I'm redecorating my church nursery. I need ideas for how to paint the walls and any other suggestions you have

Question

I go to a small church, and our nursery is quite out of date. Right now the walls are plain white, and I'd like to paint them either a solid color or with a mural on one wall. Any suggestions on what to paint, and other ways to renovate the entire space would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Bright is probably the best. I had and idea one time of painting my ceiling a light blue and then putting up fish decals on it. If you got some of your favorite images from the Internet then you could print them out and cover them with a light lacquer to preserve them. For the walls you could paint them the same color and then add kelp and coral or undersea columns of rock. They should be easy to draw and paint. Then you can put your fish up a little higher so crawling babies can't reach them. If you use a light coat of blue paint and use a mild adhesive on the lacquered fish pictures then you can easily remove the decals, even change them, and later you can repaint the walls white again.

You want to use latex paint, since it can be cleaned with water. I like Home Depot’s Bear brand of paint, but Wal-Mart, Lowes and probably Target will have paint as well. It would be a good idea to start with a base coat so that all the walls will be the same shade of white, and you can paint over any stains. In the paint aisles of Home Depot you can find some good tools to use for corners, a pouring spout to make it easier to poor the paint out of the can, brushes and painter’s tape (low sticky coating). You can also find a sticky compound that can be forced into the pinholes on the wall for about $2.00. This will let you drive big screws into the wall and then patch the holes later. Once the compound dries then you can paint over it. Its surface can be applied as a smooth layer by working it with a wet putty knife. Or you can make it rough like a stucco wall.

You can go with the Tele-Tubbies idea of gentile rolling green hills, and a light blue sky with nice white clouds, but that sounds so boring.

I know a guy who had his ceiling painted black with thin straw on the walls looking like an open aired compound in Africa. He then used fluorescent paint to paint stars on the ceiling and before putting up the straw, he painted eyes on the walls (I think I would skip that last step though). He also had a problem with peeling straw.

I like the idea of black walls with black lights and fluorescent stars, but I don’t think you babies will. If you have good drawing skills then you create a fantasy amusement park on the walls. With a blue background and blue ceiling to make it look like it is outside. You could also get large sheets of white construction paper and make you clouds out of them. Then you could lacquer them and use double sided tape to hold them to the ceilings. That would let you move them around now and then.

A stream of musical notes from instruments would be nice, but the babies won’t understand that, they need simpler images. Try something from one of your favorite children’s books. You can rent an opaque projector and put your book in it. Then project it on a wall and draw the image, then paint by numbers with the book as your guide. Then you could do something like the “Little Red Cho-cho; I think, I can, I think I can…”

How about drawing a lot of windows on the wall and then doing a custom image for each phony window. It would be like a room that can look out on a whole lot of other landscapes. You could even get a poster and paint a window frame on it and then turn your poster into one of those images. You want to look for something gentle and soothing, not charging tigers.

Abstract patterns can be good, with simple shapes and a lot of colors, maybe even a rainbow. If you include basic shapes, letters and numbers then early exposure to them would help the babies a little. However, most of the babies are going to be lying on their back when they wake up so the images on the ceiling will be the more important ones.

You could try an Egyptian scene with desert dunes, and the three famous pyramids. Then on the opposite wall you could paint an image of tall palms and lots of ground cover. Making it seem that you are between the banks of the Nile and the Pyramids of Giza. On one of the middle walls you could paint the great sphinx. Since this doesn’t have to be historic, you could make the sphinx head into a modern looking pink cat. The original pyramids were covered in white marble or limestone. If you look at them in a modern photograph then you will see the remaining capstone on the larger pyramid. When they were first made they must have shown brightly in the sun, almost blindingly.

Or how about a farm scene with a wooden rail fence on each wall and farm animals behind the fence. You could also put in some roses or ivy growing up the fence posts and across the rail. Then you can put a farm on one wall, with farmer Jones driving a tractor.

If someone has a projector TV that they are willing to lend you, or if you can rent one; then instead of projecting the image on a screen, you can project it on a wall. This way you can use your favorite children’s DVDs. Put the projector on freeze frame and trace the image on the wall. You could easily create a mural this way.

Or you could make a winter scene, with piles of snow 2-3 feet high a snowman family and a visiting deer. Then on another wall you could paint in a nativity scene. On a third wall you could have a row of houses, and on the fourth wall you could have a forest of evergreen trees. You could even decorate some with icicles or use Christmas lights, or other decorations. Maybe you could research the Christmas trees of different cultures and decorate the trees that way; electric lights on one and candles on another.

It’s always good to get help. Parents will think of it as work, but you can make it a game for children. If they wear sweat pants and a t-shirt with a cheap baseball cap then they can get covered in paint with it being a problem. Since I tend to be a sloppy painter I like to wear a cheap set of flip-flops. I leave them on the tarp that covers the floor and when I leave the room I step out of them. This way I can step into tons of paint and not get it all over the rest of the house. Later I can just throw them away.

The best idea is to start simple with a theme and then get input from the current parents. If you have an artist in the church then they could direct the project. If you use the multiple windows idea then you could get a few families to work on each poster (they could also contribute their poster ideas and buy the posters they like). If you do something simple like the sea floor idea then you can get a gang of children to help you. They can draw some of the rocks and they can cut out and lacquer the fish. You cold also ask the children of the congregation to submit their favorite children’s books. Then you can borrow the ones that you like. If you want to have the children help more than rent a scaffold system, like brick layers use. Steel supports at each end with 8’-10’ long wooden planks for the floor. Then you can use 4-6 scaffold supports on each wall. This system is much firmer and safer than using ladders. If you put your scaffolds at 4’ high then some kids can work underneath (as long as no one else is on the scaffold above them). Then later kids can work on the 4’ level. They will feel safer and with the added height the younger children can contribute more.

Answer 2

I'm not sure what you mean by "regular paint", but some of the best paint you can buy is "beir" paint. It's soft and creamy and has a wonderful selection of colors. If you're having a girl you could do a pink and purple theme - the crib pink, the diaper changing table purple, ect, ect. And on the walls you could do pink and purple bubbles in and out of each other. If you're having a boy you could do the same thing, only in blue and green. Or, if you don't know what you're having, yellow is a good nutrual color, and you could couple it with blue or any other soft colors. In any event, have fun with your new baby! BTW: Some good things to have in a nursury are: A diaper changing table (with space below and on the side to keep changes of clothes and diapers) A good sturdy crib A rocker (to feed the baby and rock it to sleep) A place to keep the car seat Soft carpet so the baby can crawl around and walk on it without hurting it's feet Colors that arn't too bright A night light Oh yea, and another nice thing to have in the nursery is a sound system or boombox so that you can put classical music (chopin or beethoven or somthing) going. I can calm the baby and is also good for it, as it get's the synapsis firing, thus making the baby smarter. And two good programs are "Baby Einstin" (avialable at sams club and is a set) and "signing time" (also a set but I'm not sure if it's avilable at sams). Anyway, hope this helps!

Answer 3

Church Nursery Decorating Ideas

Answer 4

Our church nursery was just redone by the moms, they used neutral ocean blues and greens and did a ocean theme. On one wall they painted fish, a whale and plants etc. Along the top they painted waves. They used the sea glass greens and blues with the idea that they are calming colors. Then the coat hooks were ocean themed as well as the shelves with little sea creatures glued to the wall underneath. It turned out beautiful and there were lots of ideas to go off of at Michaels and also look at the Martha Stewart magazines for ideas. Have fun and good luck!!

Answer 5

its easy to do a mural on one or more walls. Take an overhead projecter, if your church doesn't havae one maybe you can borrow from another church. Anyway you take a picture you like, maybe from vbs or sunday school curriculum, then trace the outlines on to a transparency. Then shine it on the wall to the size you want then trace it onto the wall. Then paint it in. Cubbies with the kids names are nice to have for diaper bags and things. You can use chalkboard paint and create a play area.
Hope that helps.

Answer 6

A mural is a great idea. You could do something like a Mother Goose type scene, which could be your backdrop for storytime. For some reason, at my old church, they didn't want Disney characters. So you can just keep it generic, boy-and-girl appealing, and safe.

Answer 7

use a projector of a drawing that will show big on the wall and then use a pencil to redraw your picture you want and then paint your picture. the kids will enjoy the progress and have a special painted room.

Answer 8

How about a Noah's Ark theme?