Selecting colors for a nursery is about more then just picking the colors you will paint the wall and trim, it can also be about picking the colors you want the art in the room to be. Art for children is of growing importance in design schemes as your options grow and the desire to have the décor of a child's room fit together becomes more common. What art looks best in any one nursery changes based more on the colors chosen for that nursery then the art in that nursery. Keep in mind when selecting a color for the nursery that any color choice has its own mood, which can impact the emotions you and your child feel in the room. There are certain psychological effects that colors can have, in addition to cultural ones. At the same time however it is important to remember always your own personal preference can be more important then either of these things. After all what you like can be unique as any effect a color is said to have on the majority is just that, a majority effect. As for your baby, they are most happy when you are most happy, so your enjoyment of a color scheme or a piece of art is more important then the overall impact a color could have on them. What follows then is not a dictionary on the way colors should and can be used, rather it is ideas and things to bear in mind as you set out to decorate the nursery.
Bright and Playful Gray for Decorating Children's Rooms.
This article begins with neutral tones because they are often ignored in your selection or forgotten. They should not be however, because while it's not often people think of grey as a bright and fun color suitable for children's décor or the nursery art for your baby. Grey is however often a very elegant color which allows more vibrant parts of the kids room to jump out, while avoiding the clutter that can come to be associated with bright rooms. A sophisticated color grey is a key component to many color schemes, especially in a children's rooms where strong and bright schemes are often used. For grey after all does not have to be made from mixing black and white, grey can be made from mixing complimentary colors such as red and green, blue and orange, or yellow and purple. Such mixtures if done correctly can be vibrant and very warm bright colors in their own right. Such colors include butter milk, silver, white gold, platinum, and creamy colored diamonds. With these colors in mind it's easy to begin to see how grey can be a fun color used to ad vibrancy to your child's nursery or room. Of equal importance these complimentary greys can be used to bridge the gap between the complimentery color schemes of a room. This will help prevent the complimentery color scheme from hurting your child's eyes or becoming generally overwhelming. Avoiding the overwhelming nature of bright color schemes is especially important when you are designing a room for your child. As children's décor is often made better with simplicity and only a few bold statements. Even as grey can turn what might have been an overwhelming color scheme into a fun possibility it can add its own emotions to any color scheme. In the example of purple and gold, a silver like grey could help to make the room seem regal dignified which could be very fun for a child. A butter milk grey could also be used in a similar way to as a bridge between the complementary colors of pink and aqua green to help create the perfect room for a princess without the overwhelming sensation that pink can cause. Even as Grey can be the perfect color for a child's room it can also be a good color for the children's wall art, or the art you might hang in your baby's room. This is because as a subtle color grays can be used to create great detail or pictures which can stir the imagination. The color grey is easy to look at which means that any pictures done in this color will be easy on the eyes allowing a child to stare at them for a long period of time. There is one last advantage to grey rooms and color schemes, this is that because grey is so easy on the eyes it creates so few distractions, and requires so little mental effort to process. This means that it is easy to spend long periods of time playing in a light grey room, and grey is believed to help stimulate thought and creativity.
Using Earth Tones in Child and Nursery Decor
Earth tones are some of the warmest and friendliest of colors, calling to mind the comfort of home and the beauty of nature. From light creams to dark chocolates the very names of these colors can call to mind the warmth that they are able to exhibit, for example Thanksgiving and the cheer of a fireplace are both surrounded with brown. For you child or baby earth tones can be used with many motifs from country, to nature, as will as to warm a room that might otherwise be overwhelming for a small child. One must be careful with browns however because although they are a warm color reminding people of home, and sturdiness they can also be used to evoke feelings of sadness. It is perhaps this range of emotions that allows brown to be both emotionally evocative and a neutral tone at the same time. In additional Earth tones go good with a number of other colors, helping to balance blues when done correctly or as a complement and natural extension of oranges and reds. This is because earth tones are complementary colors of blues and greens while they are muted versions of orange and red. Orange and warm browns are very good colors for creating a sanctuary, because both of these colors can give some sense of comfort. They are also able to be warm without being brilliant, a trait which helps prevent bright art from blending into the background. At the other end of the spectrum cooler browns, such as those tinged with a little green can be used in color schemes with green to evoke images of nature. Warmer browns are also good for this, especially if you like green but want your baby's room to still have a warm base color or strong warm highlights. Nature scenes are especially good for a child as it has so many cute and fun images; from squirrels to deer the natural world is filled with wonderful and cuddly creatures which tend to be a warm shade of brown.
Reds and Pinks to Liven Up Kid Rooms
Reds and Pinks are the most active colors; they are strong and energetic in every sense of the word. While at times they can make decent central colors for nursery decorations they are often better as accents or most especially as bases for many of nursery pictures or the objects set within your kid's bedroom décor. Desks, and blankets make good candidates for red and pink items. Pink desk area's can be especially good for girls as it will allow them to turn their desk into a bold sanctuary. Red and Pink are also good for accenting the objects in a child's room. Wall art, and paintings especially large ones can benefit greatly from a red or a pink frame to help them pop out and to separate them from the rest of the room. These accents can be used to create separate worlds where the child's imagination can roam free. Pinks especially the lighter and foamy like ones can turn a children's room into a sanctuary, a place away from the rest of the house. This color can often be very comforting rather then overwhelming, one however must be very careful with the exact shade of pink they choose should they decide to make this the primary color within the child's bed room.
Blue Cool, Clean and Calm, a Perfect Accent for a Kids Bedrooms
Blue is the favored color by men and is actually very will liked among women as well so it makes sense that it should be used as a base within many rooms. There are of course many people who presume that blue is a cold color, sad and depressing. This however depends on the room as a whole and the person within the room. For many people blue increases productivity and even strength while they are in the room painted that way. For a child this increase in these positive things will likely translate to other positives, so long as the child and parent both like the color blue. In nursery decoration the color blue is a good backdrop for creating cheerful themes as it doesn't detract from the nurseries pictures, or the wall decor. Blue also complements orange a bright and cheerful color that maybe the first color baby boys will likely learn to see. It is also a very homelike and can be a comforting color, however keep in mind that the strong complements or orange and blue can be even more overwhelming then just one bright color. For this reason it might be better to mix blue with a different warm color such as yellow.
Don't Use Yellow as the Primary Color for the Kids Room.
Yellow is a very bright and cheery color, at least many people seem to make this association. Yellow however is also the most difficult color to see, it can cause irritability, headaches, and has been shown to make babies cry more should they be in a yellow room. The reason yellow is considered a cheery color and the reason it has such a negative affect on people in large amounts is likely one and the same, yellow reflects the most light of any color and so its impact on our eyes is the greatest. This means it provides us with the most light of any color while also providing us with the most strain. This makes yellow a poor pick for a child's room, and most especially for baby nursery décor, or at least as the primary color. Yellow however can be a very good secondary color on both wall art and for the bedding. Yellow as the brightest color is also a protective and warm color, so using it to highlight a room can pull warmer motifs together. Green The Easiest Color to see, Perfect for Kids Rooms Green is one of the most common colors in nature so it is not surprising that it is also the easiest color for people to see. So easy in fact that it has been found that it can reduce the number of headaches that those who work in rooms painted in this color have. This aspect of green can make it the perfect color for your child to play within. Green is also associated with nature, making it a wonderful color both as a primary color within a key nursery painting, or as the color all the decorations hang from. Green is also a good choice as the primary color of murals as it makes a good backdrop and is after all one of the most common and beautiful backdrops in nature. Even more then blue, green is a soothing and comforting color, this is perhaps because it is so much more natural a color. Further green follows blue as the second most favored color among men. Perhaps because of its visual simplicity and, its cooler color status, green is a great way to help accent a warmer colored room, or to punch forward warm colored accents. Its natural tones also make it the perfect choice for many themes you might wish to create for your child's room.
How to Decorate with Purple the Color of Royalty, a Solid Pick for a Kids Room.
Purple historically was the color of royalty and little wonder, it is a beautiful and exotic color, able to be strong and powerful like red, red calm and functional like blue. Blue is a strange color bridging the gap between warm and cool colors it is a good color for any nursery decoration. There are many shades of purple, each one has its own unique feel, periwinkle and lavender are bright cheerful colors, where as royal is a stronger and darker color perfect for accents. Many have presumed that purple appears too artificial to be a good design motif, as it rarely ever occurs in nature. However while nature is a good guide of what is beautiful it should not be the only one. Your personal preference is very important and for many moms and even some dads purple will be a favorite color. As importantly because of its sophisticated nature it is actually also a good choice for those who want to add an air of elegance to their child's bedroom. As baby wall décor, or as blankets purple can make a room seem somewhat hip, an interesting and often wonderful effect for a babies room. Further the color purple for the same reason can make wonderful princes rooms, helping the little girl feel regal and unique.
by Ty Hulse
