Baby Room Design Ideas

Planning to decorate your baby's nursery but not sure where to start? We asked nursery design experts for their tips. Here’s our top 10 tips to guide and inspire you.

1. Consider the room's location and other practicalities

If you have a choice, choose a quiet room close to your bedroom so you don’t have to walk far at night. Make sure that a cold room has adequate heating and a warm room has good ventilation. If the windows let a lot of light in, it may help your baby to sleep at night if you put black-out blinds or curtain linings up to keep the room dark.

2. Incorporate the style of your house into the nursery decor

Is your interiors style traditional, contemporary or perhaps an eclectic mix? It’s important that your nursery design reflects your own personal style and how you’ve decorated the rest of your home. Otherwise, it will look out of place and you’ll tire of it very quickly.

3. Create your own mood board

Search the internet and magazines for pictures you love and piece them together to create a mood board. This will help you to pick your colours, keep your ideas focused and pull your theme together.

4. Keep it simple

With all the gorgeous nursery furniture and accessories available, it’s easy to over-decorate. Keep it simple and decide on a single focus for the room early on, such as a piece of furniture or artwork. Think child-friendly, not childish. Choose a neutral background and mix in age-appropriate accessories and you’ll reduce the need to redecorate every few years.

5. Choose soft, tranquil colours

Consider using colours that are calming and nurturing. When your baby gets older she will tell you what she wants, so take this special time to consider what makes you feel relaxed. With the demands of a newborn, most mums need calm more than anything.

6. Choose adaptable décor

Consider how long the nursery decor will last your baby. Wall paper with characters might have to be changed in a few years if your child finds it babyish or out-of-date. Wall stickers are a cheap, easy alternative for decorating that can be removed when your child gets older.

7. Think about safety

If you are buying a new cot it should conform to BS EN 716, as all new cots on sale in the UK have to meet this standard. This standard ensures that the cot is deep enough to be safe for your baby, that the bars are the correct distance apart, and that the cot does not have cut-outs or steps.

Create a safe zone around the cot by positioning it away from windows, heaters, lamps, wall decorations and cords. Keep furniture that your baby could clamber on to away from the cot too.

8. Select key pieces first

Select your furniture pieces before you start decorating. Parents often choose their colours first, but it's actually easier and cheaper to match paints, fabrics and wallpaper to your key furniture pieces.

9. Strike a balance between form and function

The hard part of designing your nursery is making sure it’s practical and easy to use. Consider what the room needs to be used for, the size of the room and how long it will be a nursery. This will help you design the space to fit your needs.

10. Think outside the box

Just because furniture and accessories are not nursery-specific doesn’t mean that you can’t use them. The same can be said for wallpaper, fabric, and wall stickers. Choose items and colours that you love.

The paint aisles in your local DIY store will inspire you to mix colours you might not otherwise have thought of.