Decorating the house with your Baby

The reality is, your baby will have usually played a key role in redecorating your house late on in your pregnancy. This is despite the fact that they haven’t even arrived yet! There will be the nursery, the cot and the piles of small clothing placed throughout the house.

Once they’ve come home from the hospital with you, they’ll have placed their unique stamp on the house in the form of teddy bears, soft towels and soaps and lotions in the bathroom and bedroom.

Your little one can also help you with decorating the house in some very special ways. By incorporating them into some of the decorating of your home, they can act as a physical reminder of the special role they play in your life.

Five fabulous decorating ideas

1. Bub’s first artwork

Whether it is a simple scribble, or a glorious riot of colours, your little one’s first “artwork” is a keepsake to treasure. Make sure you pop the date of it on the back of it and how old bub was when they did it. If you’re going to become loyal collectors of your baby’s artwork, it is a good idea to set aside a wall space devoted to showcasing it.

You can also buy several cheap frames to place the artwork in to use for the next few years. That way, while bub’s style may evolve over time you have a consistent theme of frames throughout.

Don’t be afraid to trim bub’s art to size in order to fit the frames. You may often need to do this in order to preserve their efforts for future reference.

2. Canvas

Another special thing to do is to have a record of their development over the period of a year and then pop it into a collage. You can then have this printed on a large canvas and placed somewhere prominently in your home.

To complete the project more easily, choose an object like a large teddy bear that you can place bub next to. Pick a date each month and pop a reminder in your calendar for that same date for the year ahead and snap a photo of bub next to it. The static size of the bear will allow you to really see the progress your bub is making in terms of their growth. Once you have 12 months worth of photos, you can create a collage using the Huggies photo centre and have it printed off on a large canvas.

Parenting can quite often be a huge challenge in the early years. The canvas will serve as a beautiful reminder of how fragile and vulnerable your bub is and how quickly they grow. It not only captures special memories, it is also a souvenir of the precious gift that parenthood is as well.

3. Measuring wall

Many families start these when their little one is six months old. Find a door-frame or suitable wall space, and take the measurement of your little one’s height at the same time each year. It’s a lovely way to record their development and a physical reminder of just how quickly their childhood passes.

As the years pass your little one will love doing the family measuring together and comparing their progress year in and year out. You might like to pick a special date like their birthday for this activity in order to keep a consistent record.

4. Handprint or footprint

There are a few different ways to do this. Some parents buy plaster moulds and take their little one’s prints that way in order to display as artwork. Others will have them done professionally and cast in bronze.

A suggestion is to take bub’s prints using non-toxic paint at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months and 2 years of age and have it transferred onto 4 small photo blocks. You can then place them up on your wall as artwork like this one here.

5. Fridge collage

Once your little one is on the move, the possibilities for capturing their adventures are endless. They are trying new foods, getting into things they shouldn’t and often causing all manner of mischief. Try to have your camera on you as much as possible when bub is active.

These photos will act as a wonderful conversation starter when you have guests if you create a fridge collage of bub’s photos. Get the photos you’ve taken printed off and create a collage on your fridge or pin-up board. You can always transfer them to their scrapbook once you have some new ones you want to share.

Remember you don’t even need to go into a shop to order your pics, you can do it all online while bub is napping.

The key thing to remember is that with a little one in tow, your home is no longer going to look like something from a magazine. But by placing their unique decorating stamp on it, they will act as a great reminder of the special place they have in your home. Your home may not be as tidy or polished as it was before their arrival, but your little family unit is far richer in other ways as a result.