Here's a nursery decorating idea for those parents who don't find out their child's gender until birth: Come up with a color scheme in which your main color is gender-neutral and the complimentary color is gender-specific. This way, you can paint and get the nursery reasonably prepared before baby arrives, then add to it once you know if you have a boy or a girl! Some combos we like are listed after the jump:
- Golden Yellow Looks great with either soft pink or navy blue.
- Dark Brown Pair it with either light pink or light blue.
- All White With strong hot pink or vivid blue accents.
- Gray Looks good with either light pink or silvery blue.
While it's tough to continue decorating the nursery after baby is born, they may not use it much in the early months, anyway. This means you can squeeze in little touches of your gender-specific color over a period of time before the nursery is getting full-time use from your little one.
(Images: Making It Lovely, Domino via Ohdeedoh, DecorPad, In the Fun Lane)
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They won't find out their child's "gender" after it's born, either. Sex, yes. Gender, no.
This is completely off topic, but does anyone else look at the ruffly tissue balls that are so popular right now and see a giant dust dispenser? They make me cringe!
Wrenx me too - love the look when they're bunched together, but my allergies wouldn't tolerate them so I wouldn't bother.
Am I the only mom out there that did not (overly)decorate a nursery for my little one? We did/do not have a theme. I am not even sure the bedding 'coordinates'.
I love the last room! So clean and beautiful without being too gender-specific. Perfect for either sex.
Nenasadiji - I respect your *opinion*, but people who choose to use the term "gender" in the traditional sense have every right to do so without our world being further complicated by yet ANOTHER politically correct alternate meaning to worry about. When people aggressively impose their minority/alternative opinions upon others as absolute fact, as you just did, it's counterproductive to what I can only assume you hope to achieve.
Seriously? Why on earth would anyone even want to incorporate "gender specific" colors?
To that end, I love the black and yellow nursery.
Britomart: Because if you don't color-code your baby to match its genitalia, you will turn it gay.
I agree, gender-specific colors aren't required at all!
I adored how the Young House Love bloggers did their daughter's nursery: http://blogs.babycenter.com/life_and_home/our-nursery-take-two/ . The main colors are light green, blue-green, and white, with some blue and pink accents. So beautiful! They got some subtle feminine accents but it's not a nursery that screams "GIRL IN HERE!" All you'd have to do to make it a boy's room would be to remove the pink mobile and (maybe!) replace the floral curtains with striped ones or something like that.
Sigh. I'm so in love with that nursery. It's so sweet and versatile. And it shows that you could have a lovely nursery for a little girl with no pink at all! (Imagine a yellow mobile instead of a pink one...)
I'm not a mom yet, but as an elementary school teacher and long-time babysitter, I can't imagine using that much white in any home with a child under the age of 21. So beautiful, but I'd be afraid of the impracticality.
No one's being politically correct*, except maybe the people who are using the word "gender" incorrectly because "sex" is a dirty word. Kids don't have a gender right away, since gender is how we feel and how we express ourselves. They only have what we adults are projecting onto them, which is why this crap with different genitalia prompting different bedding colors is silly. Use whatever colors you like in their room.
(*A term, which, btw, was invented by the right wing to disparage people who were advocating for the use of more sensitive language. People generally use this term to defend their "right" to describe people using slurs, while the civilized folks aren't advocating for any sort of "banning" of language, but are just asking that people use current and preferred terminology if they want to show respect and want to be taken seriously by the oppressed and their allies. The term isn't actually used much by people who ARE advocating for inclusive/accurate/sensitive language.)
I think all the rooms a lovely. I always love reading the comments on posts, they make me laugh. People really do get their knickers in a knot about some things. People its a post about room colours of babies... why is everyone so serious?
personally i prefer a primary colour mash up, with no specific gender colour coding. but that's just me.
I'm a fan of blue for girls. But, as progressive and forward thinking as I am, pink for a boy's room just seems a little off.
I like bright, leafy, lime, or spring green in kids' rooms, fresh and natural.
Blue ceilings and walls doesn't have to be boyish, it can just be sky-ish, depending if you feel like additional mural/decal type details over it.
Creamsicle orange is cheery and chipper with either honeysuckle pink or aqua blue.
Black and white plus one bright colour is always fun. And babies can see the high contrast of black and white long before they can make out pastels.
i painted my daughter's nursery soft brown because i liked it. gifts were pink so they just sat around lovely. despite a gender-neutral upbringing she decides at three she wants to exist in only purple. so she moves to a new purple room and son is born into brown room. he is attracted to blue and trains and purses (for fashionable practicality of carrying more trains, i'm sure).
imo there's nothing wrong with my story or this lovely post. children will grow into who they ought to be regardless of how long we fret over nursery decor. thanks for heads up on harmonious color combinations. they really are lovely.