How to Decorate the Infant Room at a Daycare Center

When decorating infant rooms, make safety and simplicity a priority. Even babies need room to move and explore, and their environment should be inviting and comfortable. Remember that infant spaces have dual roles: They must serve as stimulating play spaces for children and effective work spaces for caregivers. Keep this in mind when choosing furniture and laying out your room. Apply some of the same interior design principles to your daycare that you would to your home. The most successful daycare spaces emulate home environments, and your decoration and design should reflect this approach.

Things You'll Need

• One to two paint colors
• Sturdy furniture for infants and caregivers
• Mirrors
• Area rugs
• Large pillows in a variety of colors and textures
• Securely anchored, low shelves

Instructions

1. Start with a simple color scheme. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) recommends simplicity when designing infant spaces. Rooms that are too busy may overstimulate children who are not yet able to regulate their senses, it says. You can create interesting rooms without a complicated color scheme. The Wisconsin Child Care Improvement Project (WCCIP) emphasizes tone and texture in infant rooms rather than busy color combinations.

2. Designate spaces for both intimate and active play. WCCIP maintains that large, open spaces encourage activity, while smaller, contained areas "promote intimate groups and social interactions." Your infant room should offer both.

3. Incorporate interest centers. WCCIP suggests using 4- by 4-foot rugs to create appropriately sized learning areas for infants. You can use these spaces for book areas, large block play, stacking and nesting toys and so on. Design infant centers that provide boundaries and encourage privacy. Use child-safe mirrors in these spaces--children enjoy them and the mirrors also increase visibility for caregivers.

4. Use a variety of rugs and large pillows. Infants need soft places in which to explore and relax. Although blankets and pillows are inappropriate in cribs where infants sleep, children need safe and soft places to crawl and romp during their awake-time. When babies begin to sit up and pull up, soft surfaces offer protection for inevitable falls. To ensure that large floor pillows don't interfere with children's efforts to sit and crawl, use them in spaces for older infants who have mastered these activities.

5. Display toys purposefully. Avoid overstimulation by offering a smaller, but diverse selection of toys on shelves and in play areas. WCCIP says that by doing so, providers "encourage purposeful play rather than toy dumping." Just make sure you rotate toys in and out on a regular basis to keep the children learning and interested.

6. Provide sturdy furniture for the children's enjoyment and safety, as well as comfortable furniture for infant caregivers. By the time an infant is about eight months old, he begins pulling up. Make sure that furniture and large play items are secure enough to accommodate developing children. Also, keep in mind the comfort of supervising adults. Caregivers use the floor space a good bit with infants, but also need other comfortable places to hold, feed and read to infants.

7. Personalize each child's baby bed. Adding mobiles above each infant's crib is a good idea because they can be soothing and most children enjoy them. Just don't miss the opportunity to add homey touches to the children's private spaces. Hanging a family photo will bring familiarity to the space and help infants feel more secure.

Tips & Warnings

• Infants sometimes eat, sleep and play in the same room, so make sure high chairs are sturdy and will not tip over easily if children pull up on them.

• NAEYC recommends that you lie down or get on your knees in the infant room to get a child's perspective of the space. Look for potential hazards and discover areas or components of the room that may be overwhelming to children.

References

• National Association for the Education of Young Children
• Wisconsin Child Care Improvement Project