How to Design a Baby's Room

Designing a baby's room is a wonderful part of welcoming a new member to your family. Decorating is only part of a design scheme. Knowing what your baby needs as she begins to grow allows you to design a room that actually contributes to healthy development. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

Design

1

Think about what you and your baby will be doing in his room beyond just sleeping. This will determine how you arrange your baby's furniture. (Because few of us have the opportunity to build a new baby's room from scratch, furniture arrangement is a major element in design.)

2

Locate the crib in the quietest and most draft-free part of the room. Sleep and rest are important, and baby's senses are highly acute. Quiet means not just low on sounds but also low on visual stimulation. Babies will notice activity outside windows, drafts, vibrations, brightly patterned wallpaper, colorful toys and even odors in ways older children and adults will not. A crib area should be as quiet as possible in all sensory terms--away from the room door and hall traffic and painted or papered in soothing colors. Toys and crib mobiles can always be used to add stimulation as time goes on.

3

Place the changing table and clothing storage where it is most convenient for you and safest for your baby. This usually means that changing table and dresser should be side by side, within easy reach of each other, and against a wall. Babies quickly learn the fun of wiggling on the slightly rigid surface of a changing table. While this is great for developing muscle skills, you need to be able to keep one hand on your young acrobat at all times. That means all necessary supplies need to be within one hand's easy reach.

4

Make room, if possible, for a comfortable adult chair--a rocker or glider. Nursing, bottle-feeding, and getting through frazzled, fretful periods (baby's and yours) become less stressful if you can both get comfortable during these times.
As your baby begins to explore the room on her own, move the chair where it cannot accidentally rock on curious fingers.

5

Choose floor space over chair space if your room is very small, and a comfortable chair can be put close by. In a time of car seats, strollers, and a wide variety of carriers, babies spend less time rolling, crawling and playing in unrestricted space.This kind of activity is essential to muscle control and eye-hand coordination--during "tummy time" critical learning and development take place. So a rug or floor space for a blanket you can share is a critical choice. This play area is also where you can store all those exciting and stimulating toys. Watching even a very young infant work out the body movements needed to reach his favorite stuffed animal or a new red ball will convince you of the importance of this design decision. Add an unbreakable, securely fastened, mirror at baby's eye level to your play area and play fabulous peekaboo games together.

Decorating

6

Coordinate both lively and quiet area ideas using pattern and color. Pale shades for the crib area or perhaps for walls overall can be echoed in a bright play rug or toy storage unit. Consider using wallpaper borders rather than fully papered walls to enliven your pastel scheme--a little excitement but not too much.

7

Plan a few decor elements you can change as your baby grows. Move your mirror up the wall a bit as your baby begins to sit and pull up. Find a couple of easy box picture frames that you can fill with a variety of pictures as your baby's interests change.
When the red truck becomes a favorite toy, even a magazine picture of a red truck adds to play--truck here, truck there. Replace the truck with fall leaves as you begin to explore them, a photo of a relative who plans to visit or a puppy. You don't have to change pictures weekly--just once in a while--and you don't need great art.

8

Plan a few elements that always stay the same. Consistency sends an important message of security to a baby. Change the truck picture but keep the sailboat nightlight. Use the new quilt from Grandma but keep the old blue blanket underneath, where baby can still touch it.The classic "blankie crisis" is very real to a baby, involving sight, touch and smell. When you add, change or maintain decorative elements in a baby's room, you're not dealing with possessions or background--you're dealing with experiences. Keep that in mind and your baby's room will always be a wonderful place to sleep, play and grow.