Oh Baby: 7 Steps to Decorating A Unique Nursery

5.) On The Floor

Flor Nursery with Rake Me Over and Feelin' Groovy

Flooring is such a personal choice, but an important one. If your nursery has wall-to-wall carpeting, I would say you’re all set – unless you want to change out the color/texture. If you want to install new carpeting, consider a hard-wearing berber in a darker neutral (not white/cream), somewhat variegated hue to hide all of those stains that you have to look forward to.

For those of you who, like me, have a hard wood surface to start with, you’ll want to buy a large area rug (with a thick pad underneath) to help with noise dampening, but especially to create a safe environment for baby to play. I would not suggest spending hundreds of dollars on a beautiful rug that you want to keep forever – think of this as a semi-disposable piece, as you may want to throw it away after a couple of years (or sooner, if you, like me, have a spitter on your hands!). Those slubby rugs, dhurries, and braided rugs, are great solutions for baby’s room – the keys features to look for are many colors (not too light), and a tighter weave. I would think twice before purchasing a thick, plush, loose-piled rug, like a shag. This could be a nightmare to clean. Look at textures and surfaces that will be easy to clean with a baby wipe. One last tip – branch out beyond baby stores when you are rug shopping to find better variety, and probably better prices, too. I found my son’s rug at the Crate & Barrel outlet – it was a steal, and I will definitely be tossing it in about a year. 🙂

Another great solution for the nursery is Flor – which are modular 12×12 carpet tiles with a wide variety of colors, patterns, and design possibilities. The best part – if a tile is damaged or stained, you can easily remove it to fix, or replace it if it’s really gone, without having to throw away the entire rug. This is also a creative way to “install” a wall-to-wall carpeted surface that you can remove later. Check out their gallery for nurseries and kids rooms for inspiration.