Choose Your Best Nursery Colors
Soothing colors are the best choices for a nursery.
November/December 2006
By Laura Forbes Carlin and Alison Forbes
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If you're drawn to a bright color such as red, try a lighter, less active shade such as deep pink, or use it as an accent by adding red toys, pillows, blankets or artwork. If you still aren't particularly drawn to any one color, use this guide to achieve the emotional effects you're after.
- Blue encourages relaxation. It’s often linked with peace, healing and meditation. A light blue bedroom is particularly good for inducing sleep.
- Red is very active and is often associated with passion, power and, in some cultures, good luck. Although it’s too active and overpowering for nursery walls, red can combat lethargy. Red is appropriate in small doses and will boost energy.
- Pink is the color of love—both love of self and love for others.
- Green is most associated with nature and represents serenity and growth. It has the potential to calm and revitalize. If you live in an urban environment, adding green to your nursery can be an excellent way to connect with nature.
- Yellow is associated with the sun. Yellow sheds light on our lives and helps us see things clearly. Bright yellow is energizing, but a pale shade won’t interfere with sleep.
- Purple may be a reassuring color, but it’s also stimulating. Purple is associated with spirituality and royalty. If you’re drawn to purple you might want to use lavender in your nursery. Lavender, like blue, may soothe babies.
- Orange is happy and expansive. Although perhaps too active in a room used for sleep, it makes an excellent accent color.
- White, associated with purity, is clean and works in all rooms. Because it can look sterile, you might want to accent it with warmer colors. Or try off-white, which has some yellow in it to bring in the sunshine energy, or beige, which is still neutral but much warmer.