Decorating Your Nursery

Whether your nursery is large or small; it will be the most important room in your house for the next three years. Here are some tips we've come up with to make this the best room at the inn.

Which room should be the Nursery? Try to find a room that meets at least four of these suggestions.

• a room close to your bedroom
• a room close to the kitchen
• a room with lots of light
• a quiet room
• a room with or near a bathroom
• a room with a closet or storage

What Color Do you Paint the Nursery

There are so many choices of beautiful colors. Paint is the cheapest way to decorate, so if you make a mistake, you can start over. Keeping that in mind, the color of your walls will set the theme of your entire room. So give it some thought before you pick up a paint brush and do the entire room. Buy small cans and paint a small section of the room. Be sure to let it dry over night and see what the color looks like the next day.

Here are things to keep in mind

• Is this your first baby?
• Will you have more than one child?
• Will the first child remain in the nursery as he grows up.
• Will your first child share this with the next baby?
• Will you find out the sex of the baby before it is born?

If you are lucky enough to have a room for each baby and you know the baby's sex ahead of time, here are the most popular color schemes for baby boys and baby girls.

Baby Boy Nursery Color Schemes

• blue
• blue and white
• blue and green
• blue and brown'
• red,white, and blue
• brown and tan

Baby Girl Nursery Color Schemes

• pink
• pink and white
• pink and yellow
• pink and green
• lavender
• pink and brown
• peach and green
• aqua and pink
• rose

Many first time Mothers choose a unisex nursery color. Yellow is out, but sage green is in big time. A sage green room is the most flexible nursery color. If you have to put a second child of a different sex in the room, you can change the baby bedding to pink or blue with sage and it will still look terrific.

Here are the color schemes that can go with a sage green room

• sage green and pink
• sage green and lavender
• sage green and blue
• sage green and yellow
• sage green and turquoise
• sage green and brown

Once you have chosen your color scheme, be imaginative and have fun. A room can be divided by a chair rail and the top half painted one color and the bottom half a complimentary or contrasting color. The molding can be decorator white or linen white for a crisp contrast if your walls are dark. If your walls are pastel, be daring and select a deep tone of the same color for the baseboad, molding and door. Use a semigloss for all molding and try to find a washable paint in the brand that you select. Tiny fingers leave many smudges on doors and walls, not to mention some surprises you may find near the crib wall.

We would love to hear about your nurseries and any favorite color schemes you can share with us.