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When you’re preparing a special space for your new baby, there are many nursery painting options beyond the traditional baby pink or light blue. These modern nursery painting options range from bold, and fun to calm and serene (including our picks for best neutral nursery paint colors).
You’ll also want to browse our gallery of 100+ wall painting options and read our best painting tips and tricks for DIYers.
Selecting colors for a nursery is an exciting, yet sometimes confusing, part of preparing for a new baby. You must understand how infants see and distinguish paint color before launching a full-scale remodel of the spare room.
Remember that infants can see large and bold patterns from birth but cannot differentiate between similar colors like red and orange or pastel shades. Not until they reach about eight months can babies see colors like adults and recognize objects across the room.
Creating A Neutral Color Palette For Your Nursery Design
To create a neutral color pattern that reflects the warmth and tenderness a new mother has for her infant, select beiges and creams to set the mood. Different shades of tans and browns or hues of griege and gray can make a nursery look soft and welcoming, yet adds a distinctively traditional feel.
Enhance some neutral palettes with patterns and artistic elements to give the nursery a modern feel. Softer shades are also believed to promote good health and prosperity in some areas.
Incorporate splashes of color by introducing muted shades on fabrics and artwork. Patterns can break up a monotonous neutral theme and can provide babies with visual stimulation as they grow.
To keep a neutral colored nursery from looking sterile, incorporate textures in neutral textiles such as curtains, blankets, rugs, and baskets or bins for toys. A limited color scheme makes what colors you do use pop.
When choosing a neutral nursery paint color or a bold one, consider how the colors will flow with your whole home color scheme. You can use your chosen colors for textiles or furniture as well as for painting walls, trim, board and batten, or even the ceiling as an accent color.
Remember, though, there come many messes with your first baby, so colors should be steadfast and direct to clean. We recommend using an eggshell finish paint that’s straightforward to clean and durable.
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HOW TO TEST A PAINT COLOR
When you’ve chosen the well fitted color (or several) — be sure to test it out before splurging for the gallon of paint!
- Get a sample tester or, even easier, a peel and stick paint sample swatch!
- Use an online paint color visualizer or paint color mobile app to test the paint color using a photo of your room.
- Follow our paint expert’s tips here for choosing and testing a paint color.
Best Neutral Nursery Paint Colors
Choosing the best neutral nursery paint color for your room will depend greatly on the lighting in the nursery. Use a sample tester, a peel and stick paint swatch, or paint a sample poster board or large drywall square, then look at it in the various hours of the daylight as well as with your room lighting.
For variety in trim, accent wall, or furniture paint colors in a neutral nursery (or any other room), use Cyndy’s trick here for choosing coordinating neutral colors and be sure to read 4 Ways to Make Neutrals Rock for more neutral decorating tips.
Classic Neutral Paint Colors for a Nursery
Click the paint color swatch to order a peel and stick sample, or the linked name to learn more about that color in our Paint Color Library.
BREEZEWAY (Behr)
This cool-toned soft blue-green is a striking neutral (and was the color of the year for reason!)
HEALING ALOE (Benjamin Moore)
This light green (ish) paint color is soothing for a nursery, bathroom, or bedroom. Read more >
SEA SALT (Sherwin-Williams)
This reader go-to paint color can look more or less gray depending on the lighting — which makes it a great whole home paint color, too! sponsored nofollow
BEACH GLASS (Benjamin Moore)
This calming neutral is a deeper tone than Sea Salt, and looks subtly gray in most lighting. Read more >
EVERGREEN FOG (Sherwin-Williams)
This gray-ish paint has a strong green undertone, making it neutral while also right on-trend. See more green gray paint color picks >
PALE OAK (Benjamin Moore)
This light griege neutral paint color is a striking fit for a nursery! Read more >
SILVER STRAND (Sherwin-Williams)
This gray paint really shines in spaces with artificial lighting, so it will look great in the low light during nighttime feedings. See more >
INTENSE WHITE (Benjamin Moore)
This classic creamy white color will look great on nursery walls as well as kid, teen, and adult rooms. See more >
How to Pick the Best White Paint Color
WYTHE BLUE (Benjamin Moore)
This versatile green-gray has blue undertones so it can act as a neutral while also adding some happy color. See more >
PASSIVE (Sherwin-Williams)
This mid-toned gray paint color looks great on walls or for cabinets or furniture, like a changing table or dresser, making it one of our go-to whole home paint colors.
COVENTRY GRAY (Benjamin Moore)
This gray paint looks striking in versatile lighting, from natural to artificial, so it’s a great choice for a nursery. Read more >
REPOSE GRAY (Sherwin-Williams)
No discussion of neutral paint colors could be complete without this go-to gray paint color that tops trending paint color lists while also being a timeless classic! See more new neutral paint color picks >
HALE NAVY (Benjamin Moore)
This deep blue paint color has balanced tones to make it an ideal dark dramatic neutral. See more >
Wrought Iron (Benjamin Moore)
This deep gray-brown tone is the well fitted “black” paint color to add contrast without looking too stark. Read more >
NEWBURG GREEN (Benjamin Moore)
This rich teal green paint color is a show-stopper on an accent wall or cabinetry or furniture. See more >
Best Dark Green Paint Colors for Walls & Cabinets
Using Bold Colors For The well fitted Nursery
When using bold colors in a nursery, don’t overdo it. While it may seem colorful and vibrant to adults, to a baby’s developing eyesight, the bright colors may be overstimulating.
Read our paint professional’s tips for choosing bright and bold paint colors.
Create large geometrical shapes on the accent wall against a contrasting shade. Also, use two different vibrant colors to paint different walls or sections of the wall.
Vertical stripes on the wall are fresh and exciting and can coordinate with several crib fabrics and linens available on the market. Keep the patterns direct, though, and avoid complicated or similar shades that go unnoticed or undesired by your infant.
Traditional Color Schemes
Traditional color schemes–dark blues for boys, pinks for girls, and yellows or greens for gender-neutral designs–are always popular amongst new parents who are tentative about selecting the colour scheme for the new nursery.
Yellow, lavender, and beige are also common color options and popular choices for a fairy tales nursery.
When selecting your color palette, remember that there are several ways to arrange these colors, from solid colors on the walls with designs introduced through fabric or solid monochromatic colors for a unified nursery theme.
The easiest way to begin is to collect pictures of nurseries from magazines or Internet sites to provide inspiration for nursery decor options you and your baby will love.
Other Different Colors options
You may wish to personalize the space for your child and infuse the infant with a sense of his family’s interests. Some fathers dream of their young children being the next star quarterback, and decorate the baby’s room in his go-to team colors.
A mother may want her baby girl to embrace her love of nature and may choose to use greens, browns, and natural materials to introduce this concept to her child.
When selecting nursery room colors, remember that the baby will grow quickly and so will her likes and dislikes, and you will most likely redesign the space in a few short years.
Your newborn baby deserves the best. One way to do something special for her is to put time and effort into creating a haven for her to live in. Personalize a baby nursery by painting the white walls.
Paint a mural, use wall decals or paint items and pictures on the walls. Unleash your creativity and have fun decorating your baby’s nursery. Here are some baby nursery paint options with a cohesive look.
A Garden With Soft Shades
Paint the walls of the entire room to look like a whimsical garden. Paint the walls a soft sage green to create the background for the images. Add flowers, rabbits, garden vegetables, and birds. Cute and fluffy rabbits in multiple colors and shades are adorable and will make even you smile each time you rock your baby to sleep.
Stars On Your Nursery Walls
Create a nursery that is reminiscent of the sky by decorating it with stars. Paint the walls a soft blues color. Paint stars onto the ceiling and walls, either all over the walls or as a border around the top, by using sponges shaped like stars and dipping them in paint. For an extra special touch, use glow-in-the-dark paint which will emit a soft glow as your little angels go to sleep in his crib.
Stencils Is One Of The Easiest Way To Decorate
There are many ways to use stencils and paint to decorate a nursery. Use them to stencil pictures of animals or cars. In addition, use the stencils to paint your baby’s name on the walls to personalize the nursery. Another novel option is to stencil a go-to nursery rhyme on the wall. A direct tone-on-tone stencil like the polka dot wall below is straightforward using eggshell and gloss paint.
Retro Flowers For You Bundle Of Joy
If you would like to create a nursery that is bright and cheery, paint the nursery with retro flowers using colors such as bright oranges, pinks, greens, and yellows. Paint large flowers on the wall. Paint the walls lavender or light yellow. Any bright color will work; just make sure it’s something other than what you use for the flowers so that they don’t blend in too much.
Neutral Nursery options
Getting your nursery ready is an important step before you bring your baby home. A gender-neutral nursery is important if you want to be surprised by your baby’s gender or expect to have more children in the future.
Just because your nursery isn’t geared toward one gender or the other doesn’t mean it has to be boring.
Soothing, Neutral Tones Is A Good option
Earth tones like beige, brown, and taupe can act as the base colors for your nursery. Then bring in splashes of other soft colors like pink, lilac, butter yellow, soft green, and periwinkle in a mural or border.
Bold Colors For A Whole Wall
Bright, bold colors work well in a gender-neutral nursery. Think of a bright canary yellow, ruby red, orange, lime green, or cornflower blue. To contrast with bold-colored walls and accessories, you may want to keep the furniture white or natural.
Primary Colors Are A Good Choice
The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. Babies tend to recognize primary colors before other colors. Paint the walls white and the furniture a primary color for a big color impact. Or paint walls in primary colors and leave the furniture natural or paint it white.
Color Combinations In A Fun Way
Include a variety of color combinations. Paint two walls yellow and the remaining walls a soft brown or green. Other combinations include black and red, brown and blue, orange and green, and beige and light purple. You could also paint the walls with stripes in different color combinations.
Neutral Themes Are An Excellent Choice
If you want to decorate your baby’s nursery with a specific theme, there are plenty from which to choose. Disney characters are always a go-to, as are cartoon characters, animals, and characters from go-to storybooks, such as Dr. Seuss.
You can also decorate the room with an ocean or beach theme, ladybugs and caterpillars, stripes and checks, or toile to stay in keeping with a neutral theme.
More nursery decorating options
- Woodland Animal Nursery Art Printables
- 25 striking Nurseries
- 25 Handmade Nursery Decor Projects
- 7 Steps to an Organized Nursery
