Fostering Exploration: Nursery Design Tips for Growing Minds

Designing and decorating a nursery room for your child is an exciting time. It’s the room where they’ll probably spend the majority of their time and it will likely be the location for many of your child’s firsts. While you will want to ensure the interior design of your nursery room fits with the rest of your home, you should also consider the ways in which design can be used to foster certain skills, attitudes and personality traits. If you are keen to develop your child’s explorative side, we’ve picked out a few ways in which design can be used to create a little explorer.

Create a Safe Environment

The first thing you’ll want to do is baby-proof your home. Creating a safe environment will give you peace of mind knowing that your little one is able to explore their new surroundings without harming themselves. 

This includes adding soft flooring. Foam play mats are the best option as they’ll protect your child from bumps and bruises as well as nasty burns that can occur when crawling on carpets. You’ll also want to ensure that furniture is free from sharp, pointy corners. If you want to avoid the cost of buying new furniture, you can pick up some table corner protectors online for very reasonable prices.

Finally, try to avoid having items out of reach of your child, even if these are items that aren’t specifically for them. There’s a strong chance that your child will want to explore absolutely everything, so try to avoid placing lamps, ornaments and other nursery room accessories out of reach as this could easily lead to an accident.

Introduce The Outdoor

Although your child will be predominantly exploring the indoors in their early years, there’s nothing to stop you from promoting a connection with the great outdoors which could easily spark an explorative, nature-loving personality from an early age.

The easiest way to do this is by having large windows. Not only does this allow your child to explore the outdoors with their eyes, it will also facilitate natural light in your nursery room to create a more inviting, stimulating space.

Try to also add some greenery to your child’s nursery through indoor plants. They’ll undoubtedly want to explore these and again, this could stimulate wider interest in the environment from a young age.

Add Sensory Elements

In the early years, your child will want to explore through touch. So it’s important to add textured surfaces that allow them to explore different feelings with their hands. Sensory wall panels are designed for this very thing and will hold your child’s attention, allowing them to explore for longer.

As they get older, your child will be able to distinguish and recognise different colours. Adding ways for them to visually explore is important and may develop a creative or artistic personality.  

There is also a wide range of interactive toys that are designed to stimulate your child’s senses. Moving animals, child-friendly musical instruments and sensory books are all great gift ideas that you can request around birthdays and holidays.

Incorporate Educational Toys

Your choice of toys is extremely important as this is where most of your child’s attention will go. While it can be tempting to turn to the latest electronics, try to consider the educational aspect of certain toys. Physical books are a great way to kickstart your child’s education, and you’ll find a book for every topic whether that be animals, sport, nature or something else.

Also, consider problem-solving toys if you are keen to turn your little one into a critical thinker. Allowing them to explore building blocks and sorting and stacking toys will challenge their little brains and promote creativity and intellect.

Encourage Physical Exploration

It’s not all about mental exploration, it can be great to promote a sense of physical exploration within your young child too. This can be as simple as creating an open space, free from clutter that allows your child to roll, crawl and eventually walk around freely.

As they get older, you can also introduce soft, child-friendly climbing structures that will allow them to explore with a little more freedom. You can then progress on to allowing your child to explore different sports by adding items such as basketball hoops, soccer nets and golf sets - all of which are made in various sizes to suit every age group.

Hopefully, this inspires you to create a nursery room that brings out a sense of exploration in your child. But it’s also important to put your own stamp on things. As your child grows, you’ll see their own unique personality develop and it’s important to constantly tweak your nursery to match their interests. Every child is different and no two personalities are the same, so your aim should be to create a nursery room that is as unique as your child!

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Darcy Fowler is a writer and a passionate interior designer based in Preston. After completing a University degree in Journalism, Darcy Fowler has dedicated a lot of time to interior design, exterior design and home decor; completing multiple home design projects in the process. Darcy is determined to provide interesting and insightful content with the hope of inspiring others. She has a big ambition to establish herself in the world of home renovation and design journalism.