Design • 13 april, 2021 • 10 min læsning

Gender-Neutral Nursery Ideas For Your Newborn

Are you in the process of designing a gender-neutral nursery? Here are some innovative ideas that go beyond painting walls blue for boys, and pink for girls!

Af Edvin Brobeck

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Gender-Neutral Nursery Colors 

modern map poster of il fornaio, italy
Classic Mapiful Poster – Modern Style

Darker Tones

Neutral colors are alternatives to baby blue color schemes for boys and baby pink schemes for girls. Neutral colors are the ones that “go with everything” and include:



White
Beige 
Olive
Gray
Brown

If you’re not a fan of neutrals, then an alternative for a baby room’s color schemes include dark tones like ochre (earthy pigment) and sapphire blue. These dark tones might seem odd for nurseries, but you can offset the drab colors with game-changing patterns and soft fabrics. One-color combo for nurseries is gray and yellow.  

Baby Blues

This might be surprising since in modern times people often associate color with boys. In fact, retailers generally considered blue to be a girl’s color until the 1940s. Blue is one of the “cool colors” like green and violet. So, it can create a calm environment for boys and girls in nursery rooms. You can also make the room more gender-neutral by adding soft fabrics and delicate patterns to the sky, royal, or navy blue.

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Gender-Neutral Nursery Themes 

star map poster of birth date in a gender-neutral nursery decor
Star Mapiful Poster – Gaia Style

Natural

This neutral nursery theme can create a calming space for young babies and their parents. You can add elements like natural wood, natural coloring, and so on. Another option is to create natural themes for furniture pieces like rocking chairs, and décor like mirrors.

Is the extra time and effort required for creating a natural theme worth it? It arguably is due to the amount of time you and your young baby will be spending in the room. 

Modern

You can create a modern look for your baby’s nursery that’s also gender-neutral. Options include fun wallpaper that deviates from more traditional designs. The caveat is “modern theme” can have a broad definition. For example, it can include a mid-century motif from the past century.  

Safari

This theme includes not only décor like wallpaper, but also furniture pieces. It combines elements like plants, trees, and animals. The safari theme is ideal for small spaces, although you can also make tweaks for larger rooms. 

Elements for this theme include earthy colors and safari animals. Just make sure the animals aren’t too scary for your little one!   

Big World

Even if your son or daughter is an infant, you can increase their curiosity and love of travel. In fact, the Around the World theme can turn them into a globetrotter without leaving their nursery crib. Some options include global stuffed animals and rocking chairs with legs that resemble vintage airplanes. 

 

In this case, the key is to begin being with a classic theme then add a twist like a striped ceiling. This makes the room playful and unique while providing growth as your child grows.

Night Sky

Infants need 14 to 17 hours of daily sleep, according to Kids Health. It’ll be a lot easier to get a good night’s sleep when looking up at a sparkly mural. This one includes a night-sky ceiling that creates “shining stars” using recessed lighting. 

You can also combine this lighting theme with others for the room’s furniture and décor.  

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Gender-Neutral Nursery Décor 

Modern map poster or Washington, United States
Classic Mapiful Poster – Modern Style

Blackout Curtains/Blinds 

You can use blackout curtains or blinds with any nursery décor. Even more importantly, they can help your baby get more quality sleep since it will be easier to keep track of daytime and nighttime when they doze off before sunset. This can improve their internal clock.   

Ironically you can find blackout curtains in various colors and patterns—not just black. What if you love your nursery curtains? An alternative is to keep your existing nursery curtains and add blackout liners to keep out more outdoor light. As this master’s degree in product and interior design nicely puts it, we have to learn the importance of commitment, adaptability, and the art of change when designing a space for a newborn.

In-Crib Décor

Make sure to keep cute décor in areas like the furniture, walls, and floors. This can help to maintain a gender-neutral nursery that doesn’t seem more feminine or masculine.  

Warm Carpet

You can make carpeting warm and inviting without using gender-specific colors and motifs. They include options like white, cream, and light blue/pink over darker shades. Keep motifs cute yet not gender-specific.  

Other options include basic prints like stars that your baby won’t quickly grow out of. Pair the carpeting with light-colored furniture and star-shaped wall stickers that bring together all the room’s decorative elements.

Wall Mural

This can help to brighten up any nursery and is easy to update later. You could select a gender-neutral woodland motif with pictures of baby animals. This option will also help to make a small room seem larger and trigger your child’s imagination.

One trick is to make the wall mural a focal point of the room. It’s super-easy! Simply scale back the other nursery décor so the mural is the first thing that people look at.  

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Gender-Neutral Nursery Bedding 

Modern star map poster of the night we met you, in a gender-neutral nursery decor
Star Mapiful Poster – Modern Style

Easy-clean Beddings/Mattresses

When picking nursery accessories like beddings and mattress pads, pick ones that are easy to clean. When picking the right mattress, you can go for the waterproof options, for instance. You can look for the same feature when picking other items, including:

Curtains
Rugs
Wallpaper
Furniture
Decor 

Colorful in-Crib Items 

When designing a gender-neutral nursery, you should also try to avoid colorful pillows and fuzzy blankets in the crib to maintain gender neutrality. These are also unsafe until your little one turns one year old. 

Keep stuff like blankets, pillows, and crib bumpers outside the crib. The bed sheet also shouldn’t be too loose.

Room’s Color Scheme/Themes

When selecting the beddings, make sure to pick colors and patterns that complement other items in the room, including furniture, walls, carpet/rugs, and décor.

Conclusion

You can go with basic decorations or complex themes when creating a nursery room for your baby boy or girl. This can help to create a safe, comfy, and caring bed space for your tot. Choosing wisely can make it easy to convert the infant nursery into a toddler bedroom. The above-mentioned gender-neutral ideas can create the perfect place for your new baby to sleep, eat, play, learn, and grow. Try them out!

Article by Brett Armstron

Brett is a writer at ID-Mag.

An enthusiast and expert when it comes to sleep products, Brett dedicates a lot of his time reading, researching, and reviewing about both traditional and emerging sleep brands that manufacture varied types of sleep products – from eco-mattresses, smart pillows to cooling sleep systems, Brett has probably reviewed them all. Brett also finds sleep especially important since he juggles a small business which he runs from home, makes sure he spends time with his daughter and he also writes during his spare time – you can definitely see that he needs a great forty winks all night, every night so he’ll make sure that you get great sleep, too!