Thank you for joining us in this series on Home Decorating.
Our hope is that these short blog bursts will enable & inspire you to refresh a room in your home.
This week we'll help you refresh a room for your grandbaby.
Congratulations! You have a little one on the way….if you’re reading this you are most likely planning for your grandbaby who will be visiting. How exciting.
For those new parents just starting out, everything is brand new. Creating a baby’s room for a parent will be an all-out remodel including painting, construction, wallpaper, and more.
For this baby room refresh we are tackling a room in your home you can refresh for when your grandbaby comes to visit.
You’ve chosen the room in your home that will work and now what? What 3 elements can you add to this room to make the baby happy, make it easy to care for this baby, and that makes you happy too?
Let’s run through a few things to consider when refreshing…
First of all, being the grandparent you don’t have to go with pink or blue, or even green or yellow, which is good because you will not be painting! Remember this is a room refresh and not a remodel so no painting.
Let’s start with the crib. There are so many out there to choose from. Literally millions. Go shopping. Research online. Have fun with it. Then place your crib inside the room away from the door and away from the line of site of the door. You will want a space where it will be quiet with no distractions for sleeping. You’ve done this before…this is a reminder.
A good idea is to place the crib against a wall, not under a window, for support and safety. Once he starts trying to crawl out, if you have the crib in the corner you’ve got yourself a natural barricade on a couple of sides.
Beautiful grandbaby room, below, but it would seem safer with the crib against a wall.
Along those same lines, it's probably not a good idea to place the crib under or too near a window. In fact, hanging heavy dark curtains or drapes to cover the windows in this room will help keep baby from waking with the sunrise. As a parent you might rethink that, but as a grandparent you may want your grandbaby to sleep in, in the morning. The room below is beautiful but adding heavier drapes to keep the room dark longer in the morning is a must. (Note the pretty chandelier!)
Consider including a grown-up bed in this room if your children will be there as well or if you would like to sleep in the room to keep an eye on the baby.
What else will you need? How about a changing table with drawers or shelves to make those diaper changes easier? You will be able to store all those items right next to where you change his diaper. Nothing makes things easier than organization.
Simple and efficient
Think about the height of your crib and changing table too. Leaning over for hours a day can do a number on your older back.
For this refresh you may or may not want to buy a changing table, so consider re-purposing a dresser. Make sure to include sturdy borders on top to ensure the baby doesn’t roll off. You can use the drawers for supplies.
When choosing your grandbabies’ crib consider buying one that converts to a twin bed, making your next refresh into a child’s room that much easier.
Lighting is also a consideration. You’ll want additional soft lights for night visits along with regular daytime lighting. Choose placement of those lights to benefit walking into and out of the room, feeding and rocking him back to sleep, and positioning the switches next to the door for convenience.
Here is a favorite grandbaby room--with the chandelier!
What about a comfortable chair to sit and hold your grandbaby? It’s your preference…firm and easy to get out of? Rocker of some kind? Again, this should be fun because you get to go shopping!
And this...
As a grandparent decorating this room, you'll want it to be versatile for not just grand babies, but as a den or possible general guest bedroom. Do you have enough space in your home for a dedicated baby room? If not, think about combining uses for it.
Here is a den with the baby's crib added...
The 3 main elements needed to refresh this room to get it ready for your grandbaby are the crib, a changing table and organized supply set-up, and lighting. Once you’ve accomplished these 3 things, the real fun begins. How do you want to decorate? Neutral so the room can have more uses? Or full-on baby? Your choice! Keeping the decorations simple allows you to change them out more often than just when you convert to the child’s room.
Again, there are so many cute and perfect baby decorations to choose from. This is a fun time to be able to shop. Letter blocks, murals, mobiles above the crib, curtains, themed characters, wall art, hanging objects, rugs, decorative and comfort pillows and always a favorite…chandeliers!
Shopping in-store or online can keep you busy for hours. As you look you’ll gravitate towards what works for you and what you find to your tastes. Make a list. Shop some more. You will most likely need to narrow that list down to be reasonable. Then have some fun and go for it.
Make it simple and keep the end result in mind and this should be your most fun and most rewarding room refresh.
Below are examples of simple grandbaby room refreshes.
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