Please help me plan my DD's nursery!

[AmyLouise]

Hi!

I'm 28 wks pg and having a girl! Yay! My DS is 18 mo. old.

I've already moved my DS to his new room and decorated it with an airplane theme which he loooooves! For the new baby I've decided on a Mermaid theme in the nursery. I need inspiring and creative ideas to pull this together!!!

Here's what I have so far:
- 2 framed mermaid prints (not the Disney ones!!)
- seashells and starfish for decoration
- baby blue sailboat from DS's old room
- pink mesh over-the-crib canopy thingy:lol


What I need help with:
- paint colour!! HELP!!
- other decorating ideas

Thanks everyone! I'm soooooo excited about having a girl! This will be the first girl on 7 generations on my DH's side of the family! Woohoo!

Thanks,
Amy

[TechnoGranola]

The safest place for baby to sleep is in your room (whether it be in your bed or a separate bed/crib/bassient). Personally, we co-sleep, so my DD's room is only used to hold her clothes and a whole bunch of unused furniture we didn't know where else to put. :) Since the room doesn't get used much at this point in time, we didn't set up a traditional nursery. Once she is older and using her room more, I will let her pick out decorating ideas and paint colours.

Congratulations on your baby girl!

[adoremybabe]

I would go to the paint store and look at color cards to help you decide what colors to use. You can also look up images of murals online to spark some ideas of your own.

I don't want to burst your bubble but I don't think you'll get a ton of response on this topic because most parents co-sleep whether babe is in their bed or the babe's bed is in the parent's room. Many babe's here don't ever sleep in a crib. My ds 21 months only used his crib a few times. He didn't like it. He now sleeps on a mattress in our bedroom. Baby #2 is due tomorrow so we will have 2 babes in our room for a little while. I am slowly getting ds's room ready for him so that when he is ready to move it will be there for him.

I am not sure what your plans are but I truely believe that a child grows up to be a much more confident and trusting person when they sleep close to their family. It might be a ringer on the parents own sleeping schedule and personal life but my children are my life and once they grow to be a bit older and more independant I will get a bit of my own life back. For me, the sacrifice is worth it.

Good luck!

[Lady Lilya]

I wish I had room for a nursery. Even though I plan to co-sleep, it would be great to have a place to keep baby stuff, and it would really be great to get to fix up and decorate some space.

For paint color, how about some sort of seafoam green? A sandy color?

What is the flooring?

Does the room have windows? Maybe they could get some airy curtains similar to the pink mesh you have for the canopy?

[Lady Lilya]

I don't want to burst your bubble but

Maybe bubbles can be incorporated into the design. I can imagine some kind of opalescent paint being used to make transparent and overlapping circles of different sizes on the walls.

I would display the seashells and starfish and sail boat on white-painted wooden shelves -- but I guess that depends on the other furniture. What furniture do you have already? You mentioned a crib. What is it made of and what color is it? Probably a good idea to match the shelves to that.

[zinemama]

Since I have only boys I can certainly relate to how excited you are about having a girl.

That said, I really wouldn't spend all the time and money on decorating a room for a baby. She won't care about mermaids or paint colors or seashells or starfish. Her main interests in life will be you and your breasts. For a long time.

Why not wait and decide on something together, once she's old enough to care?

[alegna]

Make a cute room, but ditch the crib :wink

Babies belong in bed with mama.

-Angela

[gcgirl]

IMO, there's nothing wrong with having a baby's room for naps and storage and stuff, but I'm with most others here - our baby's going in our room. I'd rather wait on the fun decorating stuff until the kid is old enough to help me pick things out. Babies won't really notice the decorations anyway - but have fun! Do something YOU like, since it won't matter to the babe! Sounds like a fun project.

I like the bubbles idea.

[zjande]

Make a cute room, but ditch the crib :wink

Babies belong in bed with mama.

-Angela

These are my thoughts exactly. :) Your babies care far more where they are in location to YOU, not what their room looks like. :wink

[adon]

we considered a nursery, but DS slept in our room with us. we had the crib in our room. then we he turned 2 we gave him his own room, but w elaid him down in his room and he ended up with us in our bed. he still goes down in his room but comes into bed with us....so i guess my point is...DS uses his room as a play room more then a sleeping room. but you could still decorate it nice and cute! i like the bubbles idea!

this time around we will get a king size bed!! i'm so excited!!!:lol

[LandonsMom]

We cosleep, but I still decorated the nursery!! It was fun for me and made me feel like I was doing SOMETHING to prepare for this baby! (i didnt spend a lot, and incorporated the things I'd made for ds last time). If you have room for a nursery, I agree that its a great place to store clothes and other baby things.

I like the white painted shelf idea for display. I'd take one of the pics you plan to use to a paint store and match something up there, whatever suits your fancy!! Then just keep your eyes open along the way and add to the collection of sea related items. Look at thrift stores or second hand shops, sometimes you find the neatest stuff there!

It might also be fun to make some thing personal for the new babe, a framed quote you like, or nursery rhyme. Depending on your colors you can easily add to the walls using cheap frames painted to match decor. One cute idea is to use artists canvas' (cheap at craft store) with paints, fabrics (glued on), or other textured items to add to decor. I love to decorate and be crafty so this is a topic I enjoy. I like to see how much I can do with little money!!

Have fun!!

[Morgaine]

I think a pretty sea foam green color would be great on the walls, maybe you can find it in a pearl finish. If you can find an over head projector to use, I would make some copies of quotes about mermaids and such and then project them onto the wall and them copy them(or if you can write straight and pretty, skip the projector) and if you are artistic, trace pictures of mermaids using the projector and make your own murals. Maybe even make one wall have floor to ceiling sea weed that you painted. you can also take on of the fishing nets that you have, put it on the wall, and tuck in a lot sea shells and star fish into it. I love the idea of an under water mermaid theme for a little girl. If I think of anymore ideas I will post them. Congrats!

[paganmom]

We don't have a nursery because of co-sleeping, but our room is rather nursery like, nonetheless

I love this sort of painting that waldorf schools use called "lazure" painting...here's a thread of someone on this board who did this:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?p=8112711

Maybe lazure painting in sea colors of light greens, blues, purples....I love greens and purples together. I couldn't do a whole room like this, but I painted some readymade shelves in a similar fashion, and it was fun.

Also, babies love to look at mobiles. Do a google search for something like a Silk Fairies Mobile Kit. It might give you some ideas for a mobile project...you can make one from some sea souvenirs (shells, starfish) or sew/form fish from silks.

Can you find a book of mermaid images or sea images to cut up? You could use these to decoupage old boxes or furniture with.

You could get an ocean sounds cd for your sound effect...we used one as "white noise" for our first (who is now two), but it would make an especially nice sound effect to your mermaid nursery room.

Search for "waldorf mermaid dolls" and you'll get some nice looking mermaid dolls showing up. Of course, your little one can't play with them for some time (but you can!).

Books. We have a nice book (we got it at a library sale) called Fishing for a Dream: Ocean Lullabies and Night Verses. You might want to look around for this or some similar sea themed or mermaid themed books (or cds, maybe?)

Don't forget fish and seahorses in your theme! Also, driftwood is so beautiful. You could put it on the window sill, a shelf or in your mobiles

[AmyLouise]

I DO co-sleep and will be using the nursery as a playroom, change room.

Thanks to those who posted great ideas though.

Amy