Pinterest and Instagram. We used a beautiful wallpaper in my daughter’s nursery, so we had to move her in with us whilst it was decorated!
What impact has Pinterest and Instagram had on influencing nursery designs?
A hugely positive effect as people are getting more creative, more experimental and far less scripted.
Where do you look for inspiration?
Instagram mainly, online and Pinterest.