Newborn infants – both boys and girls – are coming home to a whole new décor these days, with cribs that can be changed into double beds, change tables that become chairs and colours that are so modern they look good in the living room or the baby's room.
The baby born today might very well find herself/himself in a room with walls painted chocolate brown or dove grey. They may be sleeping in the kind of bed that could last them into adulthood.
The ultra-modern set will be less likely to have Winnie the Pooh on the walls and more likely to have a subtle design that will more easily grow with the child, said Jamie Oscroft, of Days Paint and Wallpaper in St. Albert.
"For boys, often the walls might be a grey colour with yellow accents. It might be a blue/grey but it's not the traditional baby blue. It's not pastel. For the girls, it's usually a pink that's not too heavy, such as a pink hibiscus. It's not an intense pink. It's not too wild and it's toned down," Oscroft said.
Oscroft pointed out that grey and brown paints are often used throughout the house, so using it in the baby's room is an extension of that decorating model. The softly-shaded greys also work well if the parents don't know if the baby will be a boy or a girl.
"Grey is used in gender-neutral rooms and I've seen it balanced with a golden honey colour as an accent feature," Oscroft said.
Some parents are achieving an ultra-feminine room by painting or wallpapering the walls in shades of mauve.
"I've seen grey and silver used as neutral shades. They are used because they are calming colours but I have used silver mixed with purples and the trick when you are doing that is to use different textures in the room, perhaps with wallpaper, with stuffed toys and by using metallic textures," said St. Albert designer Jody Boras of i.d.ah interiors.
Lifelong dreams
The whole idea of decorating a room so that it grows with the baby is a prominent theme at specialty stores such as West Coast Kids and Toys R Us. At both stores there is less emphasis on tiny bassinets or Moses-style baskets, and more of a push for cribs that can be changed later into double or single beds.
Drop-side cribs that allowed parents to raise or lower the side to lift the baby out of the bed are no longer considered safe. New-style cribs are designed so the mattress can be lowered instead of the side railing.
"As the newborn gets older, and starts sitting up, you drop the mattress. Later the back of the crib becomes the headboard of a double bed. That makes the child more comfortable when it is time to leave the crib. People like it because they can use the bed for a longer period of time," said Sukhi Bhangu, a sales representative at West Coast Kids.
To add comfort, the baby's room will be furnished with a gliding rocking chair complete with a gliding footstool. Often the chairs are also brown or grey so they may easily blend in with family-room furnishings once the baby no longer needs as much rocking.
Blanket no no
Baby blankets are going the way of the dodo bird. Instead of blankets, the new trend is to wrap babies in snugly-fitting sleep sacs that enclose the child in a tight little swaddle of warmth. The wraps mean there are no loose edges near a sleeping baby's face so there is less chance of suffocation, but in addition, newborns seem to like the womb-like enclosures, Bhangu said.
"These work because the baby doesn't get uncovered when sleeping. They are like a cocoon. You can take their arms out if you like but babies love them," she said.
Colourful blankets were often a decorator's best friend because they provided an easy way to add colour to a room. With or without blankets, the room can still be a restful haven for both Mom and baby and the new style beds make styling easy, Boras said.
"Grey is a neutral colour that will go with anything. As the child grows, you change the accessories, but not the bed," she said.
Boras recently decorated a room for a newborn baby boy with birch-tree patterned wallpaper.
"The wallpaper became the feature wall in the nursery. I didn't take the wallpaper all the way to the edge but instead left one inch on either side for a strip of wood trim. It's timeless. The baby's room doesn't have to be kiddy kiddy. But it is a nice room for Mom and baby to be together," Boras said.
