Besides being safe for kids, the church nursery should be a vibrant, colorful, kid-friendly area. The nursery is no place for “untouchable” furniture or decorations; it needs to have lots of touchable textures that are easy to clean. A tough prescription you say?
Not really.
Decorate the church nursery with your kids in mind. Take a kids’ eye view before getting started with your decorating plans. Add your safety knowledge and you’ll have a winner!
You may choose to go generic with the decorations. That is decorating without a specific theme. Just clean, colorful shapes and images that interest kids or may be a plethora of Bible images. Most nursery leaders I know choose a neutral theme for the walls and carpet but pick a specific theme, like Noah’s Ark for the decorations. Using themes makes it easier for donors to know what to give and themes excite the actual workers too.
Try these decorating themes when decorating your church nursery or pick your favorite elements from each.
Block, Blocks and More Blocks
Lego toys are fun, for boys and girls. Legos don’t just come in teeny tiny pieces, the toy company offers the large variety too. Go for a building block theme for your nursery. Create a written motto like, “Building On a Good Foundation” or “Building Our Futures With God.” You could be “The Builder’s Nursery.”
Decorate cribs and changing tables with solid, primary colored sheets and blankets. Put all the red linens in one area and all the blue in another. Buy large block tables with sturdy legs for toddlers to play at. Have plastic tubs of large blocks for building and creating. Cardboard blocks are fun for house building too. Paint or trace images of Lego builders or characters on the walls.
Flower Garden
A flower garden nursery decorating theme is a fun way to personalize your ministry. Start with a soft green color on the walls to represent “God’s Garden.” Paint tall flowers with long 3 and 4 foot stems on the walls. The painted blooms are the perfect place to add children’s photographs of the children who visit.
Use floral printed linens and colorful flower shaped rugs on the floor. Hang tissue paper butterflies from the ceiling high and out of kids reach. There are tons of other garden details you could add too like painted flowers on trash cans or stapling plastic white picket fence to the bottom portion of the wall. Do secure the fence tightly to avoid children’s fingers getting stuck. You may wish to put the fence outside the nursery on the walls leading to the room.
Need More Ideas? You can read our advice on gathering nursery supplies and keeping your church nursery clean. You can also leave a comment below to share your ideas with other readers.
I am stepping up in my church to begin to run the nursery. The nursery is outdated and in need of a theme, we are on a small budget and looking for ideas. I want to incorporate God with vibrant colors for the children, any ideas?
I am doing the same I chose Noah’s ark but check Pinterest I found so many cute ideas and think you can find some cheap ones. I’m adding more as we go. I bought a safari train table and a wall decal then less us better so I picked a small amount of toys and displayed them like Noah ark and the manger scenes from little people which I bought used for $45. Right now I am at about $500 for everything but we had nothing