The Nursery

Your Baby’s First Room

A nursery is a room that is designed for the use by a baby or small child. Nurseries are typically filled with certain pieces of furniture including: a crib and/or a bassinet and a change table. On top of these pieces of furniture, there are other items often found in a nursery such as crib and bassinet bedding, baby monitors, diapers, bottles – the list is quite extensive. Some people choose the smallest space out of all the bedrooms available to use as a nursery as the primary purpose in a nursery is sleep. Babies tend to have a lot of items to place in a room but they are usually smaller pieces than a regular-sized bedroom would store.

Many people nowadays keep one room in a house as a nursery. When the child is ready for a bigger room or a sibling is born, the child gets moved into a larger room. The trend is for expectant parents to fully or at least partially prepare a nursery for a new baby’s arrival. More and more expectant parents are finding out the sex of the child and therefore can completely decorate a nursery in a gender-specific way. Decorating a nursery includes choosing wall décor to add color. Visual stimulation is often considered today. Adding the baby’s name in block letters above the crib is a popular design. Shelves that house photographs such as the sonogram picture in a specific frame as well as birth pictures is quite popular.

Baby monitors have been a popular addition to nurseries for years. However, monitors that have two receivers are in style today. Many people leave one in the parents’ bedroom and another one downstairs for day use.

A current trend in nursery furniture is to buy only a dresser for the nursery and use it as a changing table as well. Changing pads placed on top of dressers make it easy to use a dresser as a changing table. These changing pads typically are contoured and include waist straps to prevent babies from falling.

For décor in a nursery storage baskets and bins are becoming common. These storage solutions can be relatively inexpensive but can make life easier, especially as they separate small items into similar piles and do not need lids. Items such as diapers, outfits, socks, toys, washcloths and sheets can all be separated and placed in the baskets.

One change in cribs over the last few years is the “grow with you” cribs. These cribs convert into a toddler bed when the child is ready for one. These cribs are considered multi-functional for this reason. All that is usually needed to convert the crib to a bed is a set of rails. Another trend with cribs is the color of the wood. White nursery furniture used to be the most popular. The style that is “in” now is dark wood in a nursery. Colors such as espresso or cherry are very popular. In fact, it is so popular it is sometimes more difficult to get a light color such as white.

Nursery crib bumpers have been a topic of controversy over recent years. Many countries and some US cities have already banned the use of bumpers in a crib as it has been proven to be a SIDS risk. Therefore, more manufacturers are selling bedding items separately and bedding sets will no longer have the bumpers included.

Overall, the recent trends in nurseries are to make the rooms fun and brighter for the arrivals of little bundles of joy. The current styles of wall décor, pieces of furniture, storage and bedding all have the potential to create a very modern looking room for baby.