7 Adorable Book-Inspired Themes for Nurseries
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Pro-tip: do not browse Pinterest looking for book-themed nursery ideas unless you want to be reduced to a puddle of squeeing goo for the rest of the day. The pastels! The stuffed animals! All the gorgeous murals! (I’m pretty sure murals are actually distributed at the hospital these days, right? Like that Finnish baby box?)
To save you from that harrowing experience (the delicate artwork! the quilts! the handcrafted mobiles!), here are seven handpicked nursery book themes to give your literary baby the most stylish start possible.
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Color Palette: Soft golds, lilacs, blues, and greens, in gentle, watery tones.
Key Items: Statement stars, in a mobile or on the walls.
Wall Quote: One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.
The Little Prince is a book as well suited to an adult’s library as a children’s nursery: it’s beautiful, whimsical, and wildly imaginative, while also asking enormous questions about life and how we live it.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter
Color Palette: Soft blue-grays and golden tans, accented with lettuce green.
Key Items: Lots of plush bunnies.
Wall Quote: Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits…
It’s a classic for a reason. The Tale of Peter Rabbit is now well over a hundred years old, but the adorable illustrations, clean and clever prose, and surprisingly effective tension keep it evergreen.
The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
Color Palette: It depends on whether your progeny is likely to be a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw (let’s be real: the other two are not compelling nursery choices. Well, okay, a Slytherin nursery could be awesome. But maybe not the best parenting decision?). Whatever house you choose, the colors are going to be saturated and rich: think golds and scarlets, or bronze and royal blue.
Key Items: A Platform 9 3/4 wall sticker, a plush Fluffy, and a Marauder’s Map. Oh, and the illustrated version of the novels when they come out in October.
Wall Quote: It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
Friendship, bravery, loyalty, love of knowledge, responsibility…the Harry Potter series has it all!
The Wildwood Chronicles, by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Carson Ellis
Color Palette: Bright reds, watery blues and greens, soft browns and tans.
Key Items: At least one papier-mâché tree.
Wall Quote: There’s as much benefit to wishing the world away as there is in demanding a bud to bloom.
Wildwood‘s stunning illustrations and fantastical setting make it a great option for nursery decorating; the suspenseful adventures and moral quandaries contained within mean it will be welcome on the bookshelf long after the nursery has been transformed to a teenager’s den.
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, by Paul Goble
Color Palette: Bright red, sage green, lots of warm browns, accents of light pink and lilac.
Key Items: Beautiful woven textiles, squishy horse toys.
Wall Quote: There was a girl in the village who loved horses…
Paul Goble’s 1979 Caldecott Medal–winning book about a Native American girl who loves wild horses so much she eventually turns into one is as intriguing 30 years later as it was the day it was published. Its vivid, stylized illustrations provide excellent design inspiration.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
Color Palette: plaid (okay, plaid’s not precisely a color—green plaid, then), tan the color of an old crumpled newspaper, brown the color of tobacco. We’re being inspired by Baker Street here, not the opium dens, so we’ll skip the trippy visuals and contorted bodies.
Key Items: At least one teddy bear dressed up as Sherlock, a Baker Street sign, the house numbers 221B.
Wall Quote: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. (Tragically, it appears that the phrase “Elementary, my dear Watson” never actually appears in Conan Doyle’s stories.)
If there’s one thing years of reading The Babysitter’s Club and Encyclopedia Brown has taught me, it’s that you can never start solving mysteries early enough.
The Avengers (Marvel Comics)
Color Palette: Bright reds, rich blues and greens, gold and black accents.
Key Items: Vintage comic illustrations, pillows made out of comic-book printed fabric, some sort of adorable plush hammer.
Wall Quote: Avengers Assemble!
They may be Earth’s mightiest heroes, but they’re going to need some new recruits eventually. Might as well start the next batch of superheroes young?
What literary inspirations would you use to decorate your nursery?