Coordinating Color & Interior Painting: Painting a Baby's Room

Painting a Baby's Room
09/16/2008 10:51 AM by Gretchen Schauffler

Choosing a color or theme for your nursery. Consult these color tips on painting your baby’s room.

Pick a wall color for a baby’s nursery room that feels natural. What I mean is that the baby is getting to know the world and the more the baby can focus the better. So lighter soft colors are perfect to blend away into the background, letting the baby’s eyes focus on what is right in front of them. There is a difference between painting with Devine Bananas & Cream™ a creamy, soft ray of sunshine verses bright canary yellow. There is a reason for staying away from ultra-bright rooms for babies. So lets talk about what I mean by natural color:

PAINTING THE BABY’S ROOM PINK
Avoid bubblegum, Pepto, or cotton candy. Pink paint is hard to get right. As a matter of fact, the only reason I have the Hot and Sweet Beans™ palette in our Trend-proof collection was so I could have a pink color that made any kind of sense. Pink often ranges from too blue, to too gray, to too fleshy. Different variations of pink do not color-landscape as well as greens or yellows. What I mean by that is that pinks are hard to match. Because pink derives from red it’s potent, so a little pink goes a long way. You can call the walls light purple, light yellow, or light green but red is the only color than when lightened, cannot be called a light red, it changes name to pink—and pink has a whole different personality. If there is pink in the bedding and accessories, avoid pink paint on the walls. Make pink walls the feature, or add it as a stripe pattern when bedding and accessories are neutral (creams, whites, chocolates) or complimentary colors (greens, yellows). PINK HORIZONTAL STRIPES ON WALLS ARE AMAZING. Check out Devine Berries and Beans™ with Devine Custard™. Other great pinks are Devine Pebble™, Devine Frappe™ , Devine Risque’™, Devine Pebble™, and devinegreen: Poodle™.

PAINTING THE NURSERY LAVENDER:
Light purple is a cool way to express a cool femininity. Purples have a cool temperature that looks amazing with denim and white islet cotton, greens and chocolates, peaches and cream. Is purple feminine? Not necessarily, it’s more “regal”. But lavender paint is definitely thought as for the girls! I saw a room painted in our Devine Grapes and Beans™ with white crib furniture, fuchsia bedding, and purple plum pillows and accessories… and it was a WOW!

Ah, but wait, we also created a “boy lavender” paint that is amazing with denim, oxford blues, gray wools, and vintage reds. Imagine early evening as the sun goes down in the summer and the sky turns that perfect husky light periwinkle blue: Try Devine Skyline™ for this effect. The color will appear grayer than it is on the palette, but if you use the Mini-Paint Pouch™ to test the color on your wall, you will see Skyline in all its glory. Other boy lavenders are Devine Adieu™, Devine Cest’ La Vie™, Devine Frost™, or Devine Silver™. Girly lavenders are Devine Wind™, Devine Laissez-faire™, or devinegreen: Water Lily™.

PAINTING THE BABY’S ROOM BLUE:
Baby blue! Baby blue eyes! Baby blue eye shadow! Baby blue jeans! Baby blue paint. Nothing says baby boy more than baby blue wall color. The funny thing is that studies show that blue is the most popular kid color, with both girls and boys. Human eyeballs favor blue. So don’t deprive newborn girls of a real treat because certain colors are considered gender specific. We have boy blues and we have girl blues. We have lots of boy options in the blue paint arena. For more traditional boy blues try Devine Full O’ Beans™, Devine Blue™, Devine Current™, and devine Spray™. The girl blues are variations of blue with hints of lavender, silver, and green that make them more gender neutral! Take a look at Devine Agave™, Devine Frost™ Devine Silver™, devinegreen: Beluga™, devinegreen: Seastar™, and Devine Fog™.

TRY CELADON GREEN:
Fresh greens are, what can I say, universally transitional, amicable and understood as a great color option if you want to keep it simple. Humans experience greens on every level in nature with such seasonal variety that it makes it the color most likely to go with everything. We almost have too many amazing greens, especially in our new devinegreen: flora-fauna™. Great options from moss to mint include Devine Fescue™, Devine Blade™, devinegreen: Manthis™, and devinegreen: Peacock™! Devine Kiwi™ and devinegreen: Iguana™ give a room a tropical flair

BUTTER FOR BABY:
Devine Butter™ is our number one yellow Mini-Paint Pouch wall color sold. It gives the perfect feeling of yellow, the kind that makes you whistle out loud. It is not too bright, just enough to make walls light, soft, and never pukey. Yes, baby yellow is sweet and gender fair, but there are other options of yellow you may have not considered. There’s no such thing as a dark yellow. I call more saturated yellows “adult” yellows. These more earthy, caramelized yellows can be terrific choices as neutralized yellow color. Think butterscotch, wheat, squash! Take a look at Devine Teak™, Devine Peanut™, Devine Custard, devinegreen: Poppy™ and devinegreen: Chicken™ as an alternative to our other popular newborn baby yellows such as Devine Bananas & Cream™, devinegreen: Orchid™, Devine Butter™, and Devine Maple™. I have seen nurseries with light yellow, white bedding, and dark cherry crib furniture with walls painted in Devine Ale™ in total harmony. Yellows layer beautifully when tone-on-tone! They also make wonderful color transitions into toddler-hood. Avoid bright yellows because they are loud and can make babies irritable.

PAINTING THE BABY’S ROOM SEAFOAM:
Blue-greens are now a staple in décor we can’t get enough of. When we came out with our perfect Ocean Tide Pools blues 8 years ago, little did I know these hues paired with chocolates, gray wools, navy, pomegranate, and tangerines would become all rage! These perfect foamy greens set off every color in the rainbow, and add sparkle to neutrals. Since they are totally deprived of gender bias these blue-greens are as wide and open to interpretation as the sea. Take a look at Devine Reef™, Devine Reflection™, Devine Almond™ and devinegreen: Sea Star™.

PAINTING THE BABY’S ROOM CHOCOLATE:
Why not! Our neutrals are like an earthy visual lullaby in a kid’s bedroom. They make all the other colors look better. Since I believe babies need to focus on toys, mobiles, and faces, earthy neutrals are perfect at setting off other colors to catch the eye and the imagination. Think of warm, nutty and chocolate neutrals like Devine Filbert™, Devine Muslin™, devinegreen: Siamese™ or Persian™ being great backdrops to baby colors and toy colors. The whole chocolate/pink, and chocolate /blue thing is all over the place! Again, a very cool way to transition a nursery color into a toddler’s room.

TRY PEACH FOR THE NURSERY WALLS:
In the ‘80s people couldn’t get enough of peach wallpaper and paint. Peach was paired up with green, cream, and yellows. I love the variations of peach colors in our line. Try looking at this color as the other yellow. This is a great neutral to go along with rich wood furniture. Try Devine Shimmer™, Devine Cashew™, Devine Peaches & Creams™, Devine Plantain™, or Devine Shade™. These “melon” variations are warm and soft to the eye. They look great with creams, red poppy, red plum, chocolate, and blues.

Read Tips on Painting Kid’s Rooms