Nurseries need to be painted in muted tones so that babies are not so over-stimulated and uncomfortable.  Very soft colors – pastels will ease them into the world as their vision comes into focus. Nurseries, like all our spaces, need to nourish us gently with color.

Babies first respond to black and white so small accents of those will help the neural pathways that are forming in their brains via their eyes but a room of that would make them over stimulated.

Although kids are drawn to primary colors, it’s not a great idea to have this in the room in which they will be sleeping as the bright dose of color will activate and energize them. Bright yellow is especially bad– in large quantities it has been shown to produce a colicky response in babies.

The Feeling of Color: But we aren’t only talking about vision and brain development because color, which is light, speaks to us through our skin as well. Our skin can sense the light value and vibration and respond– we are all holistic beings, after all. The key is volume and amount, a small bit of bright color against a contrast of muted color is a good thing to stimulate brain development, too much bright color will not allow the child to calm, even in the dark of night when it would appear to be no color at all, we still feel the effect of the colors on the walls and furnishings.

Color Ideas

• Colors for babies should be muted with soft, delightful contrasts.
• Light, pale yellow
• Pale pink and pale green with white trim is a very nice combo.
• Light pale yellow and a soft, muted green would work wonderfully for either boy or girl.
• The soft blues or aqua colors are lovely for both sexes because they create space and are sky-like. But be very careful when choosing blue. The pretty blue paint chips usually look way too blue on the wall while the much softer blues (with slight grey tints) actually translate into lovely baby room colors.

Don’t Forget

• The Ceiling – Something beautiful on the ceiling is also fun because they spend a lot of time looking up!
• Zero VOC paint – Zero VOC paint, like PPG Pure Performance, does not have harmful volatile organic compounds and has little to no smell (paint a room that day, occupy it that night). Zero VOC paint is better for the environment and provides a healthier room experience.