Selecting colours for a baby’s room can be tricky, especially when you don’t know if it is to be a boy, a girl or even twins! With the rollercoaster of pregnancy coming to an end, your thoughts will naturally turn to creating a pleasant environment for your new arrival.
Ideally you would be doing up the nursery before the new edition joins the family. Afterwards life gets too busy, and before you realise it, you are no longer designing a room for a newborn infant but for an active toddler.
There is no reason for waiting to see the sex of the baby; crisp off-white is always good starting point. Off-white is a classic choice that gives you flexibility to add other colours later on. Like black and grey, absolutely anything will go with off-white. We like Wedding Bouquet from Colortrend's Historic Collection or Coconut from Ralston's ExtraTex Matt range.
If you are struggling to choose a single colour, why not try stripes? You can pick up 4-5 samples, as well as one narrow and one fairly wide brush and to paint one wall with stripes.
Vary the width of the stripes and perhaps, start with a sketch so the final result doesn’t come as too much of a shock. The end result will be fantastic, it is not going to look overpowering, it will be funky but at the same time classy.
An alternative, easier but still interesting, is to paint your ceiling in a colour.
Or what about painting the floor? Latest news in floor paints is WB50 by Colortrend, which everybody is talking about. It is a pleasure to paint with it as it goes on extremely well and dries pretty fast. 0303 Bauhaus Gold and 0878 Glorious Gold for a warm cosy feel and 0296 Only Yesterday for neutral taste Concocord Grape Old Historic as a very adventurous option. This product is water based extremely tough floor paint (can be used on presses too), that can be got any colour under the sunlight! Good off-whites to use for the walls are Sugar Dust 0011 for crisp and fresh look or Wedding Boquet in New Historic it is just that bit softer both by Colortrend. Pointing by Farrow and Ball or Tallow no.203 delicate but gives a warm glow. It is high-end paint, a baby might not appreciate all that designer buzz, but it is has a low VOC level and is environmentally friendly.
One of the best places to destress is by taking walks in the nature, you feel like rebranded and bursting from new healthy energy. Therefore for those of you who love colour I would suggest to go green! Restful, soothing and tranquil; earthy green hues will keep things calm in the nursery. Green is fantastic with wood, more so with walnut, it is quite attractive combination for the eye. Stain your floorboards darker and cover with two-pack lacquer. Dark floors will be very much en vogue for upcoming years.
Our colour recommendation? Stay away from mints and go olive green. In particular, we like yellow green 0399 Sawgrass Green by Colortrend as it is very durable paint and offers brilliant light resistance.
If you’d like your restful green baby’s room to be girlier yet sophisticated add pink accessories, or paint a chair, bookshelf, headboard in pink. Pink might be considered as a naive colour in some circles. It is very optimistic, colour that prevents anger it comes from red by adding white to it.
But if you feel that all green walls just doesn’t do it for you add some more definition with some blues lockers/ picture frames/ table. Blue is soothing and inspiring, fantastic in north facing room as it is best to work with the light rather than against it. It gets and awful lot of negative thoughts though for being cold, depending on a blue some are more green more turquoise some really icy. Cool is stylish. This is considered to be the new elegancy. 0469 Deja Vu, Farrow and Ball no.235 Borrowed Light, Fine Teal Dulux Simply. Add white accessories and silver, I’m sure newborns will get plenty of silver presents. If you are a bit doubtful and think it is too boyish for you, well then you could paint pink hearts on one of the walls, or get a wallpaper that has pink it and hang horizontally. Pink and blue do work well together.
There is no need to worry about painted furniture, there is no lead in the paint since 1960’s. Colortrend paint is very environmentally friendly, has low VOC and of course the choice of colour is wonderful. They are more muted hues suited to our grey light in Ireland. It is always good to work with the light not against it, brighter colours work best in sunny areas and countries. All their products are water based (even their varnishes and oils, check out more www.colortrend.ie) due to new regulations and easy to apply as it dries very quickly.
Kids and babies especially are very highly sensitive to colour; they love it, the more the merrier. Then again avoid reds and yellows as they can be too intense, especially at early stages. Later on when the child is older than yes yellow will be magnificent, it is good for creativity and concentration – one of the reasons that it is widely used in schools. Colour psychologists say that babies tend not to sleep in yellow bedrooms, it is just too harsh for their young eyes. Peach is another colour that is best to avoid, it can be too much for young children.
In a summary look out for pastel colours as they are easy to live with, pinks, greens, blues and vary combinations. From pinks, try Pink Ground no.202, 1113 Fruitbowl by Colortrend. Blues Borrowed Light no.235 Pale Powder no.204 by Farrow and Ball or 0664 Zircan Ice by Colortrend. Greens 0791 Origin and Devine Blade both by Colortrend. Accessorise with white and silver to give a peaceful touch to the overall atmosphere. All the trendy sophisticated baby’s will have their crib painted in grey, True Gris Dulux Simply range eggshell finish, gorgeous!
In baby’s rooms you can create your own ideal room for the newborns add your own character. Calmness is the key, to introduce them to this world gently and peacefully. Kids are slightly different they have personalities opinions ideas some possibly quite mad but there is an art to balance their thoughts and vision and create adventurous living space for children that they enjoy being in.
The paints and products you need to complete this project are available for purchase in Pat McDonnell Paints stores nationwide and via our online Shop.
Why not place your order today?
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