planning your nursery: 1st edition

Photo from a nursery featured over at the Cheap & Chic Nursery Blog.

One of the most exciting, but also intimidating parts of preparing for baby’s arrival is planning the nursery. It isn’t just that it can take a lot of work, but it is a very emotional process. As if your hormones weren’t already going crazy, you just want it to be perfect; a sweet little sanctuary for your little one – peaceful, functional, and beautiful.

Over the next few weeks we’re going to talk a little bit about the steps in preparing the nursery in the hopes that the process will go as smoothly as possible.

First steps: Choosing a Space and Deciding on General Style

First and foremost, you need to decide on the space you’ll be using for the nursery. This sounds like a pretty simple step and for those of us living somewhere with only one room as an option, consider yourself done!

If you do have several rooms or spaces to choose from consider a few things before deciding:

1. How close is the potential nursery to the master? You’ll want it convenient for late night feedings etc.

2. Is there a bathroom nearby? It’s nice to have easy access to the tub and running water if needed!

3. What is the exposure of windows in the room? If it’s west-facing (especially in a warmer climate or warmer part of the year) the room could get pretty warm in the afternoons.

So now you’ve decided on the space – congratulations! Time to move on to the next phase of the project: deciding on the general feel/themes and colors for the room. Before starting on any design project there are a few questions that I ask:

1. Consider your family lifestyle as well as the style of the rest of your home. Most likely you’ll want baby’s room to be cohesive with the general feel of the home.

2. When you imagine baby’s nursery, what kind of feeling do you want it to evoke? What do you want the general mood to be? (For example: calm and serene or bright and cheerful? Elegant or modern? A combination of any of these?)

3. Think about colors you want to use in the room. This can be anything from a complete color palette or simply a main or accent color that is a must-have. Be creative, don’t feel like you have to stick with traditional colors.

Recap: Now you have decided on the nursery space and have come up with ideas for how you want the room to feel as well as possible colors to use.

One of the most important things from here on out is to stay flexible. You may think you definitely want yellow to be a main color in the room and then fall in love with bedding that would not go in a yellow room at all. That’s okay, be willing to change your mind if need be – and remember, you may be able to pull that bedding you love into a yellow room with the right accent pieces. Stay open minded and stick to what you know you want!

Next week’s Planning Your Nursery: planning the room.

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