Beginners Guide: Painting Your Baby Nursery

What an exciting time! Your baby is due and you’re looking forward to meeting your special little person. There are plenty of guessing games of what your child will look like, how their personality will be, of what they will be when they grow up or even of the gender if you’ve chosen to keep it a surprise. But it’s not all just lovely day dreaming while you are waiting for your child to arrive, there are a lot of things to be done to get your house organized and one of the biggest tasks is preparing your babies nursery. This can seem a little overwhelming as no doubt you would love the first room your baby lives in to be just perfect and really make it a calming and happy place for your baby to wake up to. So to make things a little easier we’ve put together some of the best tips for painting your babies nursery and getting ready for your special arrival.

Nursery Room Painting Ideas

Your baby’s room will be the place they fall asleep in and wake up in so it’s obvious you will want this to be a beautiful space. This is also a place where mothers will spend time nursing and changing their babies so it’s important to choose a paint job that both mother and child can enjoy and create a space that is pleasant to be around.
There are many different styles you can paint your babies room in. You can choose to have it traditionally colour themed to their gender or create a paint scheme that is gender neutral. And as well as colour you could use setting themes like a beach theme with blues and sandy yellows, a jungle theme with greens and splashes of bright colour.

Baby Nursery Color Palettes

When painting your babies nursery the first thing is to choose your colours. No matter what style you are doing your babies from in it’s best to start off with a colour palette. A colour palette is a range of colours that mix in well together and that combined help to get across the theme that you are trying to create. Starting with choosing your colour palette first is the best way to go as it is something you can always refer back to when deciding what colour to paint what. In your baby’s room you have not only the walls to think about but also possibly skirting boards, picture rails, feature walls, closet doors, baby cribs and even chairs that you may end up painting. So if you start by putting together a string colour palette then you will be able to always come back to that to make your decisions easier and ensure the theme is carried smoothly through out the room and that it looks well put together not just a mish mash of colours you may like.

Baby Girl Nursery Ideas

If you’re expecting a little girl and you want to make her room a beautiful girly paradise then there are a lot of themes and colour schemes to choose from. Traditionally girl’s rooms are often filled with more softer and delicate colours like baby pinks and soft violets and purples and pearly whites. Here are some ideas both traditional and a little more modern for your baby girl’s sanctuary.

The Princess Room

The Princess room is painted with delicate colours, shades of pink and purple and even touches of gold. The furniture in the typical princess room is often white or pearl and in more dainty designs. Small faux chandeliers and wall mounted looking glass type mirrors are part of the décor as well as luxurious cushions and soft long haired carpet or rugs. Choosing softer colours in the princess room gives it a nice soothing feel and mixing in whites through the furniture and even on the skirting boards and ceiling will help break up the pinks so they don’t get too overwhelming.

The Floral Room

It’s no secret that girls love floral and will quite possibly go through a tea party stage in their younger years. Having a floral designed room can be perfect for those who prefer a splash more of colour. There are two ways you can do the floral room, understated with a clean plain floral palette and use the décor to shine through the theme or with bigger feature walls. With a big feature wall you can really have some fun. Consider painting one whole wall with flower designs that will be sure enough to brighten up your baby’s day. Use bolder violets and splashed orange and fuchsia. Or stick to soften colours of mauve and cornflower blue to brighten the walls. If you choose to have just one feature wall you can still extend the theme around the rest of the room by using the same colours to paint photo frames on the planer walls and even stick up some beautiful big paper flowers for a more 3D effect that will be sure to give your baby something to look at.

The Feminine Adventurer

Tipis and arrow designs are right on trend at the moment, and for good reason they are simply adorable and kids love letting their wild side out. Mostly this would seem like a boys theme but you can also soften your colours and create a cute girly theme perfect for your little wild angel.
You can stick with a more neutral palette for this one or get a little bolder with the colours using bright pinks, reds, light greens and sunny yellows.
For the décor, a beautiful calico and wooden tipi dreamed with colourful felt balls and fairy lights is sure to be a hit. Arrow motifs on the walls in gold and pink and matching paper or fabric bunting strung up above the crib ads an extra level of cuteness.

Baby Boy Nursery Ideas

If you’ve got a beautiful bouncing baby boy along the way and you want to fill his room with all those things a cheeky adventurer would love then here are some ideas for you.

The Intergalactic Room

Boys often have a deep interest in space so why not starting him off young and fill his room with planets and aliens? A great starting palette for a space room is your deep greys, bright reds, primary blues and some alien green thrown in for good measure. If you want to get fully creative you can always do a full feature wall with planets and rocket ships blasting through the universe and then keep the rest of the room colours neutral with hints of the brightness from your feature wall. Of you can opt for the round room idea and use wall art stickers of your own stenciling to paint on your planets aliens and space ships around the whole room. If you choose to do this make sure your wall colour is a bit more neural like a lighter grey so it’s not too overpowering and your pictures can stand out further.

The Cowboys and Indians Room

A tougher version of the girls wild child nursery, adding a tipi with bold stripes and bunting featuring vintage drawings of westerns and bold patterns can be a fun addition to this style of room. You can choose to have bold colours for one or more of the walls, mustards maroons and blues look great together in this kind of room. Use Chevron zig zags to really spice things up.

The Nautical Room

If you are after some a little more traditional and softer try a nautical theme for your baby boy. Using traditional soft baby blues on the walls either painted in a block or mixed with large blue and white stripes. This room is a little less themed and a bit more soothing but still has a big cute factor. Decorate with pictures of anchors, sail boats and Lighthouses and if you are wanting a few more splashes of colour try some navy blue and red trimmings to give the room a little more depth.

Gender Neutral Baby Nursery Ideas

If you are holding out on discovering the gender of your baby until birth, or if you would prefer not to go into boy/girl stereotypes when designing your baby’s room then try out a gender neural nursery. By mixing and matching colours a little more and staying away from traditional blues and pinks you can create a gorgeous baby room no matter the gender.

The Geometric Room

Try your hand at doing some geometric painting in your child’s nursery. Greys and yellows are right on trend with the gender neural nursery’s as neither colour discriminates and side by side they make a bold yet not overbearing statement. Try painting the crib in a soft grey for something a little different and decorate with yellow pillows and use different shades of grey to give the room more dimension.

The Polka Party Room

For a very cheerful and alive looking room try to put up some polka dots on the walls. You could do this using a stencil in a full wall even dot design or go for a more freestyle pattern and put them randomly around the room. This looks great using your bring primary colours and is a fun room to accessorize with. You are only limited by your imagination.

Baby Safe Paint for Nursery

Your baby is your world and you only want the best for him or her so choosing a paint that is safe and non-toxic for the baby’s room is very important. The first thing you should be looking at is, is it water based and does it contain no VOC’S (volatile organic compounds). There will be plenty of options at your local hardware store so be sure to talk to the paint expert about which paints contain the least amount of chemicals.

Best Baby safe paint for cribs

Just like painting your walls, non-toxic paint for your babies crib is also important and even more so seeing as children grow up they will start to suck and chew on anything they can get their little mouths around and this can include your baby’s own crib. So once again look for products with no VOC’S. If you can, try to get away with no using a primer as they can often add more chemicals into your paint.

Tips for Painting Nursery Walls and Ceiling

Now that you’ve chosen your colour palette and theme of your baby’s new room it’s time to actually put the colour on the walls. But before you get too excited about that splash of fuchsia or soft blue, look up first! The ceiling should be the first thing to be painted. As ceilings are mostly a light neutral colour it makes more sense that that colour goes on first, that way if you end up with any accidental pain on the walls you are able to easily paint over it.

Simple Steps for DIY Nursery wall Painting

A few simple steps for painting your nursery walls may seem obvious but they are always good to keep in mind.
– Ventilate your area. Always make sure you have some windows open and even a fan if it’s a room that doesn’t get a great deal of airflow. Even with the most non toxic paint the fumes can still be very overwhelming.
– Ground sheet. This is a must, a tarpaulin or thick canvas sheet is the best. Clear the whole room and spread it out over the floor to ensure you get no nasty spills.
– Taping and cutting out. It’s best to do your taping and cutting out first. Tape along the skirting boards and ceiling line with proper painters tape so that you avoid getting paint where you shouldn’t. This will give your room a more professional and neater finish. Cut out your corners and tape lines with a smaller brush taking your time and coming out a few brush widths so your roller wont have to splatter paint into the edges.
– Roller. Using your roller may seem simple but you should still take care. It’s important to finish one section of wall at a time, that way you wont get uneven paint drying streaks.
– Double coat. Always do that extra coat because it may look well covered when it’s wet but in different lights when the paint is dry you do not want it looking patchy.

Patterns and Designs

If you are choosing to jazz up your nursery a little more and add some patterns or pictures onto your baby’s walls then the best ways to do this are by stencil, wall art or using tape.
There are commercial stencils you can by with just about every pattern or picture, or if you are crafty you can make your own using this cardboard. The most important thing to keep in mind when using stencils is to tape them down evenly and firmly so they don’t shift and also to not use too much paint as it will drip and ruin your pattern.
Wall art can be a great way to go if you don’t have the confidence to paint yourself, and many wall art pictures you can by don’t strip the pain off your walls. So try using a neutral colour for your walls and then apply the wall art, this way it is easy to change the room theme and freshen things up without having to do a huge redecorate.
Using tape to define lines is great if you want to do large wall stripes or geometric patterns. But make sure you accurately measure first to that your stripes don’t end up on an angle.

Painting Baby Cribs and other Nursery Furniture

You may have a few different things you want to paint to fit in with the colour scheme and theme of your baby’s new room. They may be hand me down chairs or changing tables from your last child or a friend or you may have gotten them new but they are not quite the right colour and you want to give them a fresh lick of paint so they fit right in. Here are a few helpful tips when paining your child’s crib and nursery furniture.

Choosing the Right Color for the Crib

When choosing your crib colour it’s best to choose a softer and more neutral colour that will suit most themes. This way if you feel like changing things up it will be one thing less to worry about re painting!

Simple Steps for DIY Baby Crib or Cot Painting

One you’re at the point of wanting to get your baby’s crib painted to match in with the rest of the rooms décor it’s best to do this in a wide or open space. If you have an open garage or even a lawn (weather permitting) It’s better to paint where it’s well ventilated. Start by taking apart the crib, this may seem time consuming but it will save you a lot more hassle in the long run because you wont have to waste time trying to get into those tricky hard to reach spaces. Next you’ll want to put down a ground sheet for minimum mess. If you’re crib has already been painted a few times you may want to sand it back a little to that the paint doesn’t start to flake, but if not then you’re good to start paining. Make sure you have some old bricks or boxes you can use to prop the crib sides up to make it easier to paint and always wait the recommended time before putting on your next coat. You may need two or three coats depending on the wood but don’t skimp out on paint or you’ll later regret doing a halfhearted job.

Enjoy The Process!

Make sure you take time to enjoy this special part of life and stay excited in the process of making your little cherubs room a magical place for them and you to enjoy!

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