When decorating your baby’s room, let your imagination and creativity run wild. Let’s be honest, this project is mainly for the parents’ fun. A newborn doesn’t really care if he sleeps in an ocean-themed, African safari or Australian outback room! Furthermore, the decorations are often short lived. When your child will start sleeping in a “big-kid” bed, you will be tempted to change the room’s decor again and your son or daughter will want to participate. Enjoy decorating the nursery to your liking because it might well be the only time you’ll be able to do it alone!
Furniture
It only takes a second to spend a fortune on super-chic wooden furniture. Know that you can find great deals in garage sales or classified ads. Too many parents spend impulsively and find themselves with unwanted furniture two years later. And lucky for us, they’ll decide to sell it at a good price! Look for deals! Moreover, it is not the furniture that gives the look to a room, but rather the accessories and choices of colors.
Themes
Opt for a unifying theme to create a warm and inviting environment. Then add frames, artwork, stuffed animals, lamps, bedding, a phone, a carpet or other accessories that complete your theme. Be creative and get out of the box. Look at different decorating websites to get ideas. The goal is not to buy everything, but simply to get inspired. You will often be able to recreate some items or adapt them to make them fit with your decor.
Creative ideas
- Take a wooden height gauge and personalize it to match your theme.
- Use “home-made” stencils to reproduce the bedding’s pattern on the walls.
- Write your child’s name on the door or above the crib. Make it look special by adding decorative touches.
- Add a picture frame… your child will love to look at it with you.
- Find a wooden chest and have fun painting silly characters on it.
- Put up family photos, or even a picture of the ultrasound, since this will be your child’s very first personal space in your home.
Useful tips
- Think storage. Have enough drawers to store everything! To maximize your wardrobe space, put a second pole at half height. Children’s clothing is not very “long” anyways. You could also buy a closet organizer that you’ll hang in the closet, which is very useful to have easy access to diapers, shoes and blankets.
- Do you have an old rocking chair hidden in the basement? It’s time to take it out and give it a second life. Strip it, polish it and stain it and it will become a great friend during those sleepless nights…
- The changing table needs to be the practical element in the room. I have personally made that mistake the first time around. I chose a table with storage on top. I wanted to turn it into a library later on, but what a mistake! As soon as my daughter learned how to sit, I was cursing the changing table on a daily basis. My little girl kept hitting her head on the shelves above and I felt restricted when changing her. I got rid of it as soon as I could. I was not about to use it with the next baby. The second time around, I chose a lower table with drawers and closing doors…to keep my folding technique discrete!
