Design Ideas for Baby's Room

Characters

• If you are fan of a particular cartoon character such as Disney characters, Curious George or Peter Rabbit, design your baby's room around the character. Start by looking for baby bedding with your desired character on it. Many baby supply stores have the popular characters available. If you cannot find the specific character you are looking for, choose solid-colored bedding or make your own with patterns at a craft store. Hang pictures of the characters in different scenes around the baby's room. Add stuffed animals around the room that fit your chosen character theme.

Animals

• You can find bedding that fits most animal themes at baby supply stores. You can also make your own bedding if you cannot find the exact color and animal you are looking for. Paint a mural on the walls with your animal theme. For example, if you are going with an underwater animal theme, paint an underwater scene with fish, dolphins and octopuses. Place stuffed animals around the room that match your theme. Paint furniture with your desired animals or purchase drawer pulls that have that particular animal on it.

Transportation

• Transportation themes are easy to do. Start with themed or solid-colored bedding. Then paint planes, trains or cars on the wall, depending on your chosen theme. If you choose planes, you can hang model planes from the ceiling or place model trains or cars on shelves. Look for lamp shades with your chosen mode of transportation to add additional accents. Many baby supply stores have activity rugs with roads on them, which you can place in the center of the nursery as an accent. Your baby can use the rug for play later on.

Sports

• Choose a generic sports theme or focus on one particular sport or even on a favorite team. If you are interested in a specific team, search your team's official website for baby supplies. If you cannot find bedding for your particular team, choose solid colors that meet your team colors and design around that or choose muted versions of those colors. Paint your team's logo on the wall. You can also decorate the room with fan memorabilia, such as baseball cards, signed footballs or posters of your favorite players.

Colors

• Pick a color to design your room. You can choose solid baby bedding and play with different hues of the color. For example, if you want to use purple, decorate with lilac, plum and lavender. You can paint the walls a solid color or you could do stripes or polka dots to create your theme. You can also choose two or three colors, such as blue, green and brown. Choosing a color theme allows you to decorate your room any way you want and does not limit you to a specific animal or sport, for example. Decorations and furniture can be anything that matches your color scheme.