Home design is a passion of ours here at SIMH and the UAE has some fantastic options for creating a unique room for your baby or child. The fabulous interior designer (and all round creative extraordinaire) Karen Wandrag of Design K shares exclusively with SIMH her top 10 tips for designing a balanced and tranquil nursery including the above amazing mood board for inspiration (click here for a copy of the file).

Karen explains that ‘your home is integrally connected to all aspects of your life’. Its surroundings ultimately can affect your mood, well-being and your daily experience.  Balancing functional and aesthetic elements of design is important when creating a harmonious and nurturing living space. Babies and children especially can benefit from tranquil surroundings as their senses are sensitive and still developing.

Whether you are starting with a clean slate and can dictate the layout of a room or are working with an existing floor plan, you should consider the following:

1.Know your space
This may sound silly, but make sure to measure your room before you shop. It is painful to fall in love with a crib, bed, glider or changer that simply won’t fit. A great measuring trick is to lay out newspaper in the space where you want your furniture to be so you get a good feel for depth. Don’t forget your measurements when you visit the store so that the salesperson/designer can help you achieve the proper room layout.
2.Consider the room’s location and other practicalities
If you have the choice, choose a quiet room in close proximity to your bedroom for those inevitable night time trips! Make sure that a cold room has adequate heating and a warm room has good ventilation. Black-out blinds or curtain linings to keep the room dark during the night for better sleep can be a God send in sneaking in a few extra hours of shut-eye!
3. Keep it simple 
It can be oh-so-easy to over-decorate! Keep it simple and decide on a single focus for the room early on, such as a piece of furniture or artwork. Think child-friendly, not childish. Choose a neutral background and mix in age-appropriate accessories and you’ll reduce the need to redecorate every few years.
4. Think about safety
If you are buying a new cot it should conform to the required standard regulations. These standards ensure that the cot is deep enough to be safe for your baby, that the bars are the correct distance apart, and that the cot does not have cut-outs or steps.  Create a safe zone around the cot by positioning it away from windows, heaters, lamps, wall decorations and cords. Keep furniture that your baby could clamber on to away from the cot too. With older babies or toddlers – make sure you get some sturdy bed-guards to stop them rolling out!
5. Get inspired
There are many wonderful design blogs and/or Pinterest that give you access to so many pictures of nurseries and ideas you may not have thought of yourself. Spend time on these to get a good range of what you are looking for and make a Pinterest pin board that you can bring with you when you are shopping. However, you want to stay original, so make sure not to get too tied in to any one concept or design.
6. Plan ahead 
Nursery shopping can be so overwhelming for some expecting parents, especially if you don’t know the sex of your child, so it’s very important to think everything through before you begin to shop. Ask yourselves a couple of crucial questions:

• • Is this furniture going to be used for multiple children or will this child use this furniture for the long haul?
  • Will we be moving soon?
  • Do we want gender-specific furniture/decor?
  • Are we combining this furniture with other furniture that already exists in the room?
  • Answering these simple questions will allow you to stay the course and think long-term so you can narrow down your choices.

7. Select key pieces first
Select your furniture pieces before you start decorating. i.e. Baby Cot, Table/Dresser as well as the Rocker/Glider Chair. Parents often choose their colours first, but it’s actually easier and cheaper to match paints, fabrics and wallpaper to your key furniture pieces. When the furniture matches it creates a blank canvas from which you can decorate. Choose unisex designs so you can use it for all your children. If you are using second-hand furniture or have furniture that doesn’t match, just paint it all a glossy white and it will look stunning. Nothing is cuter than white furniture in a nursery.
8. Have a great starting off point 
Sometimes it’s really helpful to have one element that you centre the room around—for example, wallpaper you fell in love with or a fabric that you want to use on the window treatments. Having that starting point makes planning the rest of the room more targeted. It keeps you on track with a colour scheme and overall tone of the design.
9. Choose soft, tranquil colours
Consider using colours that are calming and nurturing, which will make mom and baby feel even more relaxed. With the demands of a new born, most mums need calm and soothing environments more than anything.
10. Make sure you have the right lighting
Adding a Table lamp, Standing Lamp or Wall Light is an easy way to check on your baby without flooding the room with light and is useful at night when you are doing a quick feed or a nappy change. These days’ lamps are just as decorative as canvas art so choose a cute one that matches your design choices so far.

Be sure to check out Design K’s Instagram page and website, they are little troves of design inspiration.