Updated October 31, 2026
Decorate a nursery in this order: measure and plan the room, choose the art, take your colors from it and paint, place the crib and the rest of the furniture, hang the art, then add the lighting, the soft layer and the finishing touches. Done in that order, nothing gets bought twice and nothing gets hung on a wall you're about to repaint.
The order is the whole trick. When a nursery goes sideways, it's usually because something was bought too early: the bedding before the paint, the paint before the art, the art before anyone measured the wall.
Below are the 10 steps I'd follow in an empty room, grouped into four stages. If you're still looking for a theme or a palette, my Nursery ideas: the complete guide has 20 ideas to start from.
Jump to a section:
- How do you plan a nursery? Steps 1 to 3
- Where should the furniture go? Steps 4 and 5
- What goes on the walls, and how high? Steps 6 and 7
- How do you finish the room? Steps 8 to 10
- Questions parents ask
How do you plan a nursery? Steps 1 to 3
Planning costs nothing but an afternoon, and it saves the most money.
Step 1. Measure the room and draw it
Before you buy anything bigger than a onesie, sketch the floor plan on graph paper. One square for every 6 inches is an easy scale.
Go round with a tape and note the length of every wall, then mark:
- each window, with its width and how high it sits off the floor
- the door, and which way it swings
- the closet
- outlets, light switches, vents and radiators
- where the morning sun comes in
Then shade in the places the crib can't go. Anything under or beside a window is out, because the crib should stay away from windows and blind cords, ideally on another wall (CPSC). So is the arc where the door swings. What's left is where the crib can live, and it's often just one or two walls.
Step 2. Choose the art before the paint
My rule, and the one I'd defend hardest, is that the print comes first. Paint can be mixed to almost any shade you bring to the store. A print can't be changed to match your walls. So find the art you love, then let it choose the colors.
Pick something you'd be happy to look at during a 3am feed, because that's when you'll look at it most. Here are three gallery sets with three very different palettes, so you can see how much the art decides.
A set of elephant families under glowing sunset skies in a soft watercolor style with fine outlines: a baby raising its trunk between two grown elephants under autumn leaves, a family kneeling to drink at a still waterhole. The palette is amber, burnt orange and soft elephant grey.
A set of wild animals by the water and in the long grass, in a soft watercolor style: a zebra bending to drink at a still pool, a lion resting in a meadow of wildflowers. Its palette is misty sage, soft sky blue and sandy gold.
A set of a monkey, a giraffe, a red panda, a zebra and a baby elephant among pastel flowers and blossoms, in a light watercolor style with fine outlines. That one brings sky blue, blossom pink and lavender.
Three rooms, three completely different moods, and the art decided all of it. There are more elephants in our elephant nursery decor collection and more of the wild ones in our jungle nursery decor.
Step 3. Take three colors from the art, then paint
Hold the print up in daylight and pick out a light shade, a middle tone and a strong one:
- The quietest, lightest shade goes on the walls. Usually it's a cream, a pale sage or a soft white.
- The middle tone goes on the big furniture: the crib, the dresser, the glider. Natural wood often counts as this one.
- The strongest shade becomes your accent, used small, on a cushion, a basket or a lamp base.
With the elephant set, that's warm cream walls, natural wood furniture and burnt orange in one or two small places. With the blossom set, it's soft white walls, white furniture and lavender as the accent.
Paint before the furniture arrives, while the room is empty and easy to work in. Before you commit, paint a sample patch and look at it next to the print in the morning and again in the evening, because nursery light changes a lot over a day. My post on paint colors for a child's room has 18 colors and the art that suits each.
Where should the furniture go? Steps 4 and 5
Big pieces go in first, and the bed leads.
Step 4. Place the crib first
Your baby's bed is the biggest piece in the room and the hardest to move, so it gets the best spot before anything else claims it. Use the wall you found in step 1: away from windows and window cords (CPSC), and clear of the door's swing.
Two more things I always plan for. Leave room to stand comfortably at the side you'll lift the baby from. And never put a shelf above the crib; if you want something on that wall, make it art, hung the way I describe in step 7.
Keep the crib itself empty except for a fitted sheet (NIH Safe to Sleep). All the softness in the room goes everywhere else.
Step 5. Add the glider and the changing station
Your nursing chair belongs within a few steps of the crib, with a small table or a shelf beside it for a lamp, a water bottle and a burp cloth. I like the chair angled so that, sitting down, you face your focal wall. You'll spend more hours in that chair than anywhere else in the room, so what you see from it matters.
For changing, a dresser with a contoured changing pad on top gives you drawers and a station in one piece of furniture. Anchor it to the wall, and do the same for any bookcase (CPSC). My above changing table decor post covers setting up the station itself, with the safety points from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Leave a clear path from the door to the crib. You'll walk it in the dark more times than you can count.
What goes on the walls, and how high? Steps 6 and 7
Art is what makes a room look finished, and hanging it is the step most often rushed.
Step 6. Plan the walls before you hang anything
A nursery usually has three spots that want art: over the crib, over the changing table and beside the glider. Pick one as your focal wall and give it the biggest or boldest piece. The other two support it.
The rule I use for size: the art, or the group of prints, should cover about two-thirds of the width of the furniture under it. Smaller looks lost; wider starts to crowd.
Here's what that means over a crib. If your crib measures about 54 inches along the wall, three 12x18 prints with 2 inches between them make a row about 40 inches wide, right around two-thirds. Three 16x24 prints come to about 52 inches, nearly the full crib, which suits a bigger wall. For every standard frame and print size in one place, see my Picture frame and print sizes: the complete chart.
A few rules for hanging a set:
- Choose the same size for every print in a set, so the frames line up and the gaps stay even.
- Leave 2 to 3 inches between frames so the group reads as one piece.
- If two prints you love come in different shapes, hang them with their centers on one level and keep the gaps the same.
- Not sure about a size? Cut paper to the sizes you're weighing and tape it to the wall for a day.
My nursery gallery wall post walks through the over-crib wall in full, with a drawing.
Over the crib, a gallery set does the matching for you. One set has 29 animal designs in a gouache style on one soft palette of warm cream, tan and chestnut brown, from horses and ponies to a fox, an owl and a toucan, so you can pick three that tell your own story. Another has baby farm animals among wildflowers in cream, warm tan and soft grey with touches of blush and cornflower blue, from a speckled hen on her nest to three yellow ducklings in tall grass. For one large piece instead, a bear family gazing out over a quiet lake among rolling hills, in warm earthy tones, can hold the wall on its own in a bigger size.
More animals for this wall are in our farm nursery decor.
Over the changing table, two or three prints in a row is the layout I come back to most. Golden retriever families with their puppies in flowery green meadows, one leaping for a ball, one curled up asleep under a shady tree, are sunny without being loud. Folk-art style safari animals with rosy cheeks among bright garden flowers, from a lioness asleep with her cub to five meerkats standing guard among the cacti, bring more color.
See more in our dog nursery decor and safari nursery decor.
Beside the glider, a pair of smaller prints stacked one above the other fits the narrow wall. A navy cat and a white cat sharing a campfire of pink stars on the moon would be my choice for a room you'll mostly see at night. White cats and kittens with glowing orange butterflies under deep navy skies are the other one I'd consider.
For more night skies, browse our outer space nursery decor.
Frames come next. Ours are natural oak, walnut, white and black, with kid-safe plexi or real glass. I'd match the frame to your middle tone from step 3, and choose plexi for anything near the crib. Browse all of our gallery wall sets if none of these is quite right.
Step 7. Hang the art at nursery heights
The usual rule is to center art 57 inches from the floor, which suits a living room where people stand (Architectural Digest). In a nursery the person looking at the art is usually you, sitting in the glider, so I center it lower. These are the heights I use.
Over the crib: center the whole group at about 48 inches from the floor. With 12x18 prints, that puts the bottom edge around 39 inches. Check that it clears the crib rail with room to spare, and if you go bigger, check again: a taller print brings the bottom edge closer to the rail.
Over the changing table: leave 6 to 8 inches between the furniture and the bottom of the frames (Architectural Digest). I measure that gap from the top of the changing pad, not the dresser, and I'd rather go a little higher than lower. More on this wall in my above changing table decor post.
Beside the glider: center the pair at about 48 inches, where your eyes land when you're seated.
To hang a row, start with the middle frame and work outward, keeping the gaps even. Use picture hooks or wall anchors rated for the weight of each frame, or a stud where you can find one.
Art over a crib is the one place I never cut corners: hang it securely with proper hardware, never tape or one small nail, and choose the framed version with kid-safe plexi, not glass.
When the crib turns into a bed, the art can stay at 48 inches. If it hangs over the new bed, keep the framed version with kid-safe plexi.
How do you finish the room? Steps 8 to 10
Lighting, textiles and storage are what most people start with, and they're far easier once the walls are done.
Step 8. Layer the light
A single fixture in the ceiling is never enough in a nursery, so I plan three layers. Put the overhead light on a dimmer for dressing and tidying. Add a lamp by the glider with a warm, low bulb, so night feeds never need the ceiling light. Then a small nightlight, placed so you can cross the room without stubbing a toe.
For the windows, curtains or shades that block the light help with daytime naps. Choose cordless ones if you can: the CPSC says the safest option when young children are present is to go cordless (CPSC).
Step 9. Add the soft layer
Rug, curtains and cushions come now, in the colors from step 3, so they can't fight the walls.
I'd pick the rug in your middle tone and make it big enough that the front legs of the glider sit on it. Curtains can match the walls for a quiet room or pick up the accent for a little more life. Hang the rod higher and wider than the window frame and the window looks bigger.
The crib stays out of this step. Keep it to a fitted sheet (NIH Safe to Sleep), and put all the softness on the floor, the chair and the windows.
Step 10. Finish with storage, books and one thing that's yours
Baskets on low shelves, bins in the closet and a hook or two for tomorrow's outfit keep the surfaces clear, and clear surfaces make the whole room feel calmer.
Then make a reading corner by the glider, even a small one. A short row of books and one or two prints about reading turn a chair into the spot where bedtime stories start. An owl reading a big book on an oak branch, with fireflies glowing all around it in a deep teal night. A fairy in a petal skirt leaning against a tall toadstool, lost in a little golden book, in soft yellow and mint. A duck in glasses perched on a pile of books, with ducklings gathered around.
There are more in our reading wall art.
Last, add one thing that's only yours: a framed photo, a blanket someone made, the book you loved as a child. Then stop. Live with the room for a couple of weeks before you add anything else. You'll know by then what's missing, and often it's nothing.
Nursery decorating questions parents ask
What order should you decorate a nursery in?
Plan and measure first, choose the art, paint, place the crib, then the glider and changing station, then hang the art. Lighting, textiles and finishing touches come last. Buying in that order means every piece fits what's already there.
When should you start decorating?
I'd begin planning as soon as you know which room it will be, and give yourself a few weeks of slack at the end for anything that arrives late. Steps 1 to 3 are the ones worth doing early, because everything else depends on them.
Where should the crib go in a nursery?
On a wall away from windows and window cords, ideally a different wall altogether (CPSC), and clear of the door. Leave room to stand at the side you'll lift from, and keep shelves off the wall above it.
How high should you hang art above a crib?
Center the group at about 48 inches from the floor, so the bottom edge sits well clear of the rail. Hang it securely with proper hardware, never tape or one small nail, and choose the framed version with kid-safe plexi, not glass.
How high should art be above a changing table?
Leave 6 to 8 inches between the furniture and the bottom of the frames (Architectural Digest). Measure from the top of the changing pad, so the frames stay out of reach of little hands and feet.
What size art should go over a crib?
Aim for the art to be about two-thirds as wide as the crib. On a crib about 54 inches long, a row of three 12x18 prints with 2-inch gaps comes to about 40 inches. My Picture frame and print sizes: the complete chart has every standard size if you're working with a different wall.
How do you decorate a nursery on a budget?
Spend on the things that last and the things you'll look at: a safe crib, a chair you like sitting in and one good set of art for the focal wall. Paint does more for the money than anything else in the room. Skip decorations that only make sense for the first year.
Shop nursery wall art
Every set in this post is a starting point. You'll find thousands more prints for the room in our nursery wall art and decor, and calmer, quieter ones in our neutral nursery wall art.
Measure the room this weekend. Then go find the print you'd want to see at 3am, and let it decide the rest.