Are you welcoming a new baby into the family? Whether it’s your first, second, third, or fourth child, the one thing that you should prepare prior to the infant’s arrival is the nursery. A typical nursery contains a crib, a changing table, a wall full of toys, and all the other items needed for baby care.
Depending on the size of your house, you can choose the smallest room to be the nursery. However, if you plan for the baby to use the room until his or her teenage years, a regular-sized room would do. It also helps if the nursery is near the master bedroom or even adjacent to the room that the parents share, so that caring for the baby will be a lot more convenient.
How to Decorate a Nursery
So how should a typical nursery be decorated? First, let’s take a look at the costs involved. Those who are having a baby for the first time might go all out in decorating the nursery whether it's for a boy's nursery or for a girl. There’s nothing wrong with this, although you might want to think about the future expenses that you have to deal with.
The average nursery will cost around $2,000 to decorate – depending on the type of furniture and baby items that you will use. You’d have to look for a crib with a mattress, a bedding set, sheets, blankets, mattress covers, a changing table, changing pads, a dresser, and baby furniture. If you have a relative or friend who has a young kid, you might want to buy the still usable furniture for a cheaper price. If you’re lucky, they might even give it to you for free.
There are also plenty of ways for you to decorate a nursery without having to spend too much. Take a look at the following tips:
1. If you don’t know the sex of the baby yet, decorate the nursery with a neutral colour palette.
Do you already know if the baby is a boy or a girl? If not, it’s better to choose a neutral colour palette. It’s actually trendy these days to decorate nurseries in white-and-yellow or even earth tones – unlike a few years back when it’s all-pink or all-blue. White is also a great paint base, you just need to add splashes of colour later on once you determine the sex of the baby.
2. Look for multi-purpose baby furniture.
To save space and money, look for baby furniture with more than one purpose. For instance, there are cribs which can be converted into a toddler bed later on. Furniture stores also sell changing tables that double as a dresser; or high chairs which a child can use from toddler to a young kid.
3. Make sure that the design grows with your baby.
When buying multi-purpose baby furniture, another advantage is that the design will grow as your baby grows. Instead of doing a complete overhaul on the room décor once your baby turns into a toddler, then into a young child, you just need to remove certain elements and make the room age-appropriate.
4. Personalize the design of the nursery.
Design the room in such a way that both the parents and the baby will enjoy using it. Tie up the look of a room together with baby-centric accessories like stuffed animals or floral decals on the wall. Eye-catching designs on the ceiling will also capture the imagination of your baby. Also pay attention to lighting, baby-proofing, and personalizing the décor of the nursery. Finally, make sure that there’s plenty of storage space so that you won’t feel frantic amidst a cluttered nursery along with a crying baby!
