Decorating a nursery or baby’s bedroom is, if we are honest, more to satisfy the parents than the new baby. There is something magical about entering a room furnished for a baby, and decorating such a room is an important part of the preparation for parenthood, especially with the firstborn child.

However, although a baby’s room should contain certain key items, from a decoration point of view all that really mailers is that the room is clean, warm, draught-free and practical.

Floors

Although the flooring in a baby’s bedroom will take very little wear and tear, it is best to treat it as a long-term investment. Consider the demands that an older child will place on the flooring, as well as a baby.

Avoid plain, dark colors, as these will make the room appear smaller. In addition, cotton wool, spilled milk and talcum powder will be conspicuous against a dark background. All babies are sick from time to time, too, so the flooring must be easy to clean. Hear in mind that the vomit of breastfed babies bleaches wooden carpets. So you will need to be careful it you choose this type of flooring.

Linoleum, laminated timber and cushioned flooring are all good options for a baby¡¯s room. Avoid using rugs, however, unless they are secured with rug tape or a non-slip liner, to avoid tripping while holding the baby.

Walls

Paint is a good option for a child s bedroom because it is easy to clean and cost-effective. However, the wide range of nursery wallpapers now available will give the room a stronger decorative character. Bear in mind that babies grow quickly, and pretty borders and delicate wallpaper patterns will soon have to be replaced by less babyish designs. One way to decorate a baby’s bedroom so that it can easily be transformed to suit your growing child s needs is to divide the walls with a pair of dado rails.

Choose a border design suitable for a baby and position it around the centre of the walls. Fix a dado rail above and below the border, then decorate the area below the first moulding and above the second moulding with the paint or wallpaper of your choice. If you choose wallpaper, try to find a design that will be suitable for an older child as well as a baby.

Avoid designs that feature babyish motifs or pictorial representations; bold, colorful stripes and polka dots are ideal. You can then replace just the border between the dado rails to suit your child s age as he or she gets older. If a replacement border is narrower than the space allocated, simply paint the whole area between the mouldings in a complementary or contrasting color to the border design, and apply the new border centrally between the mouldings. If the replacement border is wider than the space allocated, you will need to trim the border or move one of the dado rails.

Dividing the walls in this way has additional practical benefits. If one part of the wall decoration gets damaged, you can simply redecorate below or above the border, rather than the whole wall.