I think pale aqua is fairly gender neutral. I think you'd have to pair it with a very strongly gendered color like pink to change that. I do like the aqua and white and yellow but I think a lovely soft grey would be another very neutral alternative.

I think with a color like that it would be very easy for it to turn into a girly nursery. My suggestion to stay away from that would be to use such accent colors as yellow (like in Noah's nursery), blue, white or brown and stick to furniture that has clean lines and a more modern feel (ie:Babyletto Modo Crib 3 in 1). Its a beautiful color! I hope you can make it work :)

I love aqua for either gender! You can always save a couple purchases (throw pillows or artwork) until after the baby is born and you know what you have.

My nursery is aqua and while I had a boy I think that the colors in there could go either way. I purchased the Land Of Nod Full Circle Bedding and used white furniture. I have green chenille rugs from jcpenney on the floor too. If I ever have a girl I will probably use all that stuff again, it's fairly gender neutral I think. Just make sure your furniture has a girlish feel to it and of course the accessories will make it or break it!

I'm confused. What gender is aqua supposed to be for? It looks gender neutral to me.

I like to think of pale aqua as a "neutral". So many colors look good with it! Orange, yellow, green, blue, red. Use them all in small amounts with lots of white, or choose one or two.

if you're looking to do something "theme-y" pale aqua could easily lend itself to an underwater or beach vibe, both of which i think are gender neutral themes for a nursery.

We used aqua and orange a gender neutral room. And

I love the idea of pairing aqua with grey... also, @JudiAU, LOVE orange with aqua as well, definitely gender-neutral and chic.

If you want to make it more gender-specific once baby is born, accessories &/or artwork are easy ways to do it!

I love pairing aqua with a primary red or persimmon color. Both would be gender neutral. I would avoid pastels to push it one way or the other.

I painted our nursery a light aqua for the same reason. I did go pretty gender specific with accessories though to really make it Genevieve's room. I plan to be able to just switch out accessories to make it a boy room should we have a boy in the future. Here is a link to pics of the room. Hope they help! http://lifebygrace.com/?p=346

so we've painted our baby room a similar color, and don't know the sex of the baby (the wall color turned out a bit more baby blue than aqua, but oh well). we are doing a mural on one wall with orangey-reds and goldy-yellows to ungender it. here's a photo of the unfinished mural, but you get the jest of it (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fat_tony/6182238738) please, if you hate the mural, don't tell me about it :P

When I did my boys' nursery, I didn't know what they were. The color is probably a little darker than you had in mind, but it's here: http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/nursery-tours/nursery-tour-linus-miles-and-olivers-make-room-for-three-room-050723

Our nursery is an aqua color, and we paired it with orange (and a dark brown) to make it gender neutral. We had a girl first, and so I used some Michael Miller orange/aqua fabrics with some subtle, modern florals. Now that we have a new baby boy and he's moving in to the nursery as our girl transitions out, we're replacing the floral with a more masculine faux bois fabric (which I bought back before my daughter was born and also used (although less) when it was her nursery).

Also, for our boy I'm adding in some more "masculine" stuff like woven leather storage containers for toys, although honestly it could have worked for either a girl or boy nursery. But I'm not a fan of overly girly or overly boyish nurseries in the first place.

Here are some photos to give you a general idea, although I've done a lot since I had my girl, and now my boy. It looks so bare in these photos! A lot of the fabric touches weren't done here, for example I did some of those embroidery hoops with different fabrics in the same colorway above the changing table.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.651828987377.2231894.5607913&l=caf8fef3cf&type=1

I went with aqua and red. I have a boy and I added nautical touches that make more boyish but you could easily switch it up to be more girly. A big floral print instead of a clipper ship for instance. If you'd like to see my nursery you can find it here: http://www.smallfriendly.com/small-friendly/nursery-tour.html

the gender/color discussion is always so tiring! it's a gorgeous color, for a boy or a girl. my own advice would be grey and cream. but that's what i recommend for pairing with every color :)

Agreed with everyone else, short of slapping pink all around the room, aqua is already gender neutral. If you aren't finding out but still want the option to go more boy/girl later, just hold off on the curtains and other decorations til baby comes. Best til I was told about nurseries is true: babies could care less what it looks like ,especially at a week or so old. You have time after to finish up your dream nursery.

Bright bright red would go great with either gender as a accent color. It seems I might have missunderstood your question as others answers are commenting different that what accent color goes with the aqua color that is gender neutral. i say bright cherry red!

I think the color matters less than the accessories. My daughter's room is painted pale aqua, and we've decorated with a garden "theme" - flowers and butterflies. For a stereotypical boy "theme", pale aqua could be a great backdrop for a aviation theme - planes and clouds. Or for gender-neutral, an aquarium theme. Paint now, buy accessories later.

I'm surprised the trend here is to assume pale aqua is girly. I started painting my office pale aqua and everybody assumed that meant I was having a boy and making a nursery for him. (In fact, I was painting my office, which is still my office.)

I would be tempted to go with nature-themed to make the aqua gender-neutral sky. Like tree decals, though that's hardly blazing new ground. Or skyline/building decals.

Or water, and add coral and fish motifs.

A cool effect with white-painted furniture and white bird or fish decals would be soothing and approachable.

But I like white wood furniture for both genders. Green could also work, especially a nice bright chartruese or light beach-glass.

We just did a mango room for our baby girl and until I added accessories, it could have been for either/or. I am not "themey" so I just took white curtains, had some help ironing on some ribbon and ric-rac and added some girly sheets from Caden Lane, etc., etc. I was set on a Jenny Lind crib, girl or boy, and picked up one of those ahead of time.

It's just the details you have to worry about.

We did a gender neutral aqua nursery (Behr's Tidal Pool, to be exact). Photos and details here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/intermittent/sets/72157626308983623/

It's a great soothing color, and we love spending time in this room with our baby (who turned out to be a girl!)

I think choosing the shade of aqua carefully is key. We painted my son's room Aqua Smoke (Behr) which has just enough gray and green undertones to not look "baby boy blue".

We have the Woolrich Woodlands bedding, which is gender neutral and coordinates with the wall color: http://www.target.com/p/Woolrich-Woodlands-Baby-Bedding-Collection/-/A-11277817

We got a matching 7-foot wall decal from Etsy and we rounded it out with contemporary espresso-toned furniture (Graco Lauren crib and a black-brown Expedit). It seems pretty gender-neutral to me.