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Nursery Decor – Decorating Your Nursery

August 10, 2009 By Kerri Leave a Comment

Decorating a nursery can be exciting. Once you have ensured the safety and comfort of your baby, the actual décor of the room is aimed to please parents, visiting grandparents and friends. Since the baby neither knows nor cares where he is sleeping, you can decorate the nursery any which way you desire. Most parents choose a theme and then mix and match fabric, color, paint and accessories that sync with the theme. In their enthusiasm, many parents choose bunnies, clouds and butterflies as their themes. No wonder most of these rooms are re-decorated when the child becomes old enough to be embarrassed.

The first thing to do is to ascertain whether the room is indeed ‘nursery’ material. Get the feel of the room at different times of the day. Is it too sunny, drafty, or hot? Begin with the basics. Run the probable color schemes through your mind. It is better to choose light and dark shades of the same color. Pick one or two centerpieces that are startling by contrast.

Next comes the furniture. Select the cradle, bassinet, changing table, dressers for storage, and a rocking chair and glider. Hang attractive mobiles over the crib and changing table. Stack and store drawers with dividers can accommodate the loads and loads of clothes that a small child needs. Coat racks, attractive clocks, and large stuffed animals that double as sitting chairs are all handy as your child grows. Go for matching pieces, but wherever possible get double duty furniture. It not only reduces expenses, but saves on space too. Decorate pop up cloth hampers with pictures of bears or rabbits. At all costs, avoid clutter. Airy rooms with open spaces look attractive and
comfortable.

Whether you are using cloth or disposables, soiled diapers have to be stored in a clean and odorless fashion. Get a diaper genie pail that matches the décor and is hygienic and safe. Soft blankets, cuddly mattresses and plush towels make the room pleasant to the eyes and comfortable for baby.

Paint the wall a solid color or wallpaper it. With all the pretty and colorful wallpapers available, be prepared to be thoroughly confused. Decorate nursery walls with big and colorful pictures. As your baby grows, he will appreciate the cheer and color. Enchanting pictures of moons and stars or framed pictures of teddies and ducks or nostalgic prints can be hung anywhere in the room.

For the floor, use removable rugs that match the furniture and the walls. Choose bright window curtains or blinds that fill the length of the window. Avoid full-length window curtains and looped cords. These may look beautiful, but pose potential threats.

Lighting is an important part of your nursery décor. Bright light in the mornings and soft subdued lighting at night will add to the beauty of the room while answering the needs of your child. Night-lights with automatic sensors look adorable and are an absolute must.

A nursery organizer is an essential part of any nursery. Since it has so many handy pockets, this is the perfect place to keep those hundred and one odds and ends that are a necessary part of your nursery.

A clean nursery is a beautiful nursery. Laundry baskets and trash bins should be discretely placed and used when needed. There’s nothing more unsightly than heaps of used clothes or bits and pieces of litter lying freely on the floor.

Begin your decoration with a general idea in mind. Add pieces that suit your theme. Have fun while decorating your nursery. Allow your imagination to go wild, but rein it in with a little commonsense.

Filed Under: Nurseries Tagged With: decorating your nursery, nursery decor, nursery decorating, nusery

Nursery Rugs and Mats

August 10, 2009 By Kerri Leave a Comment

Floors are an important part of your nursery décor. Most homes choose between carpets and wood floors; both have their pros and cons. Carpets serve as excellent cushions for little heads that tend to bang the floor regularly in the early years. Baby-feet find extra grip on carpets. But carpets are made of fibers. Fibers provide a collection ground for dust particles.

Small particles of dirt can stick to the carpet and your baby’s curious little fingers may pry these out and put them straight into their mouth. In case of spillage of any kind, carpets are difficult to clean. They take their time drying if they get wet. On the other hand, wood floors are very easy to clean. But they cannot offer any protection against bangs and falls. So, a workaround that offers you the best of both worlds would be play mats, painted canvas rugs, or rubber mats in the room.

Nursery rugs and mats can add warmth and color to the room while providing a soft spot for your baby to play. Mats are now available in such a variety of colors and designs that they are a fashion statement in themselves. Brightly printed and shaped like cartoon characters, mats and rugs can add a splash of color to your floor. Choose rugs that go with the general color scheme. While small rugs can be placed at random in other rooms, a nursery should contain a relatively big rug. Babies may trip and fall over rugs that are scattered at random on the floor.

Good nursery mats have a fair amount of padding and are covered with soft and velvety fabric so that they are easy on the baby’s skin. Some luxurious baby mats come with various activities that help to stimulate a young baby. Mats may come with different sections, with each section providing one or two activities. Some activities like a padded star or moon with rattle, soft touch cartoon characters with pop out ears or tongue, attached wooden teething rings etc. help to keep the baby engaged. Some of these mats can also be used as a wall decoration.

Wool rugs are perfect for the nursery. Most high-quality rugs are made from natural and fire-resistant material. Choose a rug that does not have harsh chemicals, dyes or pigments. Some rugs come with gripper pads at the bottom to make them stick firmly to the floor. Your baby will be spending a lot of time on these rugs, so choose a material that is sturdy and will stand many hours of use.

Baby rugs and mats should always be easy to clean because your baby will be spilling a lot of stuff on them. Keeping rugs and mats clean is important. Choose dark colors; don’t expect pastel colors to remain clean for a long period. In high traffic areas, dirt and discoloration is bound to show up. Weekly vacuuming and airing of rugs is essential.

Depending on the fabric, you can even throw mats and rugs into your washer.

The best part about using nursery mats and rugs is that once your child develops the necessary motor skills, you can roll them up and put them away if you need to. They have a long shelf life and can be reused later on. Personalized baby rugs that allow you to emboss your baby’s picture become treasured keepsakes, though they are expensive.

Filed Under: Nurseries Tagged With: nursery carpeting, nursery decor, nursery mats, nursey rugs

Baby Mobiles

August 10, 2009 By Kerri Leave a Comment

Baby mobiles or nursery mobiles are cute little innovations that aim to make babies’ lives richer and parents’ lives jut a bit easier. Mobiles refer to small moving and musical toys that are hung above the crib, on changing tables, or anywhere around your child. Some mobiles attach to the side of the crib, while others are very portable. While some mobiles calm and soothe, others stimulate and entertain. Trendy mobiles that match your nursery décor add to the visual appeal of your nursery too.

Mobiles are very useful. They help calm children by re-channeling and re-directing a child’s pent up energy to something that moves, has lots of color and makes some noise. Diaper changes, bath times, feeding times and even play times become more manageable when you have a good mobile. Most young babies may spend more than thirty minutes a day staring and smiling at a colorful and moving mobile. Ah! What peace of mind.

Before you buy your mobile, you have to decide whether it is entertainment or sleep that you are looking for. If you want the mobile to help gently put your baby to sleep, you will want one that attaches to the baby’s crib, has limited movement and a soothing musical tune.

Mobiles with too much movement will stimulate the baby too much and not encourage sleep. If, like most parents, you want the mobile to entertain the baby, you will need a more portable mobile since the baby will not be in his crib all the time.

Today, mobiles come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some of them are interactive; many have winking lights and attractive characters to keep the baby busy. Some even project light on the ceiling or a wall.

“My daughter had this mobile that played ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. She used to love that tune, and on a particularly bad day, that was about the only thing that could quiet her down,” says Nina. Some children are fascinated by music and will listen to music until they fall asleep. Mobiles now offer a choice of tunes, so that you can select the tune of your choice. Battery operated mobiles even come with a remote control so that a parent can change settings from afar. Some mobiles have a built-in night-light that can be left on while the baby is sleeping.

Care should be taken while hanging mobiles. While they should be near enough for baby to see and enjoy, your little one should never be able to reach the mobile. Since most mobiles have items hanging on strings and have pieces that are rather fragile, they can be dangerous for a little child.

Filed Under: Baby Gear, Nurseries Tagged With: baby mobile, baby mobiles, mobile, mobiles, nursery mobile, nursery mobiles

Nursery Night Lights

August 10, 2009 By Kerri Leave a Comment

A nursery night-light is an absolute necessity. Remember those midnight adventures when you knocked and bumped your way through various obstacles and finally reached your baby and grabbed him by his feet? It’s not fun to grope and stumble through the dark in the middle of the night to get to your crying little one.

Night-lights provide you with a way of checking on your sleeping baby without turning on the room light and possibly waking him up. Besides, a baby feels secure with some kind of subdued lighting to illuminate the room. Some toddlers develop a habit of waking up and wandering at night. A night-light in the nursery ensures that young children do not have nasty falls or bumps in the darkness. As a child grows up, dark monsters invariably find their way to his imagination and live beneath his bed or in the dark corners of the room. A night-light can help keep him from feeling afraid.

Night-lights are available in several styles and include decorative lights that are shaped like stars, moons, animals or objects. Some night-lights plug into a socket while others are lit by a nightlight candle. Automatic night-lights have on-off sensors built into them.

Newer night-lights have various additional features. Some project colorful designs, like teddy bears and smiling stars, on the ceiling. Others even help calm and soothe a baby by playing musical tunes. Some of the latest models are voice activated, which means they light up and play tunes as soon as the child starts crying and stay on until the child is calm again. The latest designer night-lights may come beautifully shaped and designed as figurines and toys. Later on, these can double up as a nightlight base that leaves a soft glow at night or even as bright table light that can be used for studying.

Nursery night-lights are beautiful and cute and are a perfect gift for new parents. It adds a finishing touch to any nursery. Nursery-lights should be lead-free and non-toxic. The soft glow cast by these lights does not hurt the baby’s eyes. Some night-lights are beaded while most are made of shatter-resistant glass. Even so, a night-light should never be placed where a baby can reach it.

Recent research has unearthed a rather disturbing finding that has led to much debate on the use of night-lights. Researchers have found that the first two years of life is critical to the development of vision. At this time, the proportions of darkness and light reaching the eye in a 24-hour period may affect the focusing capabilities of the eye. Too much light may lead to myopia, they say. But the study has been criticized as being biased and unscientific. Therefore, there doesn’t seem to be much basis in this finding. Anxious parents can continue using night-lights until further research comes out with more data.

While there is some debate on whether they should be turned on all night or should be activated only when the baby comes awake, there is no doubt whatsoever that night-lights are a must in every household with kids. Stubbed toes, frightened babies, and uneasy sleep – all these can be avoided if you get yourself a decent nightlight.

Filed Under: Nurseries Tagged With: baby night light, night light, nursery

Nursery Furniture

August 10, 2009 By Kerri Leave a Comment

Baby Nursery Furniture

Furniture is an important part of the décor of any room. It sets the tone of the room, and enhances the colors and patterns you have used throughout the room. This is especially true of a nursery that has an underlying theme. Once the walls have been painted or papered and the window treatments are in place, you should look around for baby furniture.

There are some necessary pieces of furniture in a nursery. The first of these is a crib. When you select a crib, do not go by beauty alone. Look for additional features that make the crib long lasting and more convenient as well. Some cribs come with casters that make movement easy. Rocking cribs or cribs that can be transformed into a youth bed are other useful options.

When the baby is very young, cradles or Moses baskets are very convenient. With these, it is easy to carry him or her around the home. Though bassinets do the same job, they are not portable. But they are useful after your baby outgrows the basket.

A changing table that echoes the basic colors of the room is another must. Preferably, choose changing tables made of wood and covered with non-toxic paint. Most changing tables have a belt that runs across the middle to keep baby safe. Baby mobiles are important too. Choose mobiles that enhance the theme of your nursery or add color to it.

Dressers and lingerie chests are necessary in a nursery. Young babies need loads and loads of cloth. Use cupboards that have three or six deep drawers, so that you can easily put away all clothes. These can also hold all the blankets, sheets and towels you need.

Dressers come in different shades and can easily blend into any setting. Buy lingerie chests with colorful motifs and attractive color schemes. Many of these come with hanging rails and shelves that are adjustable. Sliding drawers give you enough room to store bibs, diapers, layettes and the umpteen things that your baby needs.

As he grows, every baby is entitled to at least one toy chest. So look out for chests or other pieces that can double as storage chests.

Soft mattresses, clean sheets, cuddly blankets and luxurious towels make the nursery look comfortable and spotless. Always select a mattress that fits tightly into the crib so there’s no space leftover for the baby to insert his head or leg.

When your baby is old enough to hold up his head, you will have to consider buying rockers and bouncing chairs to keep your baby quiet and engaged. The vibrating action soothes the baby and the various toys enable him to enjoy his time in the chair. These are made of tough and non-staining fabric.

No nursery is complete without matching diaper pails, diaper bags, backpacks and carriers. Lamps and night-lamps, swings and highchairs become essential as your baby starts growing.

The number of items keeps increasing and is limited only by your imagination. However, one should be sensible about what to get because very soon a baby outgrows its present needs and develops new ones. That means you may be left high and dry with lots of sturdy pieces that you can’t use. Always keep your long-term needs and storage facilities in mind before you buy any piece of nursery furniture.

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