“Of the last five rooms we did, four of them had either a monogram, the baby’s name lettered on the wall or a mixture of both,” said Lisa Pozdol, manager of WiggleWorm children’s store.

One customer was looking for a “classic, little-girl nursery.” Bunnies ended up being the theme the room revolved around. Bunnies now frolic in hand-painted murals, and baby’s name involved in the Lydia Reynolds painting design. The room is soft and feminine with cheerful shades of pink combined with celadon green. A combination of four fabrics includes a Brewster rose toile from which baby bumpers, crib skirt, table skirt, toss pillows and changing pad are made.

But the focal point of the room is baby’s monogram centering the cornice board across the window treatment. A matching monogram covers the night light’s shade.

The photo growth chart is a unique personal touch. Twelve small frames are grouped on linen fabric within a larger frame. Each month, a new photo of their little girl is added into a frame, making a photo record of baby’s first year. Each frame contains a square of the Brewster toile so that it coordinates with the room’s design until it is filled.

Working with a favorite color may make it tempting to use just that one hue throughout the décor. This will only create a dull and artificial atmosphere. Far more appealing would be a palette of contrasting colors applied to the various decorative elements. The following examples illustrate just how versatile and creative such color palettes can be as inspiration for a wedding look – whether these use light color contrasts, warm color contrasts, or cool color contrasts. The results are startlingly distinct—both visually and emotionally.

(1) Light Color Contrasts
Base Color: Pink
Contrast: Yellow and Green
Pink is a sweet, feminine color, great for a girl’s nursery room. But it can also be too much of a good thing if you use it throughout the décor may make the room appear overly saccharine. A color palette with pink as the base color can use lemon yellow and lime green accents for contrast—instantly creating a light, cheerful look.

(2) Warm Color Contrasts
Base Color: Red
Contrasting Colors: Burnt Orange and Brown
Red as part of the color palette of a baby’s nursery certainly makes a bold statement for a little boy, but using a palette consisting solely of red shades may be overpowering. Thus, warm, earthy colors such as burnt orange, brown, and a muted shade of gold are recommended as contrasts in a red-based nursery.

(3) Cool Color Contrasts
Base Color: Light Blue
Contrasting Colors: Navy Blue and White
Light blue is a lovely, relaxing color for a nursery. However, if a room’s color palette is based solely on this hue, the setting may appear pale and washed out—not exactly befitting a happy baby. Nursery room decor with light blue as its base can be enlivened with touches of navy blue and white.

While a nursery theme may be an exciting challenge for many, planning a theme in the hope of ensuring a perfect room for baby can be limiting at times. The good news is that, in lieu of a theme, color serves as a wonderful unifying element that can be parlayed as a great source of inspiration for the nursery’s décor. After all, a nursery party is not about staging a theme. It’s about celebrating that once-in-a-lifetime happiness of a beautiful baby.

Teresa is a full-time mom to Caleb, 4, Noah, 2, and was expecting her first daughter, Zoe Elizabeth. Her husband Scott is an officer in the Marine Corps, was deployed to Iraq in March and won’t return home until October after the birth of his first daughter. Teresa was looking to jazz up the nursery her two boys once shared into a feminine haven.

For her unborn daughter Teresa decided on traditional furnishings. Tracy chose decor pieces with graceful shapes and a shabby-chic feel and dolled up the room with cute details. A pastel-pink crib and cozy glider were selected as furniture pieces, and a dragonfly appliqué added to a simple white Roman shade added some color pops. Adding subtle touches like replacing the old brass doorknob with the rosy glass one made a huge difference to the room.

Tracy imagined a vintage garden when designing baby Zoe’s room. The tree silhoutte on the wall brought in a variety of colors and lended a whimsical feel to it. Tracy fashioned it out of patterned wallpapers from the ’60s and 70′s. Instead of buying a perfect set of coordinated crib linens, Tracy plays with patterns and textures that don’t have to have exactly mataching colors, but a similar tone.

She also suggests playing around with items that already exist in your home and to get creative with the ideas you have to achieve the look you want. Because she couldn’t find a birdcage light fixture she wanted at an affordable price, she bought a cage at a yard sale, added some spray paint and electrical wire and boom, a beautiful chandelier. Teresa had a round mirror she didn’t know where to put, so it hung in her hallway. Tracy found a way to make it into a nursery accessory by fashioning bejeweled ribbon with safety pins and screwed it into the baby’s room wall with a posy-shaped pink knob as the anchor.

When designing a nursery for a baby girl, it’s normal to have your first instinct be to paint the room pink. But instead of using one shade of pink, Tracy contrasted borders on the ceiling, baseboards, and door frame in hot pink. The look gives the illusion of expensive crown moolding work and adds depth to the room.

While most redesigned are witnessed for the first time in front of a street full of neighbors and friends shouting ‘Move that bus,’ Teresa saw her nursery makeover alone. After seeing it for the first time, she started to cry. “This is better than anything I ever dreamed of,” she said.

You can get the items Tracy used to makeover Teresa’s nursery room below:

Harpswell table, $680, Buckingham glider, $1,240, Bratt Decor Jane Crib, $714, braided rug, $60; Embroidered Flowers Crib Bedding Set; Marcella wardrobe, $1,249; Blankets (in cubbies), $44 each; Pink Twiggy changing pad cover, $24; Elizabeth diaper bag, $325, Bratt Decor Jane Dresser with changing tray, $1,367.

Purchase Tracy’s book! Feathering the Nest: Tracy Hutson’s Earth-Friendly Guide to Decorating Your Baby’s Room

Some women are nesting and are mentally unaware of it. Their nesting instincts may be subtle, yet they are going around their living quarters doing tasks in preparation for their child’s birth. When nesting is subtle, it is thought to be because the woman may be energetic or active naturally, regardless of her pregnancy. Other women report a surge of energy that is impossible to still. These women know they are nesting and they are unable to quell the surge of energy.

While nesting can take on the characteristics of normal household chores, when a woman is nesting, she will probably carry out the tasks more meticulously and persistently than usual. These can include cleaning our cabinets, rearranging furniture, steam cleaning carpets and upholstery, and stocking the kitchen with food and cooking.

While you enjoy becoming this new domestic goddess as you nest for your new little one, there are a few safety guidelines you should follow:

Changing your mind about furniture placement and rearranging it yourself are two very different things. When you’re pregnant you should definitely leave the heavy lifting up to someone else.

When possible, let your partner do the painting. Prolonged exposure to the smells of paint toxins can be bad for the baby.

Cleaning is a big part of nesting, so choose to use non-toxic cleaning products. You will want to stop using them anyway when the baby arrives, so starting early will get you into the new product buying routine.

Yellow seems to be gaining in popularity on the decorating front. It appeals to men as well as women, coordinates well with other colors, and comes in a wide array of hues that fit into all types of decors. When thinking about adding a bit of sunshine to your baby’s nursery walls, it’s wise to put some thought into finding the perfect shade of yellow.

A soft tone that offers just a hint of buttery yellow can be a pleasing neutral backdrop that can be used with almost anything. A pale yellow teamed up with pastel blues, aquas, apricots, pinks or pale sage creates a soft and delicate environment, perfect for a nursery, a little girl’s room or a to set the tone in a floral-inspired nursery. Truer tones of yellow combined with blue create a classic combination often seen in toile patterns or crisp stripes. Juxtapose a bolder yellow as an accent with black and white and the result is very contemporary.

1. Gender-Neutral Decor
Pink is not going away anytime soon and neither is blue, but they are being joined by the neutral, unisex colors. Sarah Lynam of Pottery Barn Kids said the store’s summer line is loaded with gender-neutral schemes, including a new Dr. Seuss line featuring blue, red and yellow. Items in the nursery bedding line will be available this month, and prices range from $29 for a fitted sheet to $99 for a crib bumper. And for those with a green mind to match the green decor, the sheets are made with organic cotton fibers.

2. Designer-Look Nurseries
With a celebrity gracing the cover of a magazine with their new baby almost each week, the several page spread about their joyous addition not only displays the hottest diaper bags and strollers, but nursery decor. “You are going to spend a lot of time in the room, so you want it to be inviting for you and able to grow,” Lynam said. “You are starting to see the designer look, so you grow with the child and you like it, and later it can transition into another room.” Whatever the style of your home is, bring that style into your nursery.

3. Animals Move Indoors
All of nature’s creatures have moved inside to baby’s nursery. Owls and elephants seem to be popping up everywhere in nursery themes. Horton Hears A Who! has been a major influence in this revival of the big mammal.

4. Lavender and Tiffany Blue
Pink with brown and blue with brown have been the color combinations for a while in nurseries for a reason. They look pretty together. But other color schemes are on the horizon. Lavender and purple seem to be trending up as well as a lot of aqua blue and Tiffany blue.

How have you decorated your nursery?

Feng shui literally means ‘wind, water’ and involves balance in the environment in which we live. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as, “a system of laws considered to govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of energy, and whose effects are taken into account when location scouting and designing buildings.” This flow of energy is called ‘chi’ and it sustains everything in life. Feng shui proposes that, by arranging and aligning the room correctly, energy will flow better in the room and that all who reside in the room will flourish and prosper better than if the energy is the room was not harmonious. Designing a nursery with feng shui benefits not only the child, but the rest of the family. Here are some basics to bear in mind when designing a nursery.

Timing
The Chinese are very superstitious and therefore believe it’s best to leave decorating the nursery until the last few weeks leading up to the birth – so mischievous spirits are not tempted to do damage to the baby. However, we don’t think that leaving the heavy-duty decorating is the best idea for a heavily pregnant woman! Maybe it’s best to sit in a comfortable chair and give instructions to your partner.

Room Position in the House
Ideally, a child’s room should be in the middle, or the ‘bosom’ of the house, as Raymond Catchpole, chairman of The Feng Shui Society calls it, to induce feelings of security in the child. Cathpole also advises, “A new baby should have a bedroom that is not over a garage or has an empty space below. The bedroom also shouldn’t be located where there is excessive noise that might keep the baby from sleeping, such as close to a living room where the TV is on or close to a noisy street or neighbor.”

Colors
The best colors for a child’s room are soothing tones that aren’t boring, such as the pale blues, pale green and a nice yellow. Something that is sunshine-like is always a good choice. Some experts advise that babies’ rooms should be in soft ‘yin colors’ which evoke serenity and rest, like pastel blues and greens, peach or light buttercup. Primary colors are not ideal as they can be quite stimulating and, therefore, not restful in a sleeping place. While rooms with bright colors and many decorations are typical when we think of nurseries, feng shui consultants advise that a less ‘busy’ room in terms of design will show parents an improvement in sleeping and behavior.
Crib Position in Nursery
Whenever you enter a bedroom, the bed is placed in the proper position for an adult: you’d expect to see the head of the bed against the furthest wall so while in bed a person can see what’s coming. This is a command-type of position. However, so many people put cribs in odd ways. Cribs are often lined up with the door which is disastrous in feng shui as this attracts harsh energy, or they are placed along side a wall, but rarely, if ever, is a crib placed like it should be: with the head against the wall.” The first year is all about sensory input — they feel everything. Having your baby in a command position allows him to have that comfort and safety.

Other Feng Shui Decorating Advice
It’s nice to personalize a room and carefully selected items can do this. Framed family pictures are ideal as they provide security and happiness. A green plant is essential as it cleans the atmosphere – but make sure it is out of reach of little hands! Lighting should be soft and keep electrical goods to a minimum to reduce the amount of electromagnetic radiation. Curtains are apparently better than blinds too, and often white is the preferred color, although this may lead to early mornings in the summer! You do want to have a fair amount of toys and things to keep your baby stimulated, but not so much that he or she will feel over-stimulated and over-loaded, but keep the bulk of these items someplace else.