How to Decorate Your Nursery
Whether you have the nesting urge in your first trimester or you have just a few weeks until your due date, Cookie's home market editor shares her foolproof nursery-decorating strategy.
By Meryl Levin
- Pick an Anchor Piece
Maybe you inherited an old rocking chair or kept the shag rug from your first apartment, or maybe you've been eyeing the supermodern crib in a local store window. As with any decorating project, the nursery requires a starting point—ideally an element you absolutely adore, that will guide the decisions to follow. We love these sites for inspiration.
Modern: Modern Tots, Baby Floors
Traditional: Jack and Jill Furniture, Dash & Albert
- Choose Your Colors
Using your anchor piece as a jumping-off point, select two to three main colors for your room. "Color" could also include a certain wood tone. For example, if you're starting with a birch crib, the palette could be birch and white. Or feel free to go bold. If your anchor piece is multicolored, such as an elaborately patterned rug, it's best to pull out your two or three favorite hues.
If you're having a hard time deciding on colors, tear out pages from home and design magazines or even just look at the rest of your house or in your closet to see which colors you're naturally drawn to. (Five green sweaters is no accident!) And consult the color wheel (left). Shades opposite or next to each other always go well together. You can also place a triangle (called triadic) or a square (called tetrad) within the wheel to find schemes with three or four colors.
- Dress the Walls (or Don't)
Before filling the room with furniture and accessories, determine the backdrop. Plain white walls are serene and can make a small space feel larger. But for added depth, interest, and coziness, try bolder paint or wallpaper.
For paint, you can get virtually any shade of paint in a zero-VOC formula (that means it's totally nontoxic). We love the wide range of options from Mythic Paint. Order a sample of the color you are considering and paint a two-by-two-foot section of the wall. Wait a few days to be sure you like it in different lights. A paint calculator will ensure that you buy the right amount.
If you're going with pretty basic furnishings, a great wallpaper can provide all the pattern you need for the entire room. Options and prices vary widely, but we love Walnut Wallpaper, Graham & Brown, and Crinson.
- Set Up the Big Stuff
You need four main pieces for a functional and comfortable nursery:
• crib
• changing table/dresser
• chair
• rug (unless you have carpeting)If you've already purchased one of these items as your anchor piece, now is the time to select the rest and determine the room arrangement. Shop Style Living is a comparison-shopping site that collects home products from many great retailers and allows you to create a personal stylebook and see all your picks together on a virtual design board. Once you have gathered everything, use Icovia's space planner (left) to try different arrangements—you can even add in the doors, windows, closets, etc.
- Add In Accessories
Now comes the fun part. Give your nursery warmth, personality, and extra splashes of color with fun artwork, bedding, lamps, and, of course, toys! We've gathered some of our favorite nursery art here, but we also love Avalisa, and Velocity Art and Design. DwellStudio and John Robshaw make beautiful crib bedding (though we also love these sets). Try Jonathan Adler and IKEA for lighting, and Genius Jones and Mookla are great for toys. If you need one-stop shops, check out Baby Geared and Spunky Sprout.
