If you have a baby on the way and are looking to set up a nursery before the chaos arrives, or you already have a young baby and are looking create a nursery and move them into their own room, then starting from scratch can be daunting. A reliable handyman company can help you create a beautiful and serene space for your child without the stress, but if you would prefer to do the work yourself, then here are a few pointers.
Find inspiration
Some people find their inspiration in magazines, others enjoy scouring the web and Instagram. Maybe you loved the feeling of a room from a holiday you have recently been on, or you just love a particular wallpaper pattern or item of furniture. Wherever you find the basis for your inspiration, it is useful to start a Pinterest board to keep a record of your ideas so you always have something to work form, and from where the rest of the design can flow.
Start neutral
Some people go all in for a theme, such as basing the room around a Disney film like Frozen or a favorite animal. These ideas can look great, but it is important to remember that tastes change and you do not want to have to start again with the nursery design every time your child changes their new favorite film. Instead, it is useful to keep the underlying structure of the room relatively neutral, but then add accents and highlights to bring in your theme, whether that is items of furniture or a mural painted on a wall.
Map out your floorplan
Your nursery will have a limited amount of floor space and generally just a single window and mapping out the room will allow you to make the most of the area you have available. Plot down where you will have the cot (and whether this space can also extend to a bed), where you will have the chest-of-drawers, where you will add lighting, and where you will have storage for the toys and shelving for the books. Only once you have plotted all of this out and measured everything twice, can you really start looking for the furniture to fit the space and to start making the shelves.
Throughout this process, keep in mind that a nursery should be a relaxing place for both you and your child, and don’t forget to add plenty of textures, easy-to-clean materials, and baby-friendly plants. Resist the urge to overdecorate or overfill the room at the start, you have years to add items as you child grows up.
Think about sleep
Remember that the main idea behind having a nursery is to help your child sleep. Therefore, it is crucial to add blackout curtains or blinds that can really block out the light and dampen the sounds from outside as well as adding thick rugs to absorb noise from the room itself. It is also worth considering the air flow within the room, making sure that the child’s cot will get a breeze to keep cool in the summer with the window ajar, but not too close to avoid the baby getting too cold.
Design a room that will grow with your child
A nursery is not just for the first six months, it is a room that should be adaptable to grow with your child as they grow into a toddler and get ideas and tastes of their own. By avoiding too heavy a theme, and by making sure the major elements of the room are neutral, it should be relatively simple to keep updating the room over the years.
Do it yourself or hire a professional
Finding inspiration and ideas for your child’s first bedroom can be a fun and rewarding experience, but not everyone has the time or tools to successfully redesign and repaint a room, hang curtains, fix shutters, and put together flat pack furniture. If you would like a professional’s help to get the room created perfectly the first time, then the London-based handyman team at BIts Bobs and Odd Jobs is here to help. Call us on 0208 244 5070 or book online.
