Nursery Design Tips

Nursery Design has been a passion and hobby of mine for over a decade. I’ve helped design and decorate numerous nurseries in the past 10 years – including all of my own! Over the years, I’ve experienced the changing trends, explored the multiple options available and always love creating that “perfect space” for baby and parents.

Today, on Fox 5 San Diego, I teamed up with some of the hottest names in the nursery world to bring you tips, tricks and the latest trends when it comes to designing and decorating that special space in your home.

STOKKE SLEEPI CRIB

The Stokke Sleepi is a highly functional sleep space that grows with your child and your living space. In keeping with Stokke’s promise to keep baby close and easily accessible at all times, the Stokke Sleepi does just that and it’s ideal for any space (even the smallest of spaces) and helps baby maintain that feeling of security with the rounded design.

• With the addition of the Mini Kit, the Sleepi can become a bassinet for baby – and one that easily fits through standard doorways.
• On it’s own, the Sleepi is a low-profile sleeping space with height adjustable mattress and can be used from birth to 18 months. Once your child is ready, simply remove one of the side panels and lower the mattress (to the lowest position) to quickly transform the Sleepi into a familiar, safe and secure toddler bed.
• With the addition of the Junior Kit, the Sleepi can transform into a child bed to last all the way through age 10.
  

A familiar and consistent sleep space is ideal for baby as he grows and develops positive sleeping habits, but is also extremely convenient for parents, too!

MONTE DESIGN VOLA GLIDER

Over the years, I’ve found the glider to be one of the most useful and most used pieces in the nursery. Make sure you select a glider that is not only comfortable, durable and easy to clean, but one that you like to look at, too! You’ll likely be spending a lot of time in it – from feeding and soothing a new baby to reading and comforting a toddler, the glider is a top essential for the nursery and beyond.

Last year, I feel madly in love with the modern gliders and rockers from Monte Design. While their pieces are on the modern side, they can easily fit within any nursery décor, especially with the right color selection – and Monte Design has plenty of colors to choose from. For our new nursery, I went with the trendy wingback-style Monte Vola glider in Charcoal. Seeing as the nursery has been planned primarily around the color grey, I made sure the larger pieces coordinated, but not perfectly matched. This leaves some wiggle room for accessories and décor.

The Vola glider is a piece of furniture that I will cherish for many years to come. Once we are done with it in the nursery (which will be at least five/six years from now), I plan to move the Monte Vola to the living room or into our master bedroom, as it fits with the rest of the décor in our home and is practical – and comfortable – for every day use.

MOHAWK HOME AREA RUGS

You don’t have to select a nursery-specific rug to accent your baby’s room. Mohawk Home offers durable area rugs with a wide variety of styles, colors and patterns to appeal to any and every room – including a nursery! Coordinate your colors, feel the softness and enjoy the flexibility of design with a shag rug or spice up your décor with a chevron print to create a look you’ll love for years to come. With the right area rug (like the Mohawk Home Flowers Praline, seen above), you can easily grow and change the look from a baby room to a big kid room. Even better? Use the virtual tool on MohawkHome.com to sort by color and/or theme to help narrow down your choices.

CAROUSEL DESIGNS CUSTOM CRIB BEDDING

If you prefer to forgo the traditional route of buying pre-made bedding sets, you definitely have options! Carousel Designs is an interactive site that features an online DIY Nursery Designer Tool. This tool allows you to create and customize not only your bedding pieces, but your colors and fabrics as well. You can purchase an entire set, just the crib skirt or pick the pieces you want based on your budget, needs or design. Personally, I like to outfit the crib with a fitted sheet and crib skirt and then purchase a coordinating throw pillow to use in the glider for decoration and lumbar support. I also like to mix it up and get a few different colors and patterns for crib sheets. And being the visual and extremely hands-on person that I am, it’s an added bonus that I can drag and drop various fabrics, patterns and colors onto a virtual crib before I place the order.

UBBI DIAPER PAIL

Add a pop of color to your space with an essential nursery item that typically goes unnoticed – the diaper pail! Normally you wouldn’t want to draw attention to the diaper pail – often because of the smell – but the Ubbi diaper pail is made of powder coated steel and doesn’t trap odors within the pail walls itself. The added upside to this diaper pail is that you can use any trash bags (or the Ubbi washable/reusable cloth bag) to save on buying those added specialty bags made just for your pail.

BOON NURSERY ACCESSORIES

I have a huge love for everything Boon. I swoon over any practical products and Boon truly makes sure that everything not only grows with your child, but with your family, too.

• The Boon Glo starts off as a gentle nursery light to aid parents with late night diaper changes and feedings – or to discretely check on baby – and later becomes a nightlight or a late night “buddy” for a preschooler during a night trip to the potty. Even my 10-year-old wants one for his room and loves that he can customize the colors.
• The Boon Loop starts off as an all-in-one diaper sorter that fits both disposable and cloth diapers. The Loop allows parents to clearly and quickly access diapers, wipes and changing essentials during the diapering days and then converts to an art station for your older child – with papers, colored pencils and other art supplies. I’ve even thought about using it to organize my office supplies and files.
• The Boon Animal Bag is a great place to store all of the stuffed animals and extra blankets for baby, but it can also double as a foot rest for the glider and then as a comfy place for an older child to sit for years to come.

NURSERY DESIGN TIPS

Top Los Angeles Designer and business owner, Joy Deangdeelert Cho of Oh Joy! has an impeccable eye for detail and uses practical advice to accomplish her personal and professional designs. Her top three Nursery Design Tips for parents include:

1. Bring in your room theme and color palette with the accessories (like the baby bedding, decorative pillows, rugs, and prints on the wall). That way the room can more easily change and grow as your baby gets older – or when new sibling arrive.
2. Who says you have to use baby pink and baby blue? Try incorporating colors you like in the baby’s room. After all, you’ll be spending a lot of your time in that room so you should love it, too.
3. If you have the space, a couch or daybed makes for a very helpful accessory – especially in the newborn phase when you’re up in the middle of the night for feedings. And especially if you accidentally fall asleep mid-feed!

MORE NURSERY DESIGN TIPS

• Vision board: Like I mentioned (many times) above, I’m a very visual person. I’ve planned our newest nursery entirely by vision boards – both on Pinterest and on paper. To do this, simply collect your favorite mail catalogues (they don’t have to be strictly baby-related) and cut out your favorite pieces to help inspire and build your dream nursery. This allows you to keep track of things you spotted, budget and visualize how it will look in the end. It can also help you decide which direction/theme you want to go with if you’re having a hard time deciding.

• Decorate with toys and books: Top your nursery shelves, bookcases and dressers with books and toys that start as decoration and later become things your child grows to love and enjoy. I love the simplicity of the Manny and Simon wooden push toys and the Blabla knitted dolls as a decorative pieces turned play toys and always display many, many books throughout the nursery – both books that I can read to my child from the very beginning to some of my personal favorites from my childhood.

• DIY decorations: Paint a canvas, frame your older child’s artwork, string handmade pom poms to create a decorative wall piece or even create your own ceiling mobile to not only customize your nursery, but to create sentimental pieces just for your baby and ones that you will cherish for many years to come.

• Reuse items from around the house: You can easily cut down on decorating expenses by going through, cleaning out and repurposing items from around your home. Picture frames, side tables, artwork, sometimes even dressers can be used in your nursery.

• More practical items within the nursery: Dress the back of your glider with a blanket – ideally one that can be used for baby and parent. There are times you or your baby will get cold in the middle if a feeding – or for the times when you want an extra little snuggle. My top pick for this accessory is any of the blankets by Little Giraffe. You can’t get much softer or more baby-friendly than Little Giraffe.