What is the most important thing when decorating a nursery?
A good cot? An easy clean carpet? The newest sleep aid? No.
Nursery themes and colours are a hot topic amongst parents-to-be aiming to balance style, comfort and function so everyone can sleep soundly at night. To make sure you don’t miss a thing, follow our tips for decorating as you put together your baby’s room!
Meet Norah. Our newest (loudest) arrival.
Pick the right colour.
Parents are no longer limited to the traditional pink or blue. It is a lot of work to try and decorate your home with children running under feet, so you want to pick a base theme and colour that is versatile. On a whim in my son’s room I created a dark red, geometric feature wall which was visually striking but made a small wall even smaller.
Instead go for a neutral background and décor, mixing in bright age-appropriate accessories, so you won’t need to redecorate every few years. That, or choose one theme and run with it.
Keep it simple.
When designing baby Norah’s nursery, I got lots of ideas, designs and inspiration off Pinterest, wanting a child friendly not childish room that offered a peaceful environment for rest and play.
With the demands of a newborn, most parents need calm more than anything.
Go for a nursery design which reflects your style and the decor you’ve chosen for the rest of your home. We chose a gender-neutral shade, Valspar’s most popular simple, calming tone ‘Rabbits Foot’ from their cream colour combinations range.
On the wall it has an almost purple, pastel, mocha-with-cream appearance that is 100 times better than your usual Magnolia base.
Use a colour wheel for guidance but remember use your personality to dictate your scheme.
The ‘Rabbits Foot’ shade blends perfectly with both Greys and Mustards for a Scandi-style feel. To add depth to the room and some warmth to the lovely light space we partnered up ‘Luxe Grey’ creating a much subtler feature wall.
Over the fireplace we added golden polka circles for an easy, unique vinyl wall artwork. They are inexpensive, removable and add fun and sparkle to a room.
When is the best time to decorate a nursery?
Ideally well before baby is due (guidance says a minimum of 8 weeks) so the paint has time to dry and the room has time to ventilate. If you are pregnant you need to be careful with lifting, going up ladders the usual health and safety malarkey. Avoid adrenaline-fueled furniture-moving escapades even if you’re nesting vibes make you want to build flatpack at 2am. Decorating works for us now when Norah is 3 months, being more settled, to have the room ready for her to move into at 6 months old!
Transformation on a budget.
Avoid overbuying. For the modern decorator why not use an online tool to calculate how much paint you will need after using the Valspar virtual painter to get an idea if the paint choice will suit the room.
Buying high-quality paint means better coverage; using less and spending less. Available at your nearest B&Q Valspar’s 2000 pre-selected colour pots of 1L, 2.5L and 5L are mixed in store in minutes! To ensure you are picking the perfect shade and make use of lightboxes to see how the colour looks on the wall in both natural and artificial light.
The store assistants explained how the Premium Blend v700 is the perfect family brand, it dries within 2 hours (true-we found it touch dry in 1), saves time by combining both a paint and primer, is wipeable scrubbable and stain resistant (see our video testing this claim!) it also has a low splatter, so you won’t be washing paint from your hair for weeks.
Reuse, recycle and rescue!
I wanted to try and incorporate as much as I could of my son’s furniture, the shelving, soft furnishings etc into Norah’s nursery. The existing Ikea pieces are black and white which is perfect for a baby’s sensory development as monochrome and high contrast offer positive visual stimulation.
Alternatively stick to items from the same colour palette to the walls, that or complimentary contrasting ones.
Regarding what you need in a nursery go minimalist, a wardrobe for clothes, bookshelf, vintage toy trunk, a convertible cot, space saving change table (you could easily just use a cot change topper) and comfortable chair for those late-night feeds.
Accessorize well.
You want a nursery to be practical and easy to use. Keep in mind the size of the room, how it will be used, for how long it will be a nursery, and design it to fit your needs. Add subtle colour pops to tie the room together, like the Mustard in this dreamcatcher and play mat.
Create a safe zone around the cot by positioning it away from windows, heaters, lamps, wall decorations and cords. Use blackout blinds. Keep furniture that your baby could clamber onto away from the cot and anchor any lightweight items to the wall. Maximise the floor space to make room for play. Figure out how much storage space you’ll need… then put in more!
Pick soft lighting. Finally, think safety- if you have rugs fix them with double sided tape to floors to avoid trips with a baby in your arms.
Create a look that is bursting with originality by mixing old and new.
Watch our video to view decorating tips and the full room reveal!
Competition
Competition is open to UK residents only.
Entry into this competition confirms your acceptance of these Terms and Conditions and your agreement to be bound by the decisions of TPJ.
The winner will be notified by email once the competition closes. If the winner does not respond in 14 days then a new one will be drawn.
The winner will be selected at random from all the correct entries received before the closing date and time. All prizes must be accepted as offered. There can be no alternative awards, cash or otherwise.
Competition end date 20/02/19.
What do you think of Valspar’s Rabbits Foot and Luxe Grey colours in Norah’s nursery? Did you go gender neutral or themed? What colour will you be decorating your nursery?
Note: This is a collaborative post, sponsored by Valspar. All thoughts and opinions are our own.
32 comments
The grey is perfect. So easy to change up and match accessories even as they grow older
The grey is great as its easy to change the colour scheme with curtains and accessories
Can I ask if you felt anything affected the colour of Valspars ‘Rabbit Foot’ for you? Like prior wall colour etc.
I adore how the colour looks in your pictures, but, their promotional pictures are a completely different colour and the paint chips are completely different again. So far none of the Valspars colours have looked as expected and the inconstancy is driving me crazy. I’ve been waiting 2 weeks for a tester (supply issues) and really must start to paint tomorrow.
In wondering if I should risk it. Sorry for the rant ?
The prior wall colour was bright cherry red and two coats and it was grand. Its quite a wet paint so I was nervous but coverage was really good compared to the Johnston’s paint I used before, I got a tester pot from in store B&Q and on the wall it is almost bang on the sample paint card but I do find it slightly different as I do all paints from on the screen. No worries about the rant. Only advise I can give Is the usual paint all in one go as if you let it dry after rolling then do the touch ups on the corners you will know about it (rookie error!) xx
Your home looks like a showroom (but in a lived in, not sterile, way). You mega talented decor-guru you. Polka dots rock my world, might have to get some of those for my art room.
I love all these useful tips on how to decorate a beautiful and more importantly practical bedroom. I will definitely make good use of my newly found decor knowledge! Thank you Jade for sharing your amazing sense of style!
Looks fab and wish I had all these tips when did our nursery. Deffo be utilising some of these second time round 🙂
When it gets to second time round I will come decorate with you xx
Some great tips and advice here wish I knew about all this stuff before mine was born ? very habdy to read for second time around though aand Norah’s nursery looks beautiful ?
OOh its so lovely! I love the colours you have chosen and all the little touches- giving me so much inspiration for my new nursery. I think I will also go gender natural, was thinking of yellow and now I have seen that grey I think I might be onto a winner!
Thank you! I love Grey, my house is filled with it, these tones are just so subtle and perfect for a baby room! x
Wow fantastic paint, we have to repaint our bedroom and still in need of freshning up our GIANT hallways and sitting room (although i would actually need to buy scafolding) regardless the coverage looks great. we bought delux herritage for our dinning room in Oxford Navy which is very very dark, it was only going over a very light olive colour and it took us 3 coats!! uggh it took the entire weekend. We dont have time to be painting an entire weekend. I’ll def look out for this brand of paint now! Fantastic read! xxx
I was really impressed how quickly it covered the very, very red wall! I hadn’t used this type of paint before but it definitely goes to the top of my list and is such a decent price and the range of colours is AMAZING!x
Beautifully done Jade! Love the gold polka dots ♥
They were like £2.00 for 30 odd and look so nice with the Rabbits Foot, lifting the room, its gorgeous, I want it as my room!x
Good read, i especially like the use of the gender neutral colours and only having to do one or two coats is a definite benefit!
I think its a really good base and as Norah gets bigger she can add different colours etc that she is interested in 🙂 x
L Lovely restfull colour,grey is,never thought of using it in a bedroom,but i,m impressed it looks really nice.Love your poem in the picture too, and the name cushions on the cot.
Both the shades are from the Valspar creams collection and are a fantastic palette, they give a really good base to add decorative accessories like the black and white teddy, covers, lettering. They just tie the room together. x
Looks like good paint nothing worse that lots of coats, we’ll definitely look to use this in our nursery Love the cat ears ! ?
It is fantastic paint, it covers great and doesn’t splatter which are my two top paint peeves! Looking forwards to seeing that nursery! x
Interesting read, i do like the use of gender neatrul colours, and a paint that takes only one or two coats is a definite plus!
Love the colours you chose. It looks beautiful. Also like the cat ears. Good job Leo xx
Lol most bloggers look chic and poised in their videos..I wear seven year olds pink cat ears…thank you I am so pleased with the finished look!x
Wow, the paint looks like it’s got really good coverage! I’ve been avoiding painting my living room (currently it’s just got lining paper up!) because I couldn’t decide on a paint and didn’t think I had the time. The Rabbit’s foot looks a really nice colour and hopefully will go with the bright colours in my room (think green piano, orange/red/yellow curtains, grey furniture!!) I’ll have to buy a sample when I am out next 🙂 Thanks for the posting the video too. There was some good painting tips in there!
The sample pots are really large for like £3…they also do colour matching so you could take a magazine page, or scarf, basically anything to the B&Q paint counter and Valspar they will mix up Valspar paint in your perfect shade! Looking forwards to seeing your finished room!x
Wow Jade I can not believe they were the same room, it looks gorgeous. Love those colours you have chosen. I absolutely love the video you have put together with all the tips and advice for decorating a nursery I will definitely be watching again before we paint our nursery. Amazing how the paint didn’t come off when you wiped the stains away!!! Glad no Norah loves her new room xxx
Ahh thank you, trying to do a video on an hour or twos sleep is hard, I realised I said So about 6 times but my brain was not functioning! I love how you can transform a room with just a few tins of paint and some old furniture! xx
A really interesting post with lots of decorating-food-for-thought with my own newborn! Norah’s nursery looks beautiful.
Ah you and little miss Rosa are welcome to come stay anytime!xx
what a great article, the rooms you have done look amazing, love the colours and old and new furniture and features mixed together. makes me want to do some redecorating!
You have fantastic style! I like mismatched style and its always cheaper than buying expensive furniture sets 🙂 xx