Hot air balloons are fodder for any child’s imagination. Whether you grew up reading stories of hot air balloon travel and adventures or first saw a hot air balloon in person at a fair, you’ve developed a love if not an utter fascination with them. They’re the perfect way to create an adventurous atmosphere for your child, so we found some Hot Air Balloon Nursery Ideas to help you create the perfect take-off point for your baby!
1) Rattan
Rattan is a standard material when you want to create a natural-looking nursery with an abundance of woody textures. The nice thing about rattan is that it can fit in a grassland theme or woodland theme, and it looks amazing with Boho decorations. In this case, rattan will mimic the baskets of hot air balloons, and you can even buy and hang up a hot air balloon decoration like this one from Amazon.
2) Custom Name Blanket
Customized decorations are a nice way of showing that an area belongs completely to that person. They can’t be reused for the next person so that decoration of furnishing will always belong to them. They create a homey atmosphere, and baby blankets are one of the most common custom features in nurseries. You can get a hot air balloon-themed custom blanket like this one from Amazon, and store it as a keepsake long after your little one grows up.
3) DIY Vintage-Style 3D Balloons
If you’re a fan of hot air balloons because you grew up watching vintage movies or reading classic books with all manner of unique travel, you’re probably thinking of vintage-style hot air balloons. Vintage styles are often the more fascinating, with bells and whistles that modern items don’t have, in favor of sleek engineering. If you want something vintage, you can use this tutorial to build three-dimensional vintage-style balloons with more texture than a typical toy or decoration.
4) Colorful Sky Decals
There are so many different ways to represent hot air balloons to create an exciting and interesting room. If you favor bright and colorful nurseries, then you’ll need to do something to make your theme more vibrant. We found some wall decals that could be the perfect option, and they’re not just balloon images, either. These decals have colorful hot air balloons, but also cheerful clouds, along with a variety of other stickers to design a beautiful and cheer-filled sky on the nursery walls.
5) Retro Stickers
For people who are into the vintage style, there are a plethora of hot air balloon decorations out there. Wall decals are probably one of the best choices because they don’t take much effort and they’re both detailed and easily removable. That means you can put them up for a while and then take them down if your child doesn’t like hot air balloons when they’re older. For those interested, we tracked down these vintage-style wall stickers on Amazon.
6) Basket For Storage
In a nursery, hot air balloons baskets are usually depicted as a regular wicker basket, so if you want to keep that theme, you can use wicker baskets for other things around the nursery. For example, you can place baskets along a dresser or table like the designer of this nursery did and look for small baskets to organize changing table items with. You can also put toys and clothes in baskets, and hang them on walls as decorations.
7) Boho Rainbow
Hot air balloons would look good in many bohemian-style rooms, and boho decorations can look great alongside hot air balloons decor. Since you’ll probably depict hot air balloons flying around, whether they’re hanging from the ceiling or painted on the walls, you can add bohemian-themed weather decorations to create a more vibrant but still natural look. For example, you can get a bohemian-style rainbow ornament like this. The neat thing is that it comes on a string so that you can hang it from the ceiling or on the wall.
8) DIY Fuzzy 2D Decoration
A nursery should be a soft and cozy place, which means you’ll want plenty of soft decorations. There are many ways to create a cushioned look, from plush toys and blankets to soft table decor. You can even make fuzzy wall decorations, so we found an example of a fuzzy wall craft. The nice thing about doing a craft like this instead of buying something is that you can get your other children involved if you have any. This helps form and strengthen the bond between them and their baby sibling, born or unborn.
9) Replica Model
This hot air balloon model is something that could stay in the nursery for a long time or be moved into the child’s bedroom when they’re older and move out of the nursery. The replica has very realistic balloons with a lot of detail that makes them perfect for science lovers of any age. They’ll help promote a love of science and show what a real balloon might look like. They are designed to mount on a crib, but you can modify that and keep the replicas.
10) Balloons, Planes, and Zeppelins Curtains
If you love hot air balloons, it may be fun to include all manner of unusual flying or floating vehicles. After all, you never know which will catch your baby’s attention and spark their imagination. To promote these kinds of diverse interests, we found these curtains that have everything from hot air balloons to planes to zeppelins. These will create an eclectic look with a variety of vehicles and a combination of vintage-looking mechanisms and slightly more modern devices.
11) DIY 3D Steampunk
If you’re a fan of steampunk, hot air balloons can fit nicely into that niche. In fact, they’re a great way to combine aerodynamics and adventure with sci-fi and technological principles. This makes them interesting for you and still fun and attractive to your baby. It can be hard to find steampunk baby decor, of course, but you can make a three-dimensional steampunk hot air balloon using the directions in this video. This is the kind of decoration you’ll probably keep for a long while.
12) Balloon and Cloud Bedding Set
Nursery themes are often temporary, disappearing as soon as a child is old enough to move into their permanent bedroom, or changing into a space that’s more suited to an older child as they grow up. One way to keep from wasting money in this scenario is to get some thematic baby stuff and non-thematic generic furniture. For example, the dresser could be a simple wood one while the baby blankets would have hot air balloons and clouds on them. Since the baby blankets will go away when your hot air balloon theme does, you won’t be wasting any money.
13) Pink
You can design a hot air balloon nursery with a variety of colors and patterns to fit how the balloons might look in real life, but you can also choose a favorite color or a color that fits your baby’s gender. For instance, if you love the idea of a pretty pink nursery for your baby girl, you can buy pink hot air balloon stickers like these to decorate with. This sticker set even comes with pink clouds to complete the feminine look.
14) DIY Adventure Wall Art
If you’re having a baby for the first time, rest assured, this will probably be the greatest adventure of your life. In that case, there’s no reason not to tell your baby that, considering that this nursery is essentially adventure-themed. You can create wall art and decorations that are adventure-themed like this piece that says “Matthew, you’re our greatest adventure,” and has hot air balloons on it. You can even use these directions to make a similar piece.
15) Trees and Birds
Hot air balloons don’t exist in a vacuum. That is to say, many things appear alongside them and create a feeling of adventure and exploration. You can use elements like trees, birds, clouds, and more to break up a hot air balloon theme and make things seem more realistic. Plus, showing those elements will help your baby learn more about the weather, skies, nature, and other parts of the outside world. Try getting things like this mobile that show trees, birds, and other living creatures in particular.
16) Colorful Balloon Hamper
If you don’t want to clutter the nursery with a lot of decorations, you can get furniture with hot air balloons on it. For example, you can buy a hamper like this one with colorful hot air balloons in a watercolor-like style. This way, you don’t have to do anything except unfold it to set it up, and since you need a hamper anyway, you won’t have to add any extra items that clutter up the space. This type of decorating is great for parents who are proponents of minimalism but still want a thematic nursery.
17) DIY Hot Air Balloon Window
This next idea is a cool upcycle project that takes minimal effort and know-how, but it could still be an afternoon project depending on your resources. With this project, you can take an old window and turn it into a nursery decoration with hot air balloons flying in each pane. You can use a variety of mediums for the balloons and clouds, such as gluing paper decorations onto the pane, using window decals, or even painting directly on the glass. After all, you’re not worried about preserving the glass since it’s a junk window.
18) Glow-In-the-Dark
Children love glow-in-the-dark decorations, and hot air balloons are no exception. We found some hot air balloon stickers that you can put on any flat surface, including the walls. These need about ten to thirty minutes of light and then they should glow like night lights throughout the night. If your baby will stay in this room as they grow up, these will make great lights for a child who’s scared of the dark and also impress friends at sleepovers. For now, they stimulate the imagination!
19) Cartoonish
Hot air balloons are whimsical enough in and of themselves that you can use realistic ones and still create a fantastical look, but if you like a more colorful fantasy style, you can get cartoonish stickers like these. These decals have cartoonish balloons and cartoon animals smiling and waving from them, creating a sense of welcoming and a friendly atmosphere. The sticker set also includes planes and even a house being carried by balloons, adding to the sense of whimsy.
20) DIY 3D Dollar Store Balloon With Ribbons
If you’re on a budget, the dollar store is probably going to be an incredible resource for you. You can get materials from the dollar store and use them to make three-dimensional hot air balloon crafts like this one. The adorable ribbons on this project help give it a cute look that’s appropriate for a nursery, and the simple design is more than enough to inspire an infant or young child’s imagination. Since it’s three-dimensional with stiff ropes, you can set it on a table instead of hanging it from a wall or ceiling.
21) Sailboats, Skies, and Balloons
Like hot air balloons, sailboats are a vessel of exploration. If the romance of exploration and exotic adventures is what you love about hot air balloons, then these stickers will bring in even more aspects of that. The stickers depict hot air balloons with sailboat images on each balloon. The clouds surrounding them and the way each balloon is tilted in a different direction adds to the illusion of movement and adventures to faraway places.
22) DIY Light Catcher
Light can be a decoration if you’re willing to play with it. For example, you can create a light catcher that sunlight filters through after it comes in from outside. We even found these directions for crafting hot air balloon sun catchers that you can place in the window to create a variety of colors that’ll splash over your nursery walls. The sunny decorations use beads, so you can get the other kids involved in making them to help them feel more involved with and connected to your baby.
23) Elephant Dreams
Many people love to show elephants in nurseries because they’re compassionate creatures that act similar to humans in many instances. Elephants find humans cute and we feel the same way about them as we watch them frolic and play. If you like the idea of elephants in the nursery but chose a hot air balloon theme instead, you can combine the themes with decals like these elephants in hot air balloons. The stickers also tell you “dream big little one,” a perfect message to accompany elephants since everything about them, including their dreams, is big.
24) Maps
Since hot air balloons are all about travel, it makes sense to include a variety of travel-themed decorations, though most will be hot air balloon-themed. One option is to include a framed map like the one in this nursery, either by having one printed at a print shop or by purchasing a large map. You can even print one at home and glue the pieces together onto a board, though that won’t be as attractive as a professionally done map. Try printing several smaller maps and framing them.
25) Paper Garland
Garlands are common holiday decorations, but they also work very well in nurseries. You can find garlands designed as party decorations and use them to frame a piece of wall art or put them over a crib or changing table as a way of celebrating your little one’s birth. There are garlands for all themes, including this paper hot air balloon garland. While the paper pieces aren’t realistic-looking hot air balloons, they still improve the room’s look and create a vague hot air balloon impression.
26) DIY Felt Mobile
Felt pieces are nice if you want to give a nursery a soft look, which is always a good idea since it’s primarily a sleeping space and a soft look will make it more comfortable. Since mobiles are used to put babies to sleep, it makes sense to choose a soft one like this felt mobile. You can use these directions to make your infant a felt hot air balloon mobile so that your little one can look up at floating hot air balloons as they soar above his or her head.
27) Bed Bell
If you haven’t heard of it before, you may be wondering what a bed bell is. You can get a Nordic-style wooden decoration like this that’s similar to a mobile or wind chime but with a more natural, soft, and soothing appearance than most. This bed bell from Amazon, for example, has soft gray and white pom poms that bring clouds to mind along with small hot air balloons. It’s made of natural materials, and you can just hang it in a window or over a bed to soothe your infant with the sound of the breeze coming in.
28) Mobile
Mobiles are important parts of nurseries since they help soothe infants to sleep and also create points of interest to distract babies while they’re being changed. If you’re looking for a mobile, you’ll probably want one with hot air balloons on it, so we picked an option out for you. This one from Amazon has a soft appearance that’ll create a sleepier atmosphere, and it includes clouds and hot air balloons for a complete look.
29) DIY Folded Paper Balloons
If you want to create an inexpensive nursery either due to budget or because you’re going to change the decorations once your child’s old enough, you can make paper decorations. This way, you just use a little time and almost no money to design things the way you want them, whereas store-bought items aren’t usually customizable. You can use this tutorial to make folded paper hot air balloons for the walls in any color or color combination you prefer.
30) Night Light
Night lights are important because they light the room just enough that you can check up on your little one at night without turning on a glaring overhead light. They also help keep the darkness at bay for both infants and any young child, making them important safety and soothing tools for a nursery. You can get one like this with pictures of hot air balloons and backlighting that makes it look like they’re flying across a daylit sky. This one’s easy to use since it plugs into an outlet.
31) DIY Crochet Hot Air Balloon
Crocheting is one of the easiest things to learn if you’re interested in hand-making some decorations. Believe it or not, almost anybody can learn it starting with either a kit or some inexpensive crocheting equipment and a pattern. We found these patterns for crocheting hot air balloons so that you can try your hand at making something special. Few people nowadays know how to hand-make things, and having a handmade decoration from childhood will become an increasingly rare privilege that your child will treasure.
32) Explorers’ Bedding
Hot air balloons bring forth images of carefree and brave explorers going on adventures to far away and exotic places. You can get decorations that accent that fact such as these blankets where the elephant and human riding in the balloon have flight goggles, and the human waves as if they’re going on a long journey. The bedding set overall gives an impression that the characters are explorers and sparks curiosity and wanderlust in anybody who looks at it.
33) DIY Basket Crafts
One of the easiest ways to make a hot air balloon decoration is to start with a store-bought basket and add something resembling a balloon to the top. You can follow these instructions to create one such decoration, but that’s not the extent of it. You can take similar baskets and use them for other crafts, decorating them and storing toys and other items in them to make it look like there are balloon baskets all over the room without ever putting a faux balloon at the top of most of the baskets.
34) White Clouds and Balloons
If you want a dark-colored background, or even if you have a whimsical pale blue or green, you can still add decals without any fear that they’ll blend in too much or be too overwhelming. You can get white hot air balloon and cloud wall decals like these to make the room look like a sky filled with balloons, and put them on a dark background or against a sky blur or green wall to make it look like a real sky.
35) Animals
Animals are almost always a cute addition to a nursery, and a hot air balloon nursery should probably have them, too. There’s a reason that children’s books often have animals as main characters. Little kids and babies love animals, so you can introduce them by getting decorations like these stickers that show animals inside the balloons. If you have three-dimensional hot air balloon decorations, you can even try putting stuffed animals or tiny animal toys in them.
36) DIY Straw and Cups
This idea is a simple three-dimensional craft that’s perfect for if you have older children and want them to begin bonding with your upcoming newborn or want to help strengthen that existing bond. You can gather the simple materials, namely cups and straws, for little money, then either make the crafts or get your children involved. These 3D paper balloon decorations can make beautiful decorations if you choose pretty cups or paint them a pretty color, and you won’t be spending a lot of money on a temporary decoration.
37) LED Wall Lamp
Night lights and night lamps can be a great idea for a nursery because they make checking on your baby at night easy and save you from having to turn on lights that’ll wake your baby up and make it hard for you to get back to sleep. We thought this night lamp could be neat because it’s a wall lamp that’s designed to look like a hot air balloon blocking the sun as rays of light come from behind it, creating a softer glow that should still be enough to keep the darkness at bay.
How would you outfit a hot air balloon nursery? Did you find any ideas you liked? Please let us know in the comments below.
