From wall colours and décor to nursery furniture, planning a nursery for your baby can prove to be a stressful experience for many parents. There are so many factors to consider to ensure that your baby will comfortable and safe in the nursery. To help you and partner stay on top of things, we’ve prepared five crucial tips that will help in getting the nursery into shape.
- Choose a Theme: Minimalist modern theme? A nautical theme? A Disney theme? This may sound superfluous, but choosing a theme can tremendously help speed things along. For one thing, you will be able to narrow down and filter out choices and options so much faster. Type of baby nursery furniture? Colours? Budget? Things will suddenly feel less stressful as your choices become considerably smaller. And once you have a definite idea of how the room will look like, you will begin to enjoy the experience even more.
- Baby Furniture: Before committing to a purchase or even adding any item into your shortlist, please make sure the furniture carries both the European CE and British Standards Institution (BSI) labels. These labels indicate that the products have undergone various quality, mechanical and chemical safety testing.
- Create Activity Stations: Create a feeding, changing and sanitation stations in your nursery. When shopping for furniture for your nursery, make sure that you get appropriate furniture for these stations, which will help organise activities in the nursery and prevent the room from turning into, for lack of better word, a dump. A feeding station, for instance, keeps everything needed for breastfeed or to prepare bottled milk close by. Regular feeding in the same area, usually on a comfortable seat, will also subtly discipline your baby to start feeding each time he or she is brought there. A changing and sanitation station, meanwhile, help maintain the cleanliness of the nursery.
- Lighting: Don’t let the nursery be dominated with harsh lighting. Keep one strong overhead light on the ceiling (but away from the baby cot), and affix small lamps with subdued bulbs near the crib and activity stations. In addition, remember to install heavy blinds on the window. This will ensure your baby will sleep more comfortably – and longer.
- Baby Proof: Your baby may not be mobile yet, but it’s never too early to baby proof the room. By the time they start crawling, you may have forgotten about the potential hazards in the nursery. So, anchor all furniture and furnishings, hide all electrical outlets, keep medicine and ointments on high shelves, and remove potential choking hazards (like knobs, rugs, etc.) from the ground level.
- Leave Some Room: Don’t fill every inch of the nursery with furniture and décor. Leave some space for the room to grow. Over time, you may need to get new furniture or rearrange existing ones to make the nursery for practical or comfortable. And parents have a tendency to create too many storage areas in the room, which will inevitably get filled with junk.
Are you ready to get started now? Good luck!