More Nursery Decoration Tips
Comfort and safety of the baby are the topmost and foremost priorities while decorating a nursery. Early morning sunrays may disturb a little one’s morning sleep while streetlight and traffic flow may disturb its sleep and make the baby cranky. A particular tree outside the nursery’s window may cast shadows that may terrify a little child and window that sends in cold drafts may keep the child cold in winters. A crib too close to the window may cause a child to climb on the window and fall out! Here is some very practical advice for your nursery décor:
Babies cannot differentiate much between a plastic laundry basket lined with a soft blanket, expensive Victorian antique cradles and latest high-tech cribs.
You may use a deep waist-high bookshelf to substitute changing table and chest of drawers. Use common sense and functionality for cheaper options of the traditional furniture pieces.
The furniture essential for nursery includes bassinet or cradle, crib, changing table, chest of drawers, rocking chair and glider.
Cribs with slats or posts too far apart may cause the newborn baby to slip through it.
Corner posts should be in level with railings of the crib so the baby’s clothes do not get caught in them.
Mattress should fit the crib exactly to avoid the baby’s limbs getting caught in them.
Never used lead-based paints for anything in the nursery as they are poisonous and babies tend to chew on everything they can find.
Changing tables, potty seats and other furniture pieces for the baby should have straps to avoid them from falling.
Don’t use floor lamps and put all electricity switches, plugs and sockets high on the walls so that children cannot reach them or have child safety devices fitted on them.
Don’t use any accessories that are small enough to be swallowed by the baby and get choked or having sharp edges.
Nontoxic paints and wallpaper patterns suitable for the nursery are available in the market for you to choose from.
Solid color walls and inexpensive area rugs are a good idea that can be given the funky look by adding borders and other accessories, lamps, mobiles and framed pictures.
Children tend to grab at floor-length curtains or drapes and may even get suffocated by them.
Similarly, blinds with long pull-cords, especially the looped ones are NOT for the nursery.
Hi,
I am a new Mom (very proud!!!) and I have decorated my baby nursery using several of your products (thanks!). I have a question about baby nursery safety. Can I safely use hand me down baby furniture like cribs and mattresses, or are there things that I should look out for?
Hello Gillian,
Congrats and welcome to the club! Hope you are getting more sleep than I was back at that stage! Enjoy every second of the screaming and yelling as it will not last forever.
Piece of advice, go to best buy and buy a big hard drive as you will be filling it completely with about 100 pictures a day of the little tyke with every single facial expression he makes from here till 18 years old!
Back to business, great question, one of my favorites.
There is nothing wrong with using second hand baby nursery furniture and products but you have to be very careful on what you use and use an element of common sense.
The crib is the most vital piece of the nursery but actually the last thing I would ever get used. There are so many things you have to know and check before you put your baby in a used crib. Namely, is it up to today’s standards for current day use? Just because your parents used it just find on you back in 1973 does not mean you can use it today.
You have to check the internet as the safety standards and the numbers change regularly but they have ABSOLUTELY changed since 20+ years ago! The slats have to be less than 2.5 inches apart. I would never use a used mattress as the mattress has to be firm. Older ones over time use their firmness and softer mattresses have been linked to SIDS.
Older mattresses also used to have strings on them and you can not have any kinds of strings or chords on any mattress, same if you use a bumper and some of the older ones have strings or chords etc. They also do not use drop side cribs any more I do not think because of injuries to little arms and legs and there is always the hygiene issue associated with any fabrics that come in direct contact with the baby. Make sure everything is washed with extremely hot water and sanitized if possible before the baby touches anything.
Also older cribs have a tendency to be on wheels and often the wheels are ok but the breaks for the wheels can wear and you have to make sure a crib has a solid brake that will not give way.
Many things to consider for the baby crib. There is nothing wrong with using an older crib, just do your diligence before you start using it to make sure it is up to standards. The other problem is that a very old crib has no updates for safety. You would never know if it has had a recall for a certain part or a complete recall all together which is something you need to know before you put your little one in it.
If you are going to go second hand, I would prefer using second hand or used bureaus, night tables, even changing tables if you had to but the crib is the most important part of the nursery furniture and you want to make sure if you do go second hand, the hands that made it second were very gentle on it and you do as much research on the brand and manufacturer as possible to make sure it is safe and up to current day code and standards for a baby crib.
Good luck.
The Ourbabynursery.com team.