Nursery ideas and tips for a safe baby room

Pick a calming colour for your nursery

The nursery is where your baby is going to learn how to sleep on their own. So make it easy for them by basing your nursery decor around soft, calming colours and pastel shades.

Opt for warm neutrals

Nursery decor has moved with the times. Pink for a girl and blue for a baby boy is ancient history now, thank goodness! It's all about the gender neutral nursery. Nowadays you’re free to use all the colours you love in your other rooms and create a truly contemporary nursery. Warm neutrals create a calming atmosphere and welcoming space in your living room – so why not in your child's room?

Set the neutral shades off with subtle pops of bright colours for a little extra fun.

Paint the ceiling

Paint the ceiling of your baby's room a sunny blue sky, or a starry night. Fill it with flying things like birds and butterflies. Or if you've opted for a subtly shaded, neutral nursery, what about furry creatures or maybe just soft, swirly patterns.

Create a colourful feature wall

Bold colours could be overpowering if used in the whole room. But a feature wall can really add the wow factor to your little one's nursery. Pick a deep, dramatic shade, find an amazing wallpaper or even get one of your own photos blown up to fill the space.

If you feel like channelling your inner artist, paint a mural. Or if you want the easy way to create large scale wall art, vinyl decals and wall stickers are quick and simple to use (and to change when it’s time to move on).

Pick a fun theme for your nursery

You could make your baby room your own by picking a theme – a favourite nursery rhyme, children’s book or even just a unique-to you colour scheme. An animal theme always works well and introduces your little one to the natural world. Think jungle creatures or brilliantly coloured birds. Cartoons, movies, fairy tales… They're all great sources of nursery ideas. Set your imagination free!

Make it your own with sweet accessories

Your nursery doesn’t have to have a grand scheme. Start with a plain, simple room and fill your baby's room with love and personality by adding cute accessories like lampshades and cushion covers, pretty storage baskets, hanging mobiles, framed photos and pictures. And so easy to refresh whenever you feel like a change of look.

It’s easy to get carried away kitting out your baby's nursery. Especially first time around. But if you plan wisely, the nursery furniture you buy for your newborn today could still be being used when they’re a toddler or even older. Whether you're drawn to the idea of nursery furniture sets or you're going to mix and match, choose pieces that will last.

And don't forget, your little one is soon going to get bigger and start moving around. So try and plan your perfect room with enough floor space to allow for a bit of exploring.

Invest in clever furniture

Buying nursery furniture is going to be one of your biggest outlays when you’re kitting out your baby room, especially if you're looking at full nursery furniture sets. So it’s well worth investing in good quality pieces that will last well beyond babyhood.

Look for baby wardrobes that easily convert to adult size clothing or a changing table that converts to a dresser later on. Or pick a design style that will look good anywhere in the house, so that when that baby storage unit is no longer needed in the nursery, it can enjoy a whole new life in the living room, for example.

A crib that grows with your baby

Pick your cot or crib with longevity in mind. If you have the space in your nursery, you could buy a clever cot bed that starts life as a traditional barred cot, and then, as your baby grows, is easy to change into the perfect toddler bed. All you have to do is take away the removable sides and adjust the height – giving you around three years more cot life out of your investment.

Long-life storage for all those nursery must-haves.

Sleek and stylish built in nursery storage might be trendy, but freestanding nursery furniture will have a longer life as your child grows. You can move it around when baby moves up to a bed and the nursery needs a fresh look, add to it when you need more space and then simply trade it in when it’s done its job.

Floating shelves or wall mounted shelves can be a cost-effective way to create loads of storage space – and to display all those toys your little one has already been given but is still too young to play with!

For those middle of the night wake-up calls (and during the day, too, when your sleep-deprived self is running on automatic!), a ‘care basket’ can be a lifesaver. It makes sure you’ve always got the essentials to hand. Fill it with diapers, baby wipes, a water bottle and snacks for you. Then it's easy to move all you need from nursery to next to your bed, so all you've got to do is roll over!

It could get messy in that nursery! And goodness knows you’ve got enough to do looking after your baby without worrying about a stain on a carpet. Choose a floor for its easy cleaning ability. Anything smooth, waterproof and washable will do – wood, laminate, vinyl. Even that old favourite linoleum has made a come back recently.

And when your baby starts crawling, exploring the big wide world and discovering the hand to mouth trick, you'll be super glad you chose a flooring that's easy to keep spick and span and germ free!

It may be your baby's room, but don't forget the nursery is your space, too. Whether you're nursing your little one, reading them a bedtime story or simply taking a few moments and staying close, you'll want somewhere comfortable to sit, with lots of lovely cushions to support you.