You’re getting ready to welcome the newest member of your family, but you sit staring at the empty nursery. You need to start making decisions about it, and one of those choices is what color to use. Do you want it to be gender-themed? Do you like bright colors, dark colors, contrast, or patterns? There’s a lot that goes into this choice, so check out these Baby Room Color Ideas to see if one seems right to you!

1) ​Light Green

When you pick colors for your baby’s room, consider whether you want more warm or cool colors. Warm colors are uplifting and stimulating to keep your baby in a good mood and keep their mind active, but cool colors will soothe them and help them sleep. Light greens can be good choices for cool colors, though the color in this picture is a bit brighter than you may want. If you choose a warmer, yellowish-green, you’ll want to use a less vibrant one, such as a pastel, or only paint one or two walls.

2) ​Sunshine Yellow

​Yellow is a great color if you want a neutral baby room since it doesn’t suggest that the occupant is either a boy or a girl. This is great if you don’t know the baby’s gender yet, but a pastel yellow has other benefits, too. Yellow is a warm color that can be exciting, but a pale yellow like this sunshine color won’t be too stimulating and can be used for an entire baby room. If you choose a brighter color, use it for a single wall or two, or for furniture so that it’s not overwhelming.

3) ​Patterns

Instead of picking a single color for your baby’s room, think about painting the walls and furniture in patterns. You can use blue painter’s tape to create soft-edged designs like the one Isan makes in this video, or paint them freehand. The designs will be stimulating for your baby, and give them something to look at to keep their mind active. Black and white, or a dark color with white, is best for a newborn since they can’t see color.

4) ​Purple

​If you know that you’re having a girl and want to reflect that with your color choice, you may have decided that traditional pink and blue are overdone. That’s fine; try purple instead. Purple is a feminine color, but it’s not as glaringly obvious as pink, so you can add touches of it into a pink room or paint the room a soft, subtle purple. Purple has some blue in it, so it can be easier on the eyes and promote more restful sleep than pinks. If you only want a little purple, try getting blankets like this.

5) ​Black and White

Black and white doesn’t exactly seem like the cute, pastel colors that are typical for a nursery, so why are we suggesting you use it in your baby’s room? If you’re painting the nursery in anticipation of a newborn, your new baby won’t be able to see color. This article by Sarah D. Yong from Consumer Affairs goes into detail on how long it’ll take before the baby sees all those beautiful pastels, but until then, you may want black and white patterns that the baby will be able to see.

6) ​Warm Colors

Warm colors are stimulating for babies and children, so they can be great for helping your new baby’s mind develop, but they can also be overwhelming in the room where the baby sleeps. Instead of painting the whole room in a bright red or orange, try making an accent wall in an in-between shade of red, orange, or yellow. This will be stimulating without being overwhelming. Choose one or two walls or the ceiling to paint in a warm color and paint the rest in cool colors using the techniques in this video by Howcast.

7) ​Health and Mood

When you choose colors for your baby’s nursery, you might be thinking about cute colors that’ll look nice or traditional colors that match the baby’s gender, but did you know that colors can affect your baby’s health? Watch this video by SimplyBabyFurniture to learn about the effects color can have on health and mood, and decide what colors to use based on it. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun colors, but it does mean that you can be careful about which ones you choose over others.

8) ​Start With Gender-Neutral Colors

If you’re not sure what gender your baby will be, but you want to get started on the baby’s room before they come along, your best bet is to pick gender-neutral colors and add furniture, clothes, or decorations in traditional colors later. If you don’t want to focus overly much on your baby’s gender, neutral colors are also a good bet. You can use this guide from Pottery Barn Kids to choose colors that are attractive and gender-neutral.

9) Promote Sleep

One of the main things your baby room color should do is promote sleep. If your entire room is fire engine red, it’ll be stimulating to the point where the baby may struggle to get restful sleep. While blue is the absolute best color for any calming environment, you may not like the color, or you may be having a daughter and prefer a more feminine color. You can read this article from Our Sleep Guide to learn about the different colors that will be restful for your baby.

10) ​Chalkboard

​Chalkboards are cool. Children love getting to write, draw, and decorate on them. This chalkboard paint from The Home Depot will let you turn a wall, or an entire room, into a chalkboard. Use the board to make black and white patterns that will be stimulating for an infant, since newborns can’t see color, and then, as the child grows, they’ll have a chalkboard to play with. While this is black, you can also buy or make chalkboard paint in other colors, such as pink or blue.

11) ​Pink

While pink was once a boys’ color, it’s now considered a traditional girl’s color. If you’re having a girl and want to stay traditional, this is the best choice. That said, make sure to pick a pale pink like this that won’t be overstimulating, since pink is a warm and energetic color. If you have a boy and want to choose a formerly-traditional color, you might want to pick pink as well. It’d certainly make a statement!

12) ​Mint

Mint is a bluish or greenish color that creates a cool, calming effect, even more so than other cool colors. It’s great for a boy’s room, or you can get a greenish mint color for a gender-neutral or girl’s room. Unlike other light greens, it doesn’t have any warm color to disrupt sleep, and a pale mint like this one won’t be very stimulating. This is best for promoting sleep, but you’ll need furniture or other things in the room when it’s time for your baby to play, so they have a more energetic environment.

13) ​Balance Soothing and Stimulating

You want your baby’s room to have interesting things for them to look at and explore. When they’re newborns, sight is one of the main ways they’ll explore their world, and you’ll need to provide a lot to look at. Since they’ll sleep in this room, you also want things to calm them down and help them drift off to sleep. In this article, Lauren Hufnagl talks in more detail about the balance between soothing your baby and stimulating that you’ll want to create.

14) Bold Colors

You want your baby to have interesting and energetic-looking designs in their room, along with stimulating colors that encourage them to look everywhere, think about everything, and visually explore their environment. To achieve this, try painting one wall with bold colors like the ones in this picture. You’ll only want this on one wall, to avoid over stimulation, make sure the rest of the room has cool, paler colors to offset these and provide a relaxing environment for sleep.

15) Polka Dots

If you can’t pick a color, why not choose them all? Try getting this confetti wall decal from Amazon to create a polka dot wall with many colors. No single color will cover enough area to be overstimulating, but the warm colors and pattern will be interesting for your baby. Since they’re decals, you can get similar black and white decals until the baby begins to see color at around three months old, then add these for your three-month-old.

Did you like any of these ideas? What did you choose for your baby’s room? Tell us about it in the comments below!