Deciding how to decorate the nursery or the theme for your baby’s room can be one of the most exciting parts of preparing to welcome your little one. If you’re looking for ideas for a gender-neutral nursery, you’ve come to the right place!
Decorating your nursery is a great way to nest and prepare for your baby’s arrival throughout the second and third trimesters. Gender-neutral nurseries are perfect for parents looking to adopt a gender-inclusive parenting style or simply looking to be able to reuse the furniture or decorations for a future sibling. They’re also great for parents waiting to find out the sex at delivery. Regardless of whether you’re looking for colorful, cool, or neutral nursery ideas, our list of 25 ideas for a gender-neutral nursery is the perfect starting place for planning.
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Gender-neutral nursery themes
As gender-inclusive parenting has become more popular, so have gender-neutral nurseries. More than ever, people are looking to steer away from the gendered approach of blue for boys and pink for girls when it comes to decorating baby rooms. Having neutral nursery decor is one of the first steps for parents looking to give their child room to grow into themselves and not limit the child to just two genders, also known as gender binary.
From a western-inspired room to a botanical bliss theme or maybe a sky and space-themed nursery, there are plenty of gender-neutral nursery ideas for families to pick from.
Wild times
For all animal lovers, this one is for you. The wild times theme is all about animals and there are many ways you can go about this theme. You can lean into natural colors like green and brown, make the room colorful with brighter colors, or go neutral.
You can also customize this theme to your style by making it a bright room by using light colors or moody with darker colors for the wall and furniture pieces. Some popular items that you can include in the room are photos of animals, stuffed animals (big or small), animal print wallpaper or furniture, and books about animals.
Below are some ways that you can break out the category of animals to help keep the nursery one cohesive theme.
- Tropical: For a tropical theme, think jaguars, panthers, koalas, sloths, monkeys, iguanas, gorillas, butterflies and frogs.
- Savanna: If you want a more savanna theme, animals that you should focus on are elephants, giraffes, zebras, cheetahs, hippopotamuses, water buffalos, chimpanzees, kangaroos, ostriches and rhinoceros.
- Forest: Incorporating deer, moose, foxes, raccoons, owls, bears, rabbits, wolves, hedgehogs, and pandas is perfect for a forest theme.
- Dinosaurs: If you want to go back in time, having a dinosaur-themed nursery is perfect. Some examples of dinosaurs to include are a tyrannosaurus rex, velociraptor, brachiosaurus, triceratops, diplodocus, and brontosaurus.
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BRIGHT WHITE
This popular theme is perfect for people who love neutral colors. One way to go about this theme is to keep the wall color white and decorate with a different color. This will give you the flexibility to change the color or style of the furniture or other decor if you want a refresh at a later time. Mixing white with warm colors like brown or gold can make the room feel warmer and more welcoming.
Another option is to go all white with the wall color and furniture pieces. To add character and warmth to an all-white nursery, texture will be important to keep the room from looking flat. Another option is to do different shades of white.
Vintage-inspired
The vintage interior design style is another style that has been picking up in popularity in the last couple of years. If this is your style already for your home, it can be one of the easier nursery room ideas to implement. Some popular items to include in a vintage-inspired nursery are mid-century modern furniture pieces, a Persian-inspired rug, and gold frames for pictures.
There are many shops that are now making new vintage-inspired decorations or furniture pieces. However, the fun of the vintage design style is that you can actually buy vintage pieces for your home. If you are considering buying vintage items, it is important to inspect the item for damage, know the measurement that your space will allow for an item, and do your research to see if the price of the item is fair or not. For more tips, head to The Vintage Seeker website.
Farmhouse chic
You can easily apply the Farmhouse interior design style to a nursery to make it cohesive with the rest of your home. The farmhouse style is typically rustic with wood, shiplap, and darker tones mixed with lighter or white wood accents, gingham prints, and stripes. Making a nursery farmhouse can make your nursery feel homey, especially if it matches the rest of your home. Some cute nursery decor ideas are rustic wood furniture pieces, stripped wallpaper, and wooden toys.
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Adventure awaits
The great thing about gender-neutral nursery themes is that they can be about what you want and hope for your child instead. If you hope for your baby to grow up and be a traveler and explore, adventure awaits is the perfect theme for your family.
For this theme, you can decorate the room with maps, a compass, or maybe souvenirs and photos from your travels. If you’ve traveled to a city or country that you loved, you can also consider taking inspiration from that city or country when decorating.
Bold and bright
Bold and bright is the theme for families looking for a fun and exciting room. Instead of a specific style, this theme focuses on colors. For this theme, you could focus on using gender-neutral nursery colors like green, yellow, orange, black, or grey, or just use all the colors of the rainbow.
The great thing about nursery designs is that you can mix and match themes. You can mix and match the bold and bright with the bright white theme. Have the base of the room be a solid white color and choose furniture or decoration items that are bright and colorful.
Sky and space
Choosing a sky and space theme for your newborn’s nursery doesn’t mean it has to be the traditionally dark theme. This theme can also be bright and light. For a darker take on this theme, you can have a darker wall color or wallpaper, and for a brighter room, choose a light wall color to be the base of the room. Some nursery decoration ideas or themes to look out for are space shuttles, moon, stars, clouds, constellations, or a print of your baby’s zodiac sign.
Nautical nursery
Make a splash with a nautical inspired nursery. Blue and white are popular for a nautical design, but that does not mean you can’t explore using a different color mixed with white. For a light and airy nautical nursery, think striped wallpaper, boats, lighthouses, dried starfishes, and anchors. Nautical-themed toys like ships and rubber ducks or books about sailing or the water would also make a great addition to the room.
From the early weeks to the final months of pregnancy, decorating the nursery is a great way to nest and prepare for your baby’s arrival.
Western wonder
Welcome to the Wild West! A popular way to style a Western room is with brown and wood furniture. However, if you’re looking for a lighter room, try making the primary colors of the room white, blue, and light brown instead.
For decoration pieces, you can fill a Western wonder nursery with things like cowboy hats and boots, cow print items or toys, cacti, and horses. Wallpaper is also another way to make a nursery interesting. For a Western theme, you could look for cactus print wallpaper or go wild with cow print wallpaper for one side of the room. Wood paneling is also another popular option for western-themed rooms.
Monochrome dream
Baby themes for nurseries can be anything that you want them to be. Having a monochrome nursery can make it easy to customize the room to give off a certain type of energy you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a calming energy for the nursery, try going with colors like grey, blue, green, or white. For an energetic or mood-boosting room, use colors like orange, yellow, or purple.
A simple take on the monochrome theme is to have all the big items be one color. For example, the walls, rug, furniture pieces, and blankets as one color. Then choose a different color for the accent décor pieces.
Scandinavian-inspired
A Scandinavian-inspired nursery is one of those cute nursery ideas that can easily be blended in and made cohesive with the rest of your home with its neutral and clean style. The Scandinavian style is all about clean lines, neutral colors, natural wood, and monochrome prints that can bring a calming and relaxing type of energy to a room.
Look for furniture pieces that are made from natural wood and are lighter in color and use a lot of neutral colors when decorating. If you’re looking to add color to the room, muted versions of the different colors would be best to match the nursery theme.
Future bookworm
Raise a future bookworm with a room inspired by books. A bookworm nursery will ensure a cozy and snuggly environment for your baby to sleep soundly through the night. You can decorate the room like a library or take inspiration from your favorite children’s book when you were growing up. Decorating your child’s nursery with items that remind you of your favorite children’s book can also add some sentimental meaning to the room.
For a future bookworm-themed nursery, you can include lots of books, stuffed animals to make the room cozy, a big and comfy chair for nursing and reading to your child, pictures or prints that relate to reading, or wallpaper print of books on shelves.
Botanical bliss
Calling all plant lovers! The botanical bliss theme is all about plants and making the nursery feel homey and energy-boosting. For botanical bliss, you’ll have the option to decorate with real or fake (or maybe a mix of both) plants.
If the nursery gets lots of sunlight, you can get more tropical plants like the monstera to decorate the room, but for rooms that don’t get too much sunlight, use plants like the snake plant. Other decoration items to include are plant prints or pictures, cozy knitted blankets, and books about plants.
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Underwater world
For gender-neutral and cool nursery ideas, the underwater theme is one you’ll for sure want to consider. Look for underwater or ocean wallpaper to use on one side of the room or you can paint the room blue and stick sea animal stickers on the walls. Or you can go neutral and decorate with pictures of sea animals, boat toys, or stuffed animals of whales, otters, seals, sharks, dolphins, and more. The options are endless with this theme.
Gender-neutral nursery decor ideas
How you decide to decorate a room can have a lot of impact on how it makes you feel or the energy the room gives off. Below are some decoration ideas that can be used in combination with the baby nursery ideas above to create a cozy and comfortable nursery room.
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Whimsical and fun lighting
Lighting is one of the easiest ways to change up or refresh a room. Below are some examples of ways to add an interesting layer to a nursery through lighting.
- Lamps that are irregular shapes. This can look like a lampshade that is a different shape or fabric than your typical lamps. The base of the lamp could also be different as well.
- Fun nightlights. This one will be easy to match to a theme. You can do a turtle nightlight for the underwater world theme or maybe have a nightlight that illuminates specific imagery that matches the theme of the nursery.
- Customizable LED lights. You can have the LED lights spell out your little one’s name or another word that is meaningful to your family.
Colorful photography
Regardless of what baby room ideas or themes you’re considering, you’ll be guaranteed to find pictures that will match the nursery theme. The photographs you use for the room can be something you find online, at second-hand shops, prints from small businesses, or even pictures that you’ve taken yourself!
The images can really be of anything. Some examples are baby or family photos, animals, or pictures from your travels. You’ll also be able to find prints online of pretty much anything to go with any baby nursery ideas.
Wooden toys
If you’re going with a Scandinavian-inspired nursery, wooden toys are becoming increasingly popular to go with this interior style. The toys typically have a natural wood color to them, but they also use different muted colors to make the toys more colorful.
Unique and bold wall
Sometimes having all the walls be one print or color can be overwhelming to the eyes. Something to try is having an accent wall that’s a different color from the rest or uses a unique wallpaper. For example, for the wild times nursery, you can do a wallpaper of animals for one of the walls and then the others can be a solid cream or green color.
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Open shelves and arches
Looking for something that will go well with any nursery theme? Open shelves and arches may just be what you’re looking for. The open shelving and arches are a great way to display items that go well with the theme of a room, regardless of what the theme is. You can put things like pictures, toys, and books on these open shelves.
Neutral toys and decor
Although neutral toys and décor could match almost all the gender-neutral nursery themes mentioned in this blog, it would especially pair well with the themes: monochrome dream, Scandinavian-inspired, bright white, botanical bliss, and farmhouse chic.
Pattern and texture mixing
Add depth and liven up a nursery through patterns and textures. Easy ways to incorporate patterns and textures are through blankets, wallpaper, rugs, and furniture pieces, like dressers, that have patterns or textures on them. Although pattern and texture are good for all rooms, they can be especially useful for nursery themes like bright white or monochrome dreams that don’t have a lot going on.
Quality furniture for the future
When looking for furniture to decorate your little one’s nursery, look for quality pieces that they will be able to use for years to come. If you’re adding a sofa or armchair to the room, you want to choose one made from performance fabric so that cleaning stains or spills is easier. To check if something is made from performance fabric, look for acrylic, olefin, polyester, or nylon in the material of composition for the product.
For furniture like dressers and tables, look for ones that are made from solid wood. Furniture pieces made from solid wood last longer and you’ll also be able to sand them down and paint them to fit a new theme in the future. Now for cribs, one way to make sure you can use them for years to come is to buy a convertible crib that can later be turned into a bed for your growing child.
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Fitted crib sheets and changing pads
You can find many different options for fitted crib sheets and changing pad covers online, making it another easy thing to fit into a nursery theme. For neutral nursery themes, go for a solid color for the sheets and changing pad cover. Then for themes like sky and space, go for sheets or changing pad covers that are printed with stars or rockets.
Accent colors and materials
There are many different ways you can use an accent color or material to decorate a nursery. For example, you can paint a wall a different color or use wood paneling on a wall for themes like Western Wonder. Another way to use accent colors and materials is to have a couple of items like toys, blankets, pillows, rugs, or armchairs in a different color or material that pops out or is different from everything else in the room.
Put it in writing
Last but not least, another fun way to decorate a nursery is putting things into writing. A couple of things that you could put into writing are your child’s name, phrases, or quotes that you love. These can be either prints that you frame and hang up, letter stickers that can be added to the wall, or wall letters that can be hung up. Adding a name or a beloved quote to a room can add a touch of personalization to the nursery.
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If you’re looking for cool, cute, or fun nursery themes that will also stand the test of time, gender-neutral nurseries are the way to go. Gender-neutral nursery themes are all about interests, aspirations, or personal style. Not to mention, with a gender-neutral style, things like furniture can still be used as your child grows and changes or reused for a future sibling.
With our list of 25 ideas on how to decorate a gender-neutral nursery, you are bound to find a style that you like. Don’t forget to check out our crib safety blog before setting up your baby’s nursery. The Mother Baby Center is ready to be your partner every step of the way, regardless of whether it’s decorating a nursery, delivering your baby, or postpartum. Tour any of our conveniently located locations in the Twin Cities metro area and find a provider today.