Develop a Design Plan
The newest trend in nurseries is to use neutral colors and simple decor that harmonizes with the rest of the house. Take a walk through your house and consider it with fresh eyes. How might you incorporate elements of your design style into the nursery? Once you’ve picked complementary colors and decor you’ll have a clean, simple canvas to which you can add some fun elements like mobiles and stuffed animals. The main benefit of this approach is the versatility. It is much easier to change details- swapping a mobile or painting, for instance- than it is to repaint a room.

Don’t Crowd Your Nursery With Too Much Furniture.
The last thing you need at four in the morning is to stumble through a crowded nursery. Invest in quality pieces that will last. A convertible wooden crib that can later become a toddler bed, a comfortable glider chair, a sturdy changing table and a small dresser are essential. If you can find a bed or changing table that includes built-in storage you can skip the dresser and save yourself even more space.

Choose a Paint With Low or No VOCs
(volatile organic compounds). These types of paints are now readily available at home improvement stores, and can be custom mixed to suit your design. A chemical-free nursery ensures that your baby (and you) will have a healthy environment that’s free of toxic fumes. Painting the lower half of the wall a different color than the top is a current trend for nurseries, and can be quite elegant when the colors are divided by a chair rail. Be sure to paint the nursery well in advance of your due date, so that any fumes that do exist will have dissipated before baby comes home.

Don’t Buy a Cheap Chair
Quality baby glider rockers can be found at all price levels, but remember that you will be spending many, many hours in this chair. When you’re feeding the baby at four in the morning, after many weeks of inadequate sleep, you will not be patting yourself on the back for saving money by getting the cheapest chair. You will be lamenting the poor support, barely-there cushioning and lack of useful features. Do yourself a favor and invest in a quality glider rocker that will continue to be comfortable for years to come, whether in your living room or in your next baby’s nursery.

Invest in Organic Linens
Your baby deserves a healthy, non-toxic environment, and you can start them off on the right foot by purchasing unbleached cotton bedding that has been produced without chemical pesticides. You (and your baby) will breathe a little easier knowing you’ve done the right thing not only for your baby’s environment, but for everyone else’s as well.

Don’t Forget the Basics
Those first few days and weeks can be overwhelming. Having all of the necessary supplies on hand will ensure that the transition from hospital to home goes as smoothly as possible, and that you won’t have to make any emergency trips. Here are some items you will want to have on hand before baby comes home.

• Diapers
• Rash cream
• Baby wipes
• Lotion
• Powder
• Hand sanitizer
• Rubbing alcohol – One essential nursery item that is often forgotten. The baby’s umbilical cord may need swabbing each time you change a diaper.

Ask a Friend or Family Member for Advice
Your sister, the new grandma, or a good friend can give the finished nursery a final check for potential hazards you might have missed. Your safety audit should include: removing blinds or curtains with cords, covering electric outlets and ensuring that lamp cords are inaccessible. Consider the room from a babies-eye-view and take steps to remove those things that will pose a risk once baby begins to crawl and reach for things. It may seem a long way off, but your baby will be mobile before you know it and you’ll be better prepared if you check for these things now. Go here for more baby-proofing tips.

The Most Important Tip for Creating a Great Nursery
Get started now. Pregnancy can be exhausting, and your regular life doesn’t stop while you’re preparing for a new baby. It can be hard to get all of the things done that need to be done with so few hours in the day. Start planning early and take time to work on your nursery- even if it’s only half an hour per day- and when it comes time to bring baby home you’ll glad you put in the effort to create a space you can feel good about.

About the Author: Kimberly Aardal writes about rocker gliders for nurseries and swivel glider chairs for EveryDayRockingChairs.com. She spends her free time exploring the mountains in Southwest Colorado with her husband and her yellow lab, Ginger.

Here are some tips to follow when you want to save as much money as you can while decorating your baby’s room:

• Secondhand does not always translate to old and dusty. If you have never ventured into a consignment store or perused online auctions then you may not realize that just because something is “used” it doesn’t mean that it has been used all that much. Some items that wind up getting sold used were obtained as gifts and were actually never used, or were used a little but well-maintained.Don’t be scared to buy things secondhand! You can find some really great deals and will probably get a lot more for your money. Check local consignment stores as well as classified ads, online resources, and even garage sales.

• Coupons and sales are great. Some things you shouldn’t – or may not want to – buy secondhand, so for these instances it’s a good idea to wait to make your purchases until there is a sale or clearance. Watch the ads and check online to find out when the best sales are for stores offering nursery decorations. Keep in mind that you don’t have to buy all the decorations for your baby’s room at stores that are specific to baby stuff. Any store that offers decorative items will probably have suitable items for purchase.Join the mailing lists for the stores you like and you’ll start receiving coupons via e-mail or regular mail as well as being notified of sales and clearances.

• Don’t get carried away. Before you make your purchases, take a step back and see if you need to censor yourself a little bit. Remember that your baby could care less whether the wallpaper trim is expensive or cheap, and frankly the baby won’t even care if there is any wallpaper trim at all. Try to think in the terms of what the baby wants: a safe, comfortable place to sleep. All the extras are usually things that the parents add to make something aesthetically pleasing to an adult eye.Keep the decorations simple. By not getting carried away with purchases you’ll inevitably save some money.

• Make your own decor. Even if you aren’t particularly crafty you can still pull off some pretty impressive decorations by following a kit or using your own imagination. Making something on your own almost always costs less than buying it brand new in a store. Take a look at some photos in a catalog to see what kind of decor you want for your baby’s room and then figure out what you can create on your own.Decor for a baby room that you lovingly create yourself is not only more frugal than purchasing it elsewhere, it also makes for a unique room.

Always keep in mind that your baby isn’t born expecting a designer nursery. The nursery should be functional and pleasing to the eye, but not something that you need to take out a second mortgage to finance.