Gender-Neutral Boys Nursery Room

Having a baby is an exciting and nerve-wracking adventure. One of the exciting parts though is designing the baby’s room or nursery.

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Whether you choose to find out the gender or not, you may want to stick to a gender-neutral theme in your baby’s room. By picking the main pieces in gender-neutral finishes, it can easily be touched up to suit your baby’s birth gender or you can leave it as is!

At the end of the post you can find the links to the items in my boy nursery room. If the exact product wasn’t found then I found a similar style and look as to what I purchased.

Creating a Gender Neutral Base

In order to design a room, you need a good foundation to build upon. Keep in mind that for the first 2 years, you’re the only one who will really care about the color and design of the room. So create it to fit your tastes and needs. As your child grows up, they will then want to add their own touches and favorite items to the room to make it feel like theirs.

First, decide how you want to room to feel.

Do you want it to be relaxing or playful? Warm or cool? Light and airy or dark and restful?

Second, decide on a type of floor.

This is my next suggestion because flooring is likely going to be your next most expensive purchase on the room- if you are changing the flooring. If you are staying with what’s currently in there then consider it savings in your pocket for good quality furniture.

Third, pick out your furniture.

Decide what color of crib, dressers, rocking chair, etc that you would like to have. The reason for this being next is that there are limited styles and colors of cribs for your to choose from. Pick out what you love without being influenced by trying to match the wall color. At this point, the only thing you are concerned about the furniture coordinating with is the flooring. Whether you choose to go with a complimentary or contrasting finish is up to you, and the energy you want to create in the space. More contrast will create more energy.

And there is no rule saying that all of the furniture has to be a matching set! Currently, mismatched furniture styles are trending. You can tie in mismatched furniture with a common finish ( all white, all gray, all bleached wood, etc).

Fourth, pick out your paint colors.

There are so many paint color options that paint can be one of the last things to pick to pull everything together in the room. It’s always a good idea to have your more expensive purchases figured out first before deciding on a paint color. Paint is one of the easiest things to change in a room if something doesn’t work out.

Benjamin Moore Paint deck fanned out to display a rainbow of colours! inspireddecorator.com — A paint fan deck displays bold paint color options.

Decide how netural of a paint color you want. Are you wanting a true neutral like white, gray, beige or black? Or a color that is slightly beyond neutral?

That was ultimately my choice for our nursery room. I love color too much to have stuck with a true neutral. So that was a part of the overall design that was chosen for me and my style. In the end, a paint color was picked that could work great in either a boy’s or girl’s nursery room once our baby was actually with us. The choice for our gender-neutral baby room was Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue HC-144.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity of accent colors.

Now this is where you can really add personality to your nursery room. An accent color is easy to switch out. Add in your accent color through art, baskets, and decorations.

Don’t forget about fabrics too! Having fun patterned crib sheets are a great way to add personality or accent colors to a room. As your baby gets older, then you can add fun blanket and pillow designs too.

Another way to add a pop of color is with window coverings and area rugs. There are a lot of fabric, color, and pattern options available with both. The choice is yours whether you do curtains or a colorful roller blind. And you’ll definitely have your choice of area rug designs.

My Gender-Neutral Boy’s Baby Room

We decided to toe the line of gender-neutral when we found out we were having a boy. By keeping the main features gender-neutral and simple, we were able to add in more personal touches to make it more of a boys nursery room.

As mentioned above, the paint color was one that could work for either gender. And actually, it would work great with a multitude of accent colors so our child wasn’t limited or forced to live with a color they may not like. I did not want to have my son forced to grow up in a red room if he didn’t like red and preferred purple. Or if our baby had been a girl, I didn’t want to force her into a pink room if she preferred green. I’m about non-conformity.

The furniture was painted in a neutral, medium gray color. And once the crib arrived, we realized it was basically a match to the gray of the crib. I would have preferred them to be obviously different grays instead of looking like a matching set, but this pregnant Mama was not about to repaint the dressers again.

So here’s a look at how our gender-neutral boy’s room turned out:

We used artwork and decor to create a more boy-ish feel in the room. I painted a canvas with the saying Boy n.- a noise with dirt on it.

We added black and white pictures of famous buildings from around the world (ties in Mom’s love of architecture).

There were model cars, and prints of different transportation modes (air balloons, planes, trucks, bikes) used around the room (ties in Dad’s love of cars). The theme somehow turned slightly into travel vibes. Black frames in a variety of edge styles were used to add interest to the wall collage.

Most items were kept simple and neutral as much as possible while adding personality. Even the area rug was a neutral gray. But one of my favorite purchases, the Keekaroo peanut changer, was a bright aqua blue. I loved that it was so easy to wipe clean of any messes and sterilize without dealing with dirty changing pad covers. It comes in many colors, both neutral or bold.

Have Fun Decorating

It’s important to emphasize again that decorating a nursery should be exciting and fun! It’s an exciting part of the journey and makes everything feel so real once you have it completed. Please don’t stress over it, no decision you make is permanent if you truly hate it in the end. All that matters, in the end, is having a safe place for your baby to rest and grow in. By having a gender-neutral nursery, you are saving yourself from changing up outdated themes and unsuitable colors every year or two. It grows well with your baby as they develop their own tastes and personalities. Until, one day, they start making decor requests for their bedroom.

Or perhaps that’s a sign of being the child of a designer.

Much Love,