There is a baby on the way! During the pregnancy you have plenty of time to think about how to set up the nursery. We offer four key tips about how you can find appropriate, child-friendly equipment for your new arrival.
Tip 1: start putting together ideas for the nursery early
Pink, blue, cottage-style, vintage look, modern design, or do you prefer Scandinavian simplicity? There are countless options for furnishing the nursery. In order to avoid having to run around furniture shops when you are heavily pregnant, you should start putting ideas together early on. There are numerous sources of information both on- and offline. Our tip: do what professional interior designers do and create a mood board. This is an artistic collage on a large piece of paper or a pin board. Hang anything you like on it: photos from your favourite hotel, cuttings from magazines showing attractive furnishings, fabric samples, colour strips, bits of wallpaper…
Tip 2: select soothing colours as a base and complement them with colourful decorations
Even though children love everything that is colourful, too many loud colours can make sleeping difficult. It is better to choose pastel shades or earthy, natural tones for the base colour on the walls and floor.
You can create attractive features in contrasting patterns and colours with bright-coloured toys or wall decorations, such as self-adhesive wooden letters and colourful mobiles.
Tip 3: capitalise on practical furniture with secondary functions
The standard furnishings in any nursery are a cot, a cupboard and a changing table with a wipe-clean surface. Since there is often a lack of storage space, a changing unit with a detachable changing top is practical. One of these units keeps everything you need for changing your baby within easy reach. And, when your child is no longer a baby, it can be used as a normal chest of drawers in their room.
By the way, many parents swear by mounting a colourful mobile over the changing unit. This distracts the baby’s attention away from the changing process, which some are not keen on. Above all, it is a good way of calming babies down when they start to get increasingly more active.
If there is space, install a comfortable armchair or rocking chair for relaxing moments when breastfeeding or giving the bottle. This can later be turned into a joint reading corner to look at picture books and have a cuddle.
A lot of furniture is made to “grow into” and can be adjusted with a few simple movements of a handle to the various stages of your child’s growth. Such pieces certainly tend to be more expensive to buy than standard baby furniture, but they undoubtedly last longer. Thus, your baby’s high chair later becomes their desk chair, or the cot is transformed into a child’s bed.
Tip 4: plan for space to play
Make sure that there is a suitable place where your baby has space to play. Babies love somewhere cosy with a nice, comfortable surface such as a soft carpet or a play rug. Your baby can romp here and make their first attempts at crawling. A play corner in the nursery with age-appropriate toys ready to hand in baskets or on shelves is the perfect solution.
