Nursery décor and soft furnishings create the feel for a room and are based on a basic colour palette – one that you have chosen.
I love the colour purple – more an aubergine colour than a true purple. It helps me feel strong when I am at my vulnerable. It’s also symbolic of the women’s empowerment movement, whose origins lay in the fight for women to have the right to vote – so it’s a colour aligned with my ethical values too. The shade of purple is irrelevant; strong colours are not everyone’s first colour choice for a nursery. And there is good reason for choosing lighter, more serene or neutral colours for home décor, especially a nursery or child’s room.
The impact of nursery décor and colours
Colour impacts on everyone’s mood – including babies.
We know that “seeing red” is a common expression that describes the look of anger. I still remember the look of on my ex’s face when his cheeks turned red when I did something that offended him in one way or another. The association between the colour red and excessive stimulation is a very good reason not to paint the nursery red, although I recognise that colour is also a part of social or cultural norms and that red also represents good fortune and happiness in Chinese culture for example. So, our understanding of colour also relates to context.
I have quite a lot of muted shades of red in my home (it goes well with purple) but I’d only use the bright racing car red is a colour as a décor accent in a toddler’s room to evoke a sense of fun. But mix a touch of red with a bucket of white and you’ll find that pink is an entirely different experience.
Thought to induce physical tranquillity, pink became a popular choice of colour for use in hospitals – I’m not talking about hot pink, more the subtle baby pink traditionally worn by baby girls. Add a pink dove print quilt cover or cushion, pink curtains and natural bamboo flooring to a white toddler room for an easy décor update with a fresh tranquil feel.
Nature can impart a sense of tranquillity too. Look across a lush green meadow and feel a sense of relief – as if the worries of day have fallen away and vanished. An essential part of good urban design is green space because peoples’ stress levels decrease when natural green colours surround them. I admit to having green carpet in my home’s living and bedrooms for that very reason.
Green is a tricky colour to work with indoors – it must be the ‘right’ shade and is perfect in hot climates where the colour can give a sense of coolness in the heat of the day. But I did help my daughter paint one nursery wall celery green – the other walls we left a light stone colour and the carpet dark neutral shade. She is a talented creative, who made some lovely nursery accessories using green and blue (with a touch of purple) owl print on white fabric that achieved a fun and calm environment for my grandson. It looked fantastic.
More recently, I added this turquoise balloons print to our range of organic cotton accessories. My personal preference is for earthy tones, and if I were to lay green carpet again the turquoise would be my choice – a lovely blend of blue and green.
Testing your emotional response to nursery decor and colour
I can’t resist talking about the nursery colour palette and décor I used for the room in my house for my granddaughters. I tried to venture into pale bright colours – starting with orange, but it wasn’t something that worked for me. Let’s face it – adults spend nearly as much time in the baby or child’s room for the first few years as they do in any other room of the house. So, there had to be some purple in the room for me to feel comfortable.
I spent over a year testing shades before I found the right one. This choice did mean that I had to replace the green carpet with a light-coloured Berber that I picked up second hand, but the result is one that the girls and I enjoy spending time in.
The terrific work of art on the wall is by one of my granddaughters (aged two) – you may have seen her feature on our Facebook or Instagram accounts in the past. This may not be as impressive as those pictured in an interior designer magazine, but was an inexpensive (paint $50 + cot $180 + carpet $20 + laying $150 + blank canvas $10). The cot sheet and wall decorations were from our stock.
While the scientific causal relationships and evidence to date does not draw any reliable conclusions that fit every social, psychological or physiological context, there are some generalisations that do inspire further research.
Until that day comes, have fun experimenting with what works for you and your little one.
