Creating a nursery

One of the first things to take into consideration is will your new baby be a girl or a boy? If you already know this then you are onto a great start but if you don`t then you will have to make the decision of whether to stick with neutral colours or not. The next thing to consider is what materials will be used in your child's room. At first it may be ‘cute’ to create a room that will be a totally dedicated nursery for the new baby. This room will usually consist of pale pastel

colors and delicate lacey fabrics. But what happens as the baby grows older, and becomes a toddler? Suddenly those pastel colors of pink, blue, yellow and green and delicate fabrics of silky cottons may no longer be practical to the one who must take care of the room. Here are some great tips and ideas to help you out and we have also thrown in some little safety guides.

Choosing the right colour
This room is where your baby is going to sleep, grow and play. You need to opt for colours that will stay with your baby for the first few years of his/her life. Here are some suggestions that may help you.

1. Paint the walls in two colours such as lemon and mint these will suit both a girl or boy.
2. Stencil characters stick ready made stickers around the wall,

3. Paint the room an egg shell or other natural colour and finish it off with a colourful border.
4. Paint a mural on the walls of lots of different cartoon characters, such as Whinnie the Phoo, Thomas the Tank Engine, characters that don`t fade. This is a good idea if you don`t want to decorate when your baby becomes a toddler and is great for both a girl or boy.

Choosing the right fabrics
Window treatments: You can mix and match with windows. Curtains, blinds, nets. There are endless choices of colours, fabrics and designs to choose from and they don`t have to be expensive. Check these ideas out see if these are any good.
1. If you are dab hand with a sewing machine you could make your own. You could make reversible curtains may be with a pattern/design on one side to match any characters that are in the room and a plain colour on the other side. (That would actually make a great business).
2. Roller blinds are great and easy to clean and come in great designs and colours.
3. If you`re doing characters in the room then go with curtains that match.
Safety: Make sure the curtain/blinds don`t have any cords hanging.

Bedding: A lot of people put the baby`s in to a morses basket when baby is new born then into a cot then into a bed as baby grows. So if you are using all 3 then that is 3 times the expense. Hopefully these will help you out.

Morses basket
All morses baskets come with bedding, but you will need a change.
1. Cut a cot sheet in half then you will have two sheets.
2. Instead of using 2 blankets double over a cot blanket.
I found a morses basket that is only £29.99 from Mother Care

that will suit both a girl or a boy. They have a great range of other morses baskets also in all colours and designs with lots of things to match the design.
Cot
1. Make your own bedding then you will be able to choose the colour and design to match the room.
2. Buy reversible cot bedding.
3. Cut bed sheets in half to serve as two cot sheets.
Bed
1. Buy or make quilt covers, pillows in a plain colour that matches the room.
2. Again buy reversible covers.
3. Add a personal touch to your child's cushions, pillows and covers by sewing on patches of their favourite character.
4. Use plain covers and decorate them with fabric paint.
Safety: Cot (look for the British standard mark BS 1753 before buying a cot. The cot must be sturdy and the mattress must fit firmly so baby`s head can not get stuck in any spaces.
Always buy a new mattress if you can and make sure it is hard and firm.
Don`t use pillows.
Bring in the furniture
You are going to need some where to put your baby`s clothes, toys, some where for you to sit, baby`s cot, changing unit in fact you can put as much furniture into the nursery as long as you have got the room for it.
1. A cot is a must. Do you want to go with pine, plastic, big, small these are a lot of things to think about when planning the amount of furniture you are wanting to go in to the nursery.
2. A cot bed is ideal as this will serve your baby as he grows into a toddler. The down side is that most cot bedding dosen`t fit properly and single bed sheets are to big (I know I had one for my son). But they are cheaper then buying both a cot and a bed and they are smaller then a bed which means more room, they also last up until a child is 5.
3. If you are nursing your baby you may want a chair. You could buy a rocking chair that will help baby to sleep and is more relaxing for you, but this can be a bit expensive. You may be able to pick up a second hand one from a car boot sale, a second hand furniture shop or from a classified ad in your local paper.
4. If you have an old chair lying around why don`t you do it up add a few cushions and you have a nice new chair.
5. For your baby`s draws you could buy second hand and do them up. Strip them, sand them and give them a court of paint and they will look brand new. They are also easy to change as your baby grows and as the room changes colour. (It is amazing what you can do with old bits of furniture).
Safety: Make sure that all draws, cupboards etc.. have safety catches on them so curious tots can`t jam their fingers. Place soft corner covers on any thing that has sharp corners.

Putting things a way
Storage is another factor to be considered. Babies grow out of their clothes, they also accumulate clothes plus other items, such as toys, shoes, and accessories, so that storing these items can over time present an ever growing problem.
1. Buy in advance because in the first year of a baby`s life they seem to get a lot gifts and grow out of their things really quickly.
2. Shelves are ideal to keep teddies and other small toys that seem to clutter the floor stored neatly away.
3. Racks and shelving for closets also offer endless possibilities.

With a little bit of planning ahead this will ensure that your child has got a room that he/she can grow with and will also be easier for you to manage. We hope that these little ideas have been of some use to you. And remember you do all the designing but let someone else do the work while you sit back and watch. Good luck.