Decorating walls in your infant’s room is much more than just coordinating colors, designs and patterns. It should be practical, yet appealing, and above all, stimulating the baby’s development.
It is natural for expecting parents to feel overwhelmed about choosing the baby nursery décor. A seemingly endless list of things to buy and arrange in a limited space gets you frantically rummaging in a pile of catalogs and home décor magazines, browsing through dozens of retailers’ websites and rushing from one local store to the other. In the middle of all this, the wall décor of your new baby’s room may seem to be of secondary importance.
What happens quite often is – you choose to paint or paper your baby nursery walls in any “baby” or neutral color, being in a rush to move on to other, more important things. Later on, you try to add something to make them more appealing for the baby, e.g. applying removable stickers or hanging pictures. As the worst variant, you decide that the paint color or wallpapers you have chosen are mismatching the main décor style and need to be changed.
The color of the walls as well as wall accessories can be of great importance for your infant. And it is not hard to get everything right from the beginning if you take time to plan the main theme of your baby nursery carefully and later on, keep to the chosen theme strictly, avoiding unnecessary cluttering the room. Since your baby’s crib set is going to be the centerpiece of the nursery, you may want to buy it first and then decorate your walls accordingly.
If you choose the simplest way of painting your baby nursery walls into a particular color, select one that is predominating in the chosen theme. Soothing and gentle shades are the best choice. You may think your baby will love bright colors and striking combinations, but the truth is – when your baby starts distinguishing them, loud colors may become the cause of fussiness, sleeping problems and even panic attacks. While bright toys and books are stimulating for infants, gaudy walls can be a way too stressful.
The same goes to wallpapers which abound in patterns, including special designs for baby room. Remember that a little baby will not be able to distinguish little nuances in the pattern, so there is no point in buying wallpapers with too intricate designs. Given a great variety available, you can choose wallpapers to match the basic theme of your baby room. Animal theme is universally popular thanks to babies’ fascination with living objects other than human beings.
Remember that whatever you choose for your baby room walls – paint, wallpapers or even murals or special stickers – should be stimulating for your infant’s development, yet creating a rather soothing environment. Avoid anything that can potentially be scary for your baby – little children have difficulties with differentiating what is real and what is not. Ideally, the walls in your baby nursery should be decorated in such a way that you could use them as an additional teaching aid.
Make sure the paint you choose or wallpapers are non-toxic. As with any baby room décor, safety goes first. It is also a good idea to pick washable paint or wallpapers – your baby will not be lying in his/her crib helplessly for long, and once he/she discovers markers or crayons, you will really be glad you have taken care of the practical side.