Lamp Shades

Choosing the Best Nursery Lamp Shades

When you plan a beautiful nursery for your baby don’t forget to think about lamp shades and lighting. So often they are an after-thought but lighting makes or breaks a room decor like nothing else and there are some important practical and safety considerations too for your baby.

Most essential of all is a dimmer switch for the main light in the room or the ability to create gentle pools of light with table lamps and suitable lampshades. You don’t want your baby to be jolted awake, frightened or unable to get to sleep due to harsh lighting.

Lamps need to be carefully positioned. Sooner than you expect your tiny baby will be mobile and it’s important for trailing flexes to be hidden and for lamps to be positioned safely away from the edges of tables and shelves so that they can’t be pulled over on top of your baby.

A specially designed nursery lamp is ideal. These usually have a hidden bulb and will generally be cool to the touch to avoid burning an inquisitive toddler.

If you prefer you can get wall lights with shades in great shapes such as this seahorse-shaped lampshade. Position them well away from the cot or cribso that the child can’t grab the light.

Fun lamp for baby's room

Fun lamp for baby's room

Floor lamps are less suitable for a baby room or for a toddler as children can easily pull these over on top of them and some can be quite heavy. Of course you want to avoid using breakable glass shades in the room too.

A lamp with a low watt bulb is great to act as a night light or you can even buy special nightlight lamps too in various toddler friendly shapes – scaring those night-time monsters away.

As far as lamp shade and lighting styles are concerned you can let your imagination run wild and there are many adorable nursery lamp shades and lamps available which will fit the look of the room you are trying to create. You will find them in all shapes and colors as well as brightly patterned fabric such as gingham, and lamps with wooden cut out shapes such as lambs, chicks and ducks, fairies, dinosaurs, trains and aeroplanes.

If you find nothing suitable (although I doubt it if you shop around a little online) and you have the patience and a steady hand you can stencil a plain shade to match a motif from another item of the decor such as a shape from your wallpaper border or chosen nursery bedding.

If craft is not your passion and you would like matching items, look for a range of bedding with a design which has matching accessories including lamps and lamp shades.