Creating the perfect nursery for your baby can be an exciting, rewarding experience. Picking out the perfect crib, hanging wall decor, and choosing paint colors can be very exciting—if you know where to begin.
Picking out furniture, shelving, rugs, and storage items can be overwhelming, even more so if you don’t have a specific theme or style in mind. To help make the process a little easier, we’ve provided a few helpful steps on how to design a baby nursery that you and your little one will love.
Pick a Theme
While this isn’t a necessary step, picking a theme can help you create a more cohesive design. For example, if you’re having a boy, you could do a dinosaur, outdoor, or sports theme with bedding, wall decor, and other accessories. A girl nursery theme could include rainbows, florals, or rabbits. Gender-neutral themes include safari, around the world, or nautical.
Choose a Color Palette
Once you’ve chosen a theme, it’s time to choose your colors. You’ll want to ensure the colors you choose complement your theme. For example, if you decide to go with an ocean or nautical theme, blues, greens, and grays should be incorporated on the walls and the furniture.
Layout
Before you start setting up your furniture, create a layout of the nursery on a piece of paper. The layout of your nursery should revolve around function. Cribs should be kept away from windows for optimum sleep, your changing table should be near the crib to allow for fast, easy cleanups, and toys and books should be kept nearby to encourage play and learning.
Create a Feeding and Sanitation Station
You’ll want designated spots within your nursery that are specifically for feeding and changing diapers.
For the feeding station, a rocker or glider and a side table with storage is the perfect setup for stress-free nursing or bottle-feeding. You may also want to consider purchasing a good nursing pillow to give your baby additional support.
A sanitation area is a must-have for any nursery. You can either feature a changing table or a dresser with a changing pad on top. You’ll want to make sure that you have plenty of storage for diapers, wipes, and lotions, and have a diaper disposal system nearby as well.
Keep Clothing Organized
Babies go through a lot of clothing very quickly, so you’ll want to keep clothes organized either in their closet or dresser. Start by washing everything and then organizing clothing by size and type. Keep pajamas and socks in dresser drawers and everything else hung up in the closet. In the beginning, you’ll want clothing from newborn to the three-month size. Any larger clothing should be stored until your baby is big enough for them.
As your baby grows, you’ll want to rotate clothing from the nursery. Once they’ve outgrown items, wash them and keep them in a labeled box that you can easily store. Keeping all outgrown items out of your nursery helps to keep things organized.
Choose Accessories
Once the furniture is set up, it’s time to start adding accessories like wall decor, shelving, and toys. You can easily fill any empty spaces in the room with floating shelves and books, a small toy chest or bin for baby toys, or cute pictures that match your theme. You can also add some curtains or a rug to bring more color and texture into the room.
Stock Up on Necessities
Even if you’ve got some time before your due date, don’t wait to stock your nursery with diapers, wipes, burp cloths, and lotion. Once you are fully stocked, make sure to keep everything within easy reach to make things easier for yourself once your little bundle arrives. This will help you feel more prepared for your baby’s arrival and give the final finishing touches to your nursery.