How to Paint a Nursery: Getting a Room Ready for a New Baby

Getting ready for a new baby can be costly and time consuming. Many parents stay away from buying a lot of decorations because of the expense. Painting the nursery is not only inexpensive but easy to do. Painting the baby's room can be done in four easy steps. These steps include buying all the required materials, preparing the room, painting, and lastly letting the paint dry and adding the finishing touches. Depending on the size of the room, painting can be a one-man job, although two or more people might be needed for larger rooms.

The first step is to buy or borrow all the materials you need. The most important material is the paint. Most hardware or home improvement stores will have the supplies you need. Sticking with a high quality paint like Sherwin-Williams or Benjamin Moore means that the paint will last longer and will require fewer coats for complete coverage. At the store you can pick the color you want and the salesman will mix the paint to an exact match. Pick a color to match the nursery theme, but stay away from colors like red and bright yellow. These colors can overstimulate a baby. You have many choices of style of paint; including flat ,satin or semi-gloss. Only satin and semi-gloss are scrubbable. This is important for a child's room. Other supplies that you need are: a flat wooden stick to stir the paint, a paint roller, paint pan, paint tape, screwdriver, and drop-cloths. Instead of buying drop-cloths at a store you can save money by using old sheets.

The second step is to prepare the room you want to paint. First, move all all the furniture away from the walls into the center of the room, or out of the room altogether. Anything left in the room needs to be covered with drop-cloths or old sheets. Then, taking the masking tape and drop-cloths, tape the cloth to the outside edges of the floor, making sure to cover up the baseboards. This protects your floor, carpeting and baseboards from getting stained with paint. Next, using the screwdriver, remove the outlet and light switch covers. Lastly, have all the supplies you need out and ready. Open the can of paint and stir it with the wooden stick. After that, pour the paint into the paint can. Only pour about one quarter of the can into the pan. If you need more paint later you can add it as you go. It's better to pour too little paint, than too much paint. This will make cleanup much easier and reduce waste. Now you are ready to paint.

The third step is to paint the room. First, take the paint roller and roll it in the paint pan. Make sure the paint is spread evenly on the roller and isn't too thick or thin. Then, apply the paint on the wall with the roller. You should roll the roller up and down in a straight line, making sure to press down hard. It is important to watch and make sure you don't miss any spots. When you paint be very careful not to get any paint on the ceiling. If you can't paint the very top of the wall with the paint roller, stand on a ladder and use a small paintbrush to paint the areas missed.

Once the room has been painted wait for it to dry. Most paints take a little over an hour. Once the paint has dried check the walls for areas of uneven paint or mistakes. If it is needed, repeat step three and reapply a second coat. Once your final coat is done remove the tape and drop-cloths. Then, using a screwdriver replace all the outlet and light switch covers. Next, wash the paint pan, paint roller, and paintbrushes with warm water and soap. After all the paint has been rinsed out leave the supplies out to dry. Finally, arrange the furniture back in place.

Getting ready for a baby should be an enjoyable experience. You should not have to worry about spending a lot of time or money decorating the nursery. Using these four easy steps you can inexpensively decorate your new baby's room.

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