Being a parent is very difficult. There is no doubt about it. You need to be on top of everything in order to keep this cute little human alive. Preparing for the birth of your baby, giving birth and the first few months of trying to cater to the baby’s every need, is daunting enough. When considering how to set up the nursery room brings endless questions and headaches. I’m here to make it a little easier for you by providing a go-to guide of how you can set up a cute baby nursery room!
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How To Set Up A Cute Baby Nursery Room
There are a few main pointers you could tick off your checklist when putting together a cute baby nursery room:
Consider neutral colours
In the past, there has been a tendency to go for “pink for girls” and “blue for boys” when it came to decorating a baby nursery room. Nowadays, parents go for all sorts of colours they want. It is now more of the norm to go for neutral colours such as shades of grey, sand, some rust shades, beige, cream, even some yellow tones. This is especially true if you have decided to keep the gender of your baby a surprise. By going neutral, you’re keeping things simple, classic and stylish. Opting for neutral colours is also a good idea as bold strong colours may be visually too harsh. You want to keep things calm, soft, restful and happy in your baby nursery room. Soft colours such as white, cream, beige, sand, tones of grey etc should keep things simpler.
Keeps things simple
As children grow up very quickly and depending on how long you are planning on living at your current location, don’t go overboard with the themes. Their interests and love for things change quickly too so you don’t want to do up a room with cars or construction, only to find in 6-12 months your child now likes something completely different. I’m not necessarily saying don’t create a theme, just keep it as simple as possible so that you are able to customise/ change things around more easily when the time comes. It’s better to add to the baby nursery room, rather than being unable to remove.
Accessorise with personalised items
My go-to shop for personalised items is My1stYears.com – they do everything from wooden toys, to robes, baskets and shoes. All personalised with your baby’s name or initials. This is a great idea for adding a little personal touch to your baby’s nursery room. For example, you could have a blanket draped over your crib or a cute storage basket in the corner holding your baby’s toys!
Use baskets for storage ideas
Storage baskets are great for organising your nursery. It helps to keep the essentials, such as nappies, baby wipes and creams in a convenient place by your changing table or even keep your toys organised. There are many different types of storage boxes you can get. Storage baskets, drawer organisers or even drawer dividers in the nursery room not only keep your baby essentials organised but they also come in handy especially during the night when you need to quickly grab something whilst half asleep.
Keep it clean
For any room in the house, it is good to keep things clean, but baby nursery rooms are no different and if you ask me should be kept even cleaner. Babies touch, lick and pick up anything and everything, so ensuring dirt and dust (plus hazardous items) are cleaned and removed is very important. Dust has a tendency to create breathing issues and also eczema type skin problems too. For any baby nursery room, it is sensible to buy items that are made from spill-proof materials as this makes cleaning up any little messes easier. Here are some great tips for decluttering and organising your home!
Baby nursery room items you need
Nursing chair
Following my PR trip to the Baby Show, I completely fell in love with rocking chairs/ gliders. This only made me sad that I didn’t have space for one. If you do have space, then this is definitely a must-have for any baby nursery room. There are plenty of rocking chairs on the market with varying styles and prices. Search for the perfect one for you and your budget, but make sure it is comfortable and makes you feel like you’re flying (or rocking) on air.
Here are some pretty ones for your nursery room
Nursery cot bed
Getting the right sort of crib is key to having a great nursery room set up. It needs to be safe, sturdy, long-lasting and most importantly suitable from birth all the way to toddler age. I am very happy with the cot bed we chose for my son back when I was pregnant the first time around. I chose a white colour as I had no idea what our nursery would be like. I’m glad I did as it goes so well with pretty much any decor and colourings. I have the ability to swap things up and the cot bed will still fit in perfectly.
I always liked the look of a sleigh bed as it gave a little luxurious look to the bed. Albeit, it does take a little more room in terms of width and if you are tight on space then you probably need to opt for a more square simple design. It also really helps if your cot bed comes with storage as you can store your bedding and blankets there, and in a small space, it really helps.
For newborns and babies under 6 months, I recommend getting a sleeper crib that fits right next to your bed in your room as this keeps baby close and makes it easier for those night feedings and generally to keep an eye on your newborn. NB: it is recommended to have your babies under 6 months sleep in your room to prevent the risk of SIDS. We had the Chicco Next To Me that I was gifted for my baby shower!
Related Post: Baby Sleep Tips
Gallery wall
Anyone else wish they had more walls in their house to decorate with prints, posters and more gallery walls? I know I do. I put together a cute little gallery wall of photo prints of my boys and I absolutely love the way it looks. Prints, posters and gallery walls make any room look more chic, put together and bring character to the room. The choices of what and how to decorate your walls are endless.
I have previously used (and worked with) Desenio.com – an online prints and frames store. They have great abstract designs and looks great on your walls. Get a discount code for £5 off posters at Desenio and decorate your nursery or other rooms if you wish. Please note the discount cannot be used on frames, personalised items or handcrafted items.
If you’re looking to print some pictures of your family (or any other picture of your choice) then I highly recommend using LaLaLab! They are my current favourite online app which I use for all my printing needs. Lalalab does framed posters, canvas prints and standard posters. They are very affordable, delivery is fast and getting an order done is very easy with the use of their app! It is simple to upload, select your pictures and send your order through. Check out my blog post review on it. You can use my code STYLINGLIFETODAY for £5 off your order.
Nursery room playmat
As I was trying to find a gorgeous playmat to add to our nursery, I came across Petite Amelie and saw this mint grey playpen mat. I was hooked instantly and was very kindly gifted the mat for addition to the boys’ nursery. It is so much nicer than I expected – the material is thick which is great to ensure your baby has something comfortable to play on. This is especially important as our Graco Playpen (which is now a bed until we sort out our living situation once all these crazy times are over) has a firm mattress and I wanted to make it as comfortable for Baby M as possible.
The colour is so much cuter in real life and would go with pretty much a lot of different nursery themes. Ours is a jungle theme (in progress) so it complements the dark greens in the rug and the blue in the bedding, wall gallery and accessories. Plus it looks great with my wallpaper. The playmat is also very soft and cosy and Baby M loves sleeping on it. I always recommend going for accessories that you can actually make use of, as otherwise, you end up cluttering up your rooms with lots of stuff and over time they no longer bring you joy. The playpen mat is an example of a multi-purpose item you can use at home and even take it with you when travelling.
Petite Amelie has many nursery decor items that would make your baby’s nursery room look chic and luxurious! Products such as their popular doll-houses, tepees, book storage case, bedding and other gorgeous wooden toys!
Traditional dresser/ changing table
This is one of the most important items you need when it comes to decorating your baby’s nursery room. A dresser and changing table (2 in 1 when you’re short of space) not only stores you baby’s clothes, diapers and changing essentials but it also acts as the spot for changing your little one. This has to be comfortable (both for you and the baby), practical and safe. It also doesn’t hurt if it looks pretty too. With a dual dresser and changing top, you get to remove the top once the baby is too big and wriggly) for lying on it and then it becomes a dresser on its own. You can buy also buy a changing top mat and/or covers – I use these disposable ones as they get dirty pretty fast and the last thing I want to think about is clearing up messes.
Related Post: Nursery Room Essentials
Multi-purpose furniture (like a day bed)
Ever since I went to Ikea to have a little wander before Baby M came along, I saw a day bed. And I instantly fell in love with it. It looks so comfy (as we got to test it out there too) and also so handy. It can be used as a bed for my toddler and even opened up as a guest bed if we end up having guests stop by, or even if daddy needs to sleep with the toddler on some nights. Multi-purpose furniture is great as a space saver so for homes with limited space I highly recommend looking into these.
Nappy organiser & storage baskets
These are a bonus point for all nursery room decorations. A handy little storage basket in the corner of the nursery will always come in handy as not only can you store the essentials for easy fast access but it helps to keep your stuff in order and can make any mess look organised.
Nappy organisers can do the same for all nappy changing items such as nappies, rash creams, change of clothes and even little toys. They also keep your messes in order. They are handy in that they can be moved around the house easily wherever you need them. And they can be taken with you on holiday if needed – the one I have linked above is small enough to fold into your luggage and will really help when on holiday as a great storage basket in itself. Anything to make you feel at home away from home.
Here is a cute personalised storage basket for your baby’s toys which would look very luxurious in your nursery!
Nursery area rug
If you have flooring in your home like me then getting an area rug should really help make the room look nicer and of course, provide a soft area for your children to play on. I could not be happier with my area rug! I wish I had purchased one long ago as it really changes the look of the room and also gives both my toddler to play on and baby to practice crawling and tummy time. Plus it gives me a little more peace of mind when they fall over on it as the rug I purchased is quite thick and very sturdy. Bonus point – my boys love the characters and theme of this rug!
I love that rubbish does not really stick to it too bad and can be very easily vacuumed. I advise vacuuming the rug every few days to ensure no extra dust collects on it. This is particularly important if you children (or you) have any asthma issues or if they are very sensitive. We live on the main road so dust is a huge issue for us and I try to make sure all dust is cleaned every few days.
What are your favourite nursery decor items?
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Til next time
XoXo Monica XoXo
Such great tips! Xxx
Thanks so much 💖
Love these ideas! We did my daughters nursery in gray for a neutral look. The photo wall is awesome, definitely looking into doing something like that!
Gray sounds lovely! Always liked that! Yeah give the gallery wall a try looks lovely!
Very cute, I love the gallery wall idea! You don’t see that very often.
Thanks so much for reading. I love gallery walls. If I could I would cover more of my walls with prints.
Right now I have two boys, and I couldn’t agree more with your tips. The more practical the room is the better. I have a 5 years old and a 1month old. For my oldest I need a lots of storage for his toys, and younger still sleep in our room.
The colors chosen were soft brown, grey and white. They go so well together.
Oh that’s amazing! I bet that looks like a great room!