A well-executed theme can transform your baby's nursery into a magical space. If your nursery theme and ideas aren't too baby-specific, the room will charm your child well into the elementary school years. A wall mural can be a good place to start depicting your nursery theme. You can take your theme further, however, with three-dimensional elements and special touches throughout the room.
Enchanted Forest
Turn your baby's nursery into an ethereal, enchanted forest. Start by painting a large tree in one corner of the room. Extend the branches onto the adjoining wall and halfway across the ceiling. Paint one of the ceiling branches across the center light wiring. Add a few friendly forest creatures to the tree.
Get a three-dimensional effect by installing wooden pegs at the tips of the lowest-hanging wall branches. You can use them to display particularly charming outfits on child-size wooden hangers adorned with a bit of trailing raffia or moss. Hang a small lantern-style chandelier from the ceiling overhead. The chandelier will appear to hang from the tree branch you painted across the wiring.
Make a child-size table from a piece of tree trunk, and use two smaller bits of trunk for stools. Cushion the stools with little round pillows. Lay a soft green shag rug underneath to look like grass. You'll enjoy the adorable effect now and when your newborn becomes a toddler, she can use the table to serve tea to her stuffed animals.
Outer Space
If you have a family full of science fiction fans, pass that passion onto the new generation with an outer space theme. Hire a spray paint artist to create a space-inspired mural on the largest wall of the nursery, or study the style of painting and do the work yourself. Paint the ceiling with the mural's background color, and then affix tiny glow-in-the-dark stars. Make some papier mache planets and moons in colors from the mural, and suspend them from the ceiling with clear fishing line.
Paint the other three walls with a light color--ideally a color from the mural--to keep the room from feeling too dark. Hang a modern ceiling fixture that blends with the theme, like a Sputnik-inspired chandelier or trio of pendants with cobalt-glass shades. Furnish the room with sleek, low-slung, contemporary furniture that might adorn the stateroom of a starship.
Jungle
Teach your child to love nature with a jungle-inspired nursery. Paint one wall with lush green jungle foliage. Include a misty waterfall and plenty of jungle animals peeking out from the grass and trees. Make your mural three-dimensional by mounting a horizontal piece of real tree branch, and wire a big, stuffed leopard to look like he's lounging on the branch.
Hang bamboo panels behind the baby bed so your baby will feel like he's sleeping in a hut. Choose slightly rough-hewn furniture, perhaps made from dark-stained wicker, bamboo or rattan. Hang a tropical-looking ceiling fan overhead with blades that look like big banana leaves.
References
- "Room for Children: Stylish Spaces for Sleep and Play"; Susanna Salk; 2010
- "New Kidspace Idea Book"; Wendy Adler Jordan; 2005
- MarthaStewart: Tree Table
- Spraypaint.tv: 3 Minute Painting- Spray paint art
