Nursery Wallpaper

How to choose nursery wallpaper

Choose a design that reads as calm from the doorway. Small-scale prints in two or three soft colours, clouds, stars, a sparse woodland, make a room feel settled; big characters and bright primaries do the opposite at bedtime. Keep it to the wall behind the cot, so the room can be repainted or rearranged without touching the paper, and pick a colour you would be happy to live with in a bedroom of your own. Most of the designs here grow with the child: a woodland works at two and at ten.

Everything here is non-woven and hangs paste-the-wall: the paste goes on the wall, the paper goes up dry, and there is no soaking table taking over the house mid-renovation. Most nurseries need only two or three rolls for a feature wall behind the cot. Check with the roll calculator, and for a mural enter the wall size on the product page.

Where to start

The nursery designs ordered over the last year were three Sandberg prints, Della, Hollie and the made-to-measure Wilton, and the samples went to Emma Hayes' Songbird and Sandberg's Morangen alongside them. For clouds and skies see sky and clouds; for animals at any age, animal wallpaper; for the quietest option of all, the washes and plasters in calm and gentle.

Before you order

Order samples of the shortlist and tape them up where the cot will go. Nursery lamps and daylight tell very different colour stories, so look in both. Hang the paper before the furniture arrives, and read how to hang wallpaper or how to hang a wall mural if you are doing it yourself; if not, book an installer. Older children's rooms, including the Harry Potter™ murals, are in kids' wallpaper.

Questions we are asked about nursery wallpaper

Is wallpaper safe in a nursery?

We repeat what each brand states about its own paper. Sandberg says its non-woven wallpapers are free from toxins, heavy metals, plasticisers and PVC and printed with non-toxic inks; Rebel Walls says its murals are free of PVC, plasticisers and heavy metals and printed with water-based inks; Emma Hayes prints with organic-pigment inks free of heavy metals. The product page carries the statement that applies to that design.

How many rolls does a nursery feature wall need?

Usually two or three. Measure the wall's width and height, note the pattern repeat on the product page and use the roll calculator; round up to the next full roll.

How long does delivery take?

Delivery within Australia is $50 and most orders arrive within three to four weeks, because many designer papers are printed to order overseas. Express delivery is $150 and takes around ten business days. Shipping outside Australia is calculated at checkout.

Can I get a sample first?

Yes. A4 samples are A$10 each plus A$5 postage within Australia, A$18 to New Zealand and A$35 elsewhere, sent by letter mail and usually with you within a week.