5 Nautical Nursery Ideas

Of all the rooms in your house, you may find that the nursery is the most fun to decorate – partly because it’s where you spend time with your baby, and partly because you have a little more opportunity to decorate with whimsy and charm! Are you thinking about creating the sweetest nautical nursery for you and your baby? Here are five nautical baby room ideas from Pottery Barn Kids to help bring your vision to life.

Use Your Favorite Nautical Colors

Thinking about the color scheme of your room as you decorate is incredibly important as it will affect a lot of the choices you make throughout the entire process. After all, a unified color palette will make everything look more cohesive! This is especially true if you’re going for a nautical theme since seaside-inspired colors will truly make the theme come to life!

When you think of boats, sailing and the ocean, what is the first color that comes to mind? Chances are it’s blue, because blue is the one of the most iconic nautical colors. In light of this, consider making blue the “anchor” (pun intended) for your nursery’s color scheme.

Beyond that, if you want to go for a traditional nautical look, you might choose to offset your blue with white for an added touch of contrast and whimsy. Plus, it’s a classic color combination that will never go out of style!

Add Interest with a Pop of Color

If you want to add another pop of color, consider including a shade of orange. Blue and orange are complementary colors (that is, they sit opposite each other on the color wheel), so they look attractive together, and the orange adds a burst of energy to an otherwise serene blue-and-white scheme. But aside from orange, you can try a pretty sea foam green or even a touch of beachy yellow. You can also add several neutral beige elements through rope accents and other natural additions.

Balance Your Color Scheme

A good suggestion for utilizing your color scheme is to use your main color (either blue or white) for 60 percent of the room, your secondary color for 30 percent and your accent color (orange, green, yellow) for only 10 percent. This way, there’s a clear color hierarchy. For example, you could have white walls and a white ceiling (60 percent), blue draperies, a blue rug and blue accents on the bedding (30 percent) and an orange dresser with orange pillows (10 percent). Basically, keep your pop of color exactly that – just a pop.

Add Energy with Fun Patterns

You might think that just adding a few nautical motifs to an ordinarily decorated room is all you need to achieve nautical style. But while images of anchors, boats and whales are certainly an integral part of any nursery that is drawing its inspiration from the ocean, there are many other equally important facets that will elevate your nautical nursery decor.

When choosing draperies, wall treatments, rugs and bedding for your nursery, think about patterns that help nail down the mood you’re after. Wide stripes are often used in nautical-style rooms, so you could try a boldly striped rug, or even an accent wall painted in stripes.

Or, you could incorporate a scalloped pattern on the draperies to mimic waves, or find wallpaper with an anchor pattern to emphasize the nautical statement on an accent wall. The size of your room is another thing to consider when using a large pattern. To prevent large, eye-catching patterns from overpowering the room, consider choosing just one large pattern to feature in your space. Otherwise, try sticking to solids or minimally patterned fabrics.

On the flip side, a very large room can stand up to a lot of color and pattern variety if carefully decorated. As long as you follow your color scheme and don’t have two equally bold patterns fighting for your eye, you should be all right. If you love the results, you’re doing it right.

Choose Accessories That Help Give a Nautical Vibe

Finally, when you’re choosing your accessories, you can really embellish your nautical theme, especially with wall decor. Think about incorporating flags, seascapes, wooden oars, a model ship or two, and plenty of rope accents like rope vases or light fixtures. A life preserver or two is always a very appropriate addition to your wall decor, or you could even try hanging a rustic-looking ship’s wheel.

Think about finding antiques or vintage pieces that give the room a collected, well-traveled air. A large vintage map in a beautiful frame makes a wonderful statement piece on one of your walls. And of course, seashells and starfish are the perfect finishing touches to a shelf or mantel display. Any of these nautical nursery ideas can help create a fun, attractive and relaxing place to spend time with your baby.