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Decorating your nursery in preparation for your baby is an exciting and daunting prospect! Firstly you’ll be excited to be shopping for baby furniture and bedding and probably quite eager to fill the rails of a wardrobe with beautiful baby clothes.

You may also be feeling quite overwhelmed. If you are decorating whilst pregnant, seeing a little nursery take shape in what was once a spare room can really bring home the fact that you are about to have a baby! There are a few essentials items which all nurseries should have, and there are plenty of fun items which you’ll love to buy. Here are gurgle’s top tips for decorating your nursery.

First and foremost, buy the essentials

Don’t splash out all your money on beautiful mobiles and cashmere blankets until you’ve bought the nursery essential baby items. These are:

A cot

When you first bring your newborn home you might like him to sleep in a moses basket as he will be small and a huge cot might be overwhelming. Moses baskets usually last until around six to eight weeks, depending on the size of your baby, when he will probably grow out of the moses basket and need more space. With this in mind you don’t actually have to buy a cot until after your baby is born.

When you are buying a cot there are a number of things you must keep in mind. The first is to make sure that the cot you decide on complies with the most recent British safety standards. This means the spacing between the cot bars is correct and your baby cannot get his head stuck and the cot is sturdy and safe. If you have been given a cot by a friend or relative, make sure that the cot complies to these safety standards and if it is very old, that it isn’t painted with lead-based paint (which they used to use in the past) which can be dangerous for your child. If in doubt, buy from a store like Mothercare or John Lewis (or from the list below) so you know all the cots comply with current safety standards.

Cot bumpers

In the past it was thought cot bumpers increased the risk of cot death because they allowed babies to get too hot, however, recent research has shown that there are neither beneficial nor adverse effects for using cot bumpers, so it is entirely up to you! They can be useful if your baby wakes himself up by bumping his head on the bars.

Mobiles

Babies love mobiles because they spend their early months on their back staring up at the ceiling and having a mobile to look at will keep them amused. Newborn babies love black and white pictures or images with high contrasting colours because their eyesight is still developing. Some mobiles rotate and some play lullabies which can help to make your baby feel sleepy. Remove the mobile when your baby is old enough to pull himself up.

Mattresses

most cots come without mattresses so you will have to buy one separately. If you are borrowing a cot from someone, experts recommend that you buy a new mattress. This is because there have been links to cot death and babies who slept on second-hand mattresses. Read up on our feature on helping to reduce the risk of cot death for more information, but remember to keep your baby’s mattress clean, make sure it is firm and does not sag and shows no signs of deterioration.

Change table

although not essential, (if space or funds are limited you can put a change mat on the floor) a change table will probably save you from backache! Lots of change tables come with storage underneath so you can use the unit as somewhere to put your baby’s clothes, especially those you use all the time and need to reach! It is worth remembering never to leave your baby unattended on the change table, even if he is very young. Babies learn to roll over sometimes as early as two to three months and they can wriggle a lot too, so always keep a hand on your baby even if you are reaching for some wipes.

Wardrobe/clothes storage

As mentioned above, most change tables come with storage underneath and this might be all you need, but depending on the size of your child’s bedroom, you may need more clothes space. Babies grow out of their clothes very quickly in the first year and you’ll find yourself with bags and bags of hardly worn clothes. You might be able to give them to a friend or relative or to a charity shop, but most parents want to keep them in case they have more children. With this in mind you are going to have to find somewhere to store them. Under the bed storage bags (to go under an adult bed) are ideal as you can put them away neatly until you need them again.

The fun part – decorating!

Decorating your baby’s nursery can be tricky if you are pregnant and haven’t found out the sex of your baby yet, especially if you are not keen on ‘yellow’ unisex colours! A good idea is to paint the nursery white and choose your ideal boy and ideal girls wallpaper. Once your baby is born you can wallpaper one wall, perhaps behind where the cot will go, this way the room won’t look too overpowered with wallpaper and it’s not too much of a job after your baby is born. It is also a good idea to keep the room fairly neutral if you are planning on having more children who will be sharing a room. That way they can both have one wall wallpapered or painted in their colours – a little corner of their own!

Painting while pregnant

Lots of paints have chemicals and solvents in them and could affect your unborn baby. The same goes for scraping paint off walls, lots of paint used before the 1970s was lead based which can be very dangerous to inhale so the safest solution is to let a non-pregnant person tackle the re-decorating while you put your legs up! If you are decorating your home: paint-stripper and heavy duty cleaning materials, along with the (potentially toxic) dust produced at these times, is also best avoided. A good excuse to go and relax for a few days at a friend or relative’s home while yours is refurbished by somebody else, perhaps?

Lighting

Lighting is important in babies rooms as bright lights can hurt their eyes and soft dimmed lights can help them feel sleepy at bedtime. Remember that overhead lights can shine directly into your baby’s eyes when you are changing his nappy so consider buying an ‘up-lighter’ lampshade to protect them. Night lights are perfect for bedtime as they give just enough light for you to be able to put your baby to bed, but they are soothing enough to help your baby feel sleepy. They can also help if toddlers get scared of the dark. If you are planning to have table lamps, remember the safety issues where lights are concerned:

• Keep all light cords tied up or secured so that your baby or toddler cannot pull on it.
• All lights should be kept at a safe distance from any fabrics, curtains or bed linen for example.
• Use a fluorescent bulb to stop lights from overheating, they are also cooler to the touch if your baby does accidentally touch the bulb.
• Make sure the lamp is plugged into an outlet that is blocked by a piece of furniture.
• Cover all wall sockets you are not using with plug-in safety plugs or night lights.

Blinds and curtains

One of the most important features of a nursery is that it is very dark at night. This is because any light coming in from the window will wake your baby up, resulting in a 5am wake-up call in the summer months! Babies also tend to sleep better in the dark, probably because the womb was very dark. Blackout blinds are perfect for blocking out the light and also neatly dress the window. You can buy blackout blinds in plain white, but many stores such as John Lewis, sell patterned children’s blackout blinds. You can also buy curtains which blackout the light, or you can have existing curtains lined with blackout material.

What to put on the walls?

It might seem fun to go mad in the shop and buy everything pink, but always remember that your baby will be in this room for a long time and may grow out of fairies or racing cars. It’s harder to change walls once they are decorated so consider painting your walls white and accessorising the walls with whatever theme you want. Blinds, rugs, bedcovers and lighting are all easier to change as your child grows than to completely change the wallpaper, so it might make your life easier in the future to keep it simple.

In terms of wall decoration, look for wall freezes with colourful alphabets, or numbers on them. Maps of the world, pictures of flowers, tress or animals or photo’s of family members always goes down well. Having letters with your child’s name on looks great in a room, and also helps them to get familiar with how to spell their name. Printing your holidays snaps onto canvas and hanging them in your child’s room can provide a fun memory for your child to look at.

You can also buy wall stickers now for children’s rooms which are very easy to apply and to replace if you are re-decorating.

Toy storage

Your child will inevitable have an army of toys, so buying some toy baskets now for his room can help to keep things neat. Shops like Homebase and B&Q do affordable baskets, plastic tubs and toy boxes for you to store toys in. Children also have a lot of books, so a bookshelf your child can reach is essential for when he is choosing his bedtime story. Lots of bookshelves are shaped like dolls houses or boats to add some fun to your child’s room.

As your child grows you may want to consider having a desk in his room, or an art station where he can paint his masterpieces, but that depends on space and whether you need to supervise any ‘art classes’!

Where to shop for baby ‘stuff’

Mothercare.co.uk
Mothercare offer everything from nursery furniture to lighting and bedding, nursery accessories like wallpaper and mobiles and safety equipment like baby monitors. They also have curtains and blinds and fun nursery ranges if you want everything to match. Mothercare is also affordable quality and most things you can buy online,

Johnlewis.co.uk
John Lewis have beautiful co-ordinating nursery furniture as well as bedding, lighting and accessories. They also have a huge range of nursery safety equipment like stair gates.

marksandspencers.co.uk
M&S have good sturdy nursery furniture as well as bedding, lighting and soft furnishings.

Next.co.uk
Next have a good nursery and baby area where you can find a lot of affordable matching sets of bedding, furniture and accessories.

The Little White Company
The little white company has beautiful sets of white nursery furniture from cots to bunk beds. It also has lovely sets of baby bedlinen and first duvets and duvet covers.

Cath Kidston
Beautiful vintage prints, bedlinen and accessories for your child’s bedroom

This article was brought to you in association with Gurgle.com