Nursery Art Prints For Your Baby’s Room

Above: art prints by Lewis

Nursery art prints are one of our favorite ways to add character and personality to a baby’s room. We love letting our imaginations wander when dreaming up new possibilities for the kinds of prints and artwork to use to decorate a nursery — from prints from an artist or illustrator you admire to a cherished piece passed down in your family, to something memorable from your travels. Regardless of where your inclinations lead you, we find that having prints and artwork of any medium as part of your nursery decor can help enliven and tie together a space, create a focal point in a design and help develop your baby’s sense of visual language.

Research has indicated that art has a positive psychological effect upon those that engage with it, and many of us can recall a time when a work of art has soothed us or lifted our spirits. Infants are constantly absorbing stimuli around them and working to process them using their developing visual capabilities, so having imagery around them is an important part of the learning process. We recommend positioning some of your nursery room wall art so that it’s visible to your baby from his or her crib. 

Some studies recommend outfitting your baby’s nursery with images with high contrast design elements and prints that use primary colors in their first few years to help foster the development of your baby’s senses. Later on, your child will progress from perceiving colors to identifying shapes and objects and having visual elements decorating the walls will engage them and create a point that they can focus on when their eyes wander around the room. This will be useful in stimulating their imaginations and their recognition of line, shape, and color.

When choosing an art print for your baby’s room, we always say to go with your intuition and select decor that creates a positive emotional response. With all art-viewing experiences, we often are moved in ways that we can’t describe. Is there something about that particular handmade print or textile that feels magnetic but that you can't put into words? Sometimes a piece of art possesses a particular je ne sais quois that just works.

Nursery Wall Art Ideas

Here are a few ideas to consider when selecting nursery room art prints:

Animals

Nursery art prints featuring animals are a continually popular choice of subject matter in the rooms of both young infants and toddlers. Prints featuring mammals, fish, birds, and more are all wonderful ways to help your little one practice facial recognition skills, get inspired to try out different animal sounds, dream up stories, and develop an understanding and appreciation for the natural world. Surrounding your child with images of animals can teach them about the wonders of what lies beyond their doorstep (or crib) and inspire curiosity. Our Lewis nursery art prints such as Alligator, Blowfish, Harbor Seal, Owl, and Oyster are all friendly yet refined reproductions of ink and brush illustrations that come in a variety of sizes and colors and delight the senses of parents and kids alike. Like all of our art prints, our animal art prints are reproductions of the original brush and ink illustrations created for the patterns that feature in our bedding, clothing, and wallpaper collections.

Travel

You may opt to hang a wall art print for your nursery that transports you or your child to a faraway land. It could be a hand-painted landscape made by independent artists in another country that you discovered during your recent travels, or perhaps an illustration of the Tanzanian Serengeti, where you dream of visiting someday.

Nursery art prints that depict other lands and cultures can bring excitement and intrigue to your baby’s room and develop a sense of connection and curiosity about what lies beyond their immediate surroundings. Think about a place that feels special to you — it could be Monet’s garden at Giverny in France, or simply a local botanical garden in your city that you love to visit.

By featuring these places on your wall, you can revisit them over and over again and share the memories of that special place with your child.

Text

A simple quote or resonant word or mantra can speak volumes and can make for beautiful and meaningful wall art. Perhaps there’s a verse of poetry that has always stuck with you, personal words of affection and caring that you and your partner exchange, or a saying from a beloved family member that stays on repeat in your mind. Honor words of your own, or another’s, by featuring them in a framed artwork. 

It’s common knowledge that exposing your child to written words from an early age is important for verbal development, and having the text as part of your nursery decor is a great way to create opportunities for reading. Though your infant may not know it as of yet, they will be reading the art on their walls in a matter of years and months.

Our Lewis Peace art print is a piece of art originally hand-lettered in inky blue by Liz’s 7-year-old daughter, Louise, and was inspired by a meditative mantra she learned from her teacher. We think that this sentiment is a universal one that speaks to the hope that our little ones inspire within us.

Original Artwork

Tap into your inner artist and create a nursery art print of your own. Whether you have a desired illustration or design in mind or prefer to freestyle, set yourself up in a quiet place with ample light, choose your desired tools and media, and let your creativity soar. For the less artistically inclined, we find watercolors are a forgiving medium when we’re hoping to create an original artwork that feels both serene and refined. Try working in tonal colors – just blues, or just greens, for example – and explore creating abstract or pictorial designs – or both.

One crafty way to create a bold, abstract art print for your baby’s room is to use different colors of cut-out construction paper. Taking a leaf out of Matisse’s book, we find that this method of image creation results in modernist compositions that feel sophisticated while retaining a sense of play. You can try using two complementary colors in different layered shapes, or experiment with collaging with a range of colors. You can even try collaging with cut-out origami paper, which typically comes in a wide range of colors and patterns.

Another alternative to a hand-drawn or collaged nursery artwork that you can make on your own is wall-hung weaving. Many online craft retailers offer simple weaving kits for first-timers that include yarns of various colors as well as an easy-to-follow tutorial. This timeless textile art has the added element of tactility and can help soften the echoing of sound within a room. 

When your little one grows old enough to start creating masterpieces of their own, consider framing one of his or her artworks and hanging it in their room. Seeing something of his or her creation hanging proudly on the wall can help instill pride and confidence in your child and their creative abilities. This also adds a personal touch and the satisfaction of knowing you contributed to enhancing your own space.

Photographs

Making an archival print of a favorite photograph is a great way to honor a specific place or memory. A photograph of a view from a mountaintop creates an invitation to think expansively and encourages the imagination, while a close-up of a flower can inspire a connection with nature and forms found within it. Photographs of family members or pets can serve to soothe your baby girl or boy with the comforts of the familiar, and may also aid in the development of facial recognition skills. 

Photographs from our lives also help strengthen our memories of particular places, people, and events. If your child or toddler has photos of themselves around them from earlier times (sometimes even a few months!) it will spark their curiosity and strengthen their connection and understanding of life’s different phases. Photos (especially framed ones) also have the potential to become cherished family heirlooms in the future.

Botanical Elements

We love the timeless appeal of incorporating botanical motifs into the decor of any room in the house, and art prints for baby rooms are no exception. Whether it’s a photograph or an artist’s interpretation, depictions of flowers, herbs, trees, and even fruits and vegetables are a great way to bring the outdoors in (without having to water anything). One inventive approach to including floral elements in your decor is a framed pressed flower or plant, an option usually available from online vintage sellers. If you’re feeling inspired, this could also be an easy do-it-yourself project and a good excuse to explore your local flora. 

Hand-drawn botanical prints are a must-have in our nurseries, and we especially love painterly monochrome drawings in serene colors. Our Lewis Arugula, Echinacea, Fig, Goldenrod, Magnolia, and Parsnip nursery wall art are all perfect options for accenting the walls of a baby’s room, and pair well with a multitude of decor styles. Each piece begins as an ink and brush drawing then is digitally printed on thick, 100% cotton, acid-free paper and is available in a variety of colors and sizes, with the option to be custom-framed

For an added element of fun, we love the idea of referencing the tradition of plant symbolism to get inspiration for which plants to feature on the walls of your child’s nursery. Drawing from several cultures and folk traditions, plant symbolism is the act of ascribing meaning to different species of plants and flowers. Get creative with how you represent your chosen plant or plants, be it a drawing, a photograph, or a dried and pressed specimen.

Storytelling

Having an art print in your nursery can be a great starting point for stimulating your baby and creating a story, either told by you in your baby’s earliest years or collaboratively later on when your child can share his or her thoughts. Any artwork can be the seed for a great story. An abstract print with amorphous shapes is ripe for interpretation, while a pictorial print of an animal or plant may provide the main character in the story you decide to weave. A nursery art print of a landscape can provide the backdrop for a story just waiting to unfold. With any story, feel free to use the narrative as an opportunity to engage your child in all of their senses, using descriptive language to explore the sights, sounds, smells, and touch elements of each setting and character. This will help your child develop their language skills and their overall sense of awareness and mindfulness. 

Framing

Framing your print or artwork is an ideal way to add a touch of refinement to a wall hanging. We find that sometimes even the most worn and weathered artwork or ephemera feels stately and elevated when framed well. Frames may have a wood finish in natural and walnut or can be painted in a neutral color or one that complements the artwork. We love the look of an art print that has a light wood-colored frame and we always ask our framer for a few inches of matting around the print for a “floating” effect. All of our Lewis nursery art prints include the option to frame in a high-quality white, natural, or light walnut custom frame. 

Framing also helps protect and preserve your artwork. By enclosing your art print in a frame with an acrylic or glass cover, you’re ensuring that it’s less subject to bumps, spills, and dirty fingers, and, depending on the cover material (museum or archival glass is always best), that it will be resistant to sun fading, yellowing or degrading. Frames also help direct attention to your artwork and can enhance the beauty of your mementos while making them look more visually complete.

Arranging & Installing

Another consideration to keep in mind when creating a scheme for your nursery wall decor is location and arrangement. You may envision a gallery wall with an eclectic grouping of artworks puzzled together in a staggered arrangement, or perhaps a horizontal row of three or four complementary works. There’s also nothing quite like a single framed artwork on a blank wall to create a focal point and a sense of visual balance within a space. 

We recommend having someone hold different options up to the wall in different arrangements so you can stand back and deliberate on what looks best. Try holding your piece at eye level as a starting point, and adjust from there. Feel free to also use walls, architectural elements, and furniture as guidelines to help center your artwork. Follow your instincts and try every possible arrangement until the configuration feels just right. Then you’re ready — get out your measuring tape, hammer, screw or nail, and carpenter’s level and get cracking.

Artwork can add a sense of delight and wonder to your nursery, and we find there's no shortage of places to find inspiration. Explore artwork that suits your current design scheme, or find (or create!) a stand-out piece that creates a visual punctuation mark on your wall. Choosing the artwork for your baby's room can be a fun and gratifying experience, and a way to create a special, personalized environment for your little one's earliest years.