How to Set Up a Baby's Room

Setting up baby's room

Fixing up your baby's room just right is an important task. It is the place where your baby will spend the majority of her young life. It should be comfortable and convey love and family to your child. It is also important that you are happy in it and make it a reflection of your feelings for your child. A happy baby deserves a happy room.

Things You'll Need

• Paint
• Baby furniture
• Wall art

Instructions

1. Pick a color. Color on the walls in your baby's room can achieve many things. A small room with great color can literally look bigger and a darker room with the right accents can be really appealing. If you know your baby's sex, pick a gender-specific color. Popular colors for boys are blue, sky blue and red. Popular girl colors are pinks and purples.

   If you do not know the sex, go with a favorite color of yours, or choose a gender-neutral color. Parents often choose a shade of green or a yellow or a combination of whites. Don't be afraid to repaint the room, if you can. You would be surprised how much different a room can look by just doing some very simple modifications. Painting a white room cream and adding an accent color around the trim can really change the entire look and feel of the area. It really is amazing and you won't know until you try. If you mess up, you can always repaint it. That's the best part.

2. Get some furniture. A baby room needs some essential furniture, including a crib. There are upright cribs, sleigh cribs and umbrella cribs. The best way to find your crib is to go to a few baby stores and have the salesperson explain them to you. It is their job to know all about the cribs and they can help you find a great crib at the right price.

   You will also need a changing table. These are great because the table provides storage for everything that you will need to change the baby. You will be changing your baby many times each day for a few years, so a good changing table is necessary. It will come with all sorts of compartments to store things and will make your job as parents a little bit easier. A rocking chair, or some sort of chair, is also a good idea. When you go into the room late at night to feed the baby, or just to hold her, having some sort of chair will really come in handy.

3. Decorate the walls. You might choose to leave your baby's room blank, but many parents want the walls to be filled with fun pictures and paintings and other baby items. It does not have to cost a lot to decorate the walls of a baby's room. Stores such as Target and Wal-Mart sell really nice, fun, baby-focused art that you can hang on your walls that will really brighten up the room and fill it with love. Just a few will transform the way the room looks.

   Another great way to decorate the walls is with pictures of your new family. This will give the room a very homey, personal feel.

4. Clean the room. After you set up all of the furniture, and before the baby comes, you will need to thoroughly clean the room. When the baby comes home from the hospital, it will not have a very developed immune system, so a deep cleaning is necessary for the baby to be able to thrive in his new environment. Vacuum the floor, dust the furniture and wash his new clothes. This will help keep your baby safe.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't discount what a slight change in color can do for you room. Give it a chance before you decide against a color. You never know. It might just end up looking great.

• Do not place the baby's crib anywhere near a window. On cold and hot days or nights, the weather and light can really affect your baby, who is trying to sleep in her crib. Babies can also get tangled up in cords from blinds.

References

• The Consumer Product Safety Commission: The Safe Nursery