Preparing for a new baby is an exciting time for any parents-to-be. Getting the home ready can be a challenge, particularly if this is your first child. There can be enormous pressure to ensure you get every element right before the baby comes.
Prepping the nursery is one of the most crucial things you need to do. It is often the first thing on most peoples’ lists when they find out they’re pregnant. Here are some of our top tips to get your nursery décor sorted before the baby comes.
Have A Plan
It can help to start with a plan. The first step here is to choose the room that will be the nursery. If you live in a smaller house or already have kids, this might be a challenge. It may even help to consider moving to a larger home if you worry about space for your growing family.
Once you have a room picked out, you should measure the space to know exactly how much room you have to fill. After that, make a list of all the things your nursery will need: cradle, changing station, storage for toys and more. Ideally, these will all be able to fit easily into your chosen room.
Decide On A Theme
While not completely essential, choosing a theme can help make the space look finished and help you create a cohesive design for the area. It can also help you narrow down your choices for decoration. For instance, deciding on a jungle theme will mean looking for greens and blues with cute animal patterns.
You could also choose a classic theme such as blue for a boy and pink for a girl, or choose a gender-neutral colour scheme. Perhaps even create a theme around photos of friends and family This is entirely down to personal preference. What is important is that you have an idea of what you want the finished nursery to look like.
Make It Clutter-Free
Ideally, you will want your nursery to be a calm and relaxing environment. This will help both you and your baby feel happy and soothed in the space. As with most areas of the home, a clutter-free space is crucial for relaxation.
It would help to ensure that you have designated areas for all the items in your nursery and ensure that the floor is clear at all times. This is also important for safety – you will spend time rocking and walking with your baby in the nursery, sometimes in limited light, so ensuring that the floor is always clear will prevent any slips and falls.
Use Wipeable Surfaces
It can help to ensure that as many of the surfaces in the nursery as possible are wipeable. This will make them significantly easier to clean. Babies are notoriously messy! Instead of beautiful textured wallpaper that may stain, you might consider a waterproof and wipeable wallpaper or a shine finish paint.
Get Creative With Storage
Babies need a lot of stuff, so getting creative with your storage solutions is essential. It may help to get some inbuilt storage that is measured to the space you have available. You could also make use of storage on wheels so you can manoeuvre them to wherever you need them.
Invest In Blackout Blinds
As any parent will know, babies will sleep whenever they like. This could be day or night-time. One thing that is sure to interrupt their naptimes is bright light streaming in through the window. To ensure that your baby (and you!) make the most of their nap times, it can help to get blackout window coverings.
Roman blinds are classic and ideal for any nursery. You can find them at Make My Blinds in a vast range of colours and patterns to suit any nursery, and with blackout blinds available these are the ideal choice for the home nursery.
Don’t Neglect The Ceiling
It can help to find creative ways to decorate the ceiling. While a newborn can’t see that well, their vision improves rapidly as they get older, meaning they’ll spend a lot of time looking at their ceiling when in their cot or being changed.
You could consider decorating with a night’s sky motif. For instance, you could get glow in the dark stars to stick on the ceiling and paints some clouds around the edges.
Use Soft Lighting
The last thing you want for a nursery is harsh, bright lights. It is often much better to invest in soft lighting or lighting that you can adjust. Dimmer lights can be ideal, as they will give you enough light to see what you are doing when you need to, and adjust to a soft glow when it’s time to relax.
You could also invest in a nightlight. This doesn’t necessarily need to be a ‘proper’ nightlight – almost any kind of light or lamp will do.
Baby Proof Early
While your newborn won’t be able to get in too much trouble for the first few weeks, they can get into all kinds of mischief when they can move themselves around. Therefore, it is better to start babyproofing early, as you will have your hands full when the baby comes.
You could consider putting padding onto any sharp corners or edges, use drawers with baby proof locks on them and anchor any furniture that could tip over. There are plenty of guides online to help you ensure you have covered all areas possible to keep your baby safe.
Leave Room To Grow
It may help when deciding on the nursery to ensure that the room you’ve chosen leaves the baby room to grow. While they might not need much space, to begin with, they will need a toddler-sized bed, space for toys and games, and more as they get bigger. So, you could consider ensuring that the area you have chosen will give them plenty of room as they grow and ensure that the things you have filled the space with will benefit them for years to come.
Luciana joined our team as a mum blogger in 2020. A dedicated mum to a lively daughter and a dog, Luna, Luciana brings authenticity and passion to every post. Her expertise in parenting and lifestyle topics offers practical, relatable advice for real-life situations.
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