Pink, Blue or Yellow? How To Decorate Your Nursery

Guest blogger Rachel Turner gives her tips on creating a beautiful unisex space for your little one.

How do you go about creating a gorgeous, unisex nursery when everything baby-related comes in various shades of blue or pink? That was the challenge that presented itself to me when pregnant with my first child.

Not wanting to spoil the surprise, we decided not to find out the sex of our child before the big day. The right decision for us, but a nightmare when it came to decorating the nursery. Would we succumb to the lure of the white emulsion? What other options did we have, other than pale yellow – or the dreaded beige?

If you find yourself in the same position, take heart because, looking back, the fact that we kept things neutral meant our decor lasted well beyond the baby stage. With the addition of a few peel-off wall stickers and accessories, we’ve managed to adapt our color scheme well into the toddler years. Not only has this saved us a few DIY-induced arguments, we’ve also saved money on redecorating the room every time our child moves into a different phase of development.

So what should you go for when fairies or dinosaurs won’t do? Below are a few things we learned along the way when it came to creating a beautiful unisex nursery.

White doesn’t have to be boring

Going for a neutral background sounds dull, but it has its advantages. Go too bright on the walls and the room can quickly become an overpowering mix of clashing colors as your child’s collection of lurid plastic toys grows. Don’t worry that white is under-stimulating for your newborn, either. Babies find high contrast colors and patterns easiest to see, so having brightly colored wall stickers, patterned rugs or curtains against your white backdrop should keep them happy and stimulated.

Confining color to accessories is also the easiest way to update the look of a room without redecorating. Hard as it is to believe when you have your tiny newborn in your arms, they’re only babies for such a short period of time. If you’ve used too babyish a scheme (pastel-colors with stenciled teddy bears on the wall, say) you’ll find yourself up that ladder with a paintbrush before you know it.

Keep themes gender neutral

So what themes work well with both boys and girls? Well, you can’t go far wrong with nature or animals. In the end, we went for a woodland theme with peel-off wall stickers . They had plenty of black and white characters which our newborn gazed at for hours. We made our baby’s cot part of the design, making it look as if the little woodland animals were playing around it.

Whatever your theme, peel-off wall stickers are great ways to add interest to a nursery. They liven up walls and can be easily removed without the need for a complete redecoration.

Get started early

It’s easy to put off decorating the nursery until you’re off on maternity leave, but for safety purposes you need to paint and put down new carpet at least three months before your baby’s arrival, to make sure that the nursery is fume-free.

Save money on an adaptable design

We’ve already talked about how your decor should adapt to your growing child. Another great money-saver is to make sure that your nursery furniture does too. Cot beds are a great idea, as they can last from newborn to at least five years old. Changing tables that adapt into bookshelves or chests of drawers are money-savers, too.

Whichever way you go with the colour scheme for your tot, quality home insurance is a must to help protect your home and your family. There is also the reassurance that if you do have a valid claim, the insurer may be able to help you find approved repairers to help sort things out.

This is a sponsored post by guest blogger Rachel Turner on behalf of Sainsbury’s Bank

 

 

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

2 Comments

  1. A few thoughts on the whole “adaptable designs” bit…from experience. We recently had to decorate a nursery for our daughter and the gender was a surprise. We were able to keep things neutral with paint colors and we chose a color that would accommodate her changing tastes as she grew–most kids phase out of pastels quite quickly. A nice beige or other earth tone is a good choice. You can always accent it with the color du-jour in the less expensive and time-consuming trimmings. However, furniture manufacturers’ ideas of “adaptable furniture” is quite frankly, a joke (well, maybe not a joke…it’s just designed to make money, not save you money).

    Admittedly, the changing tables that turn into dressers aren’t half bad (although they tend to be shorter, and less comfortable for the parent to work at). You simply remove the pad and the rim and it more or less looks like a real dresser with a couple of holes in the top from where the rim screwed-in. The problem with all pieces is that if you plan to have two or more kids, you’re likely to move the baby set into the second kid’s room and buy a new set for the older kid. So, truth be told, you’re probably not going to “grow” the set for a few years when the last kid is ready for it (unless you’re planning to purchase an upgradeable set for each child, which at the price point and quality just doesn’t make sense in most cases).

    As for the beds…that’s where it gets frustrating. What they don’t tell you about these “growable” sets is that they don’t come with all the accessories and hardware to have the set “grow” from crib to day bed with rails to full twin bed. You have to buy these pieces separately, often at a cost of way more than it’d cost to purchase a full new bed or even an entirely new set. And, it’s usually not designed to use a box-spring, so it’s really an inferior mattress setup. Most importantly, children’s furniture styles are discontinued so quickly that if you don’t buy the accessories upfront when you buy the crib, chances are, you can’t get them later when you need them.

    Mind you, if money is no object, the growable sets can be fine. If you’re really trying to pinch pennies, you’re almost better off shopping in thrift and consignment shops and being comfortable wielding a paint brush. You can probably get the same set at a fraction of the cost.