Going green with baby rooms

Decorating your child's bedroom or playroom scores high as one of the more fun tasks we can do as parents. It draws on parents' creativity, enjoyment, and love to build a beautiful space for their child to grow up in. A nursery project may also compel functionality to ensure child-proofed features and convenience for the parents and caregivers who will spend considerable time there as well. However, before one gets too caught up in color swatches, another matter to consider is folding in eco-friendly options to maximize a child's health and safety.

Here are a few ideas to make your baby/child's room "green" and environmentally safer:

• Use low or no-voc paints. Another fun way to decorate a room without the labor or exposure to walls of paint is to blik it.
• Find furniture made of natural woods with non-toxic finishes. Also, lay down natural wood floors such as bamboo. With carpeting, select natural and non-allergenic fibers.
• Choose an organic mattress and crib bedding over non-organic sets. Mainstream cotton is a major crop that utilizes chemical fertilizers and pesticides that often retains residues within the material.
• Do select a room for your baby or child in the house with open windows to allow fresh air and natural sunlight. Though, be careful how you arrange furniture in the room; keep cribs, tables, and other furnishings that little ones can climb upon away from windows, especially if you live on upper levels or floors.

• Minimize plastic toys, if possible (check out our "Let's Talk Toys" blog entries by store manager Julliet Lowe). Instead, have wooden toys or toys made with no-lead paints and natural materials available for baby to play with. Also consider toys that spark the imagination and can double as learning tools. Contexture mobiles, for example, are designed with a nature and recycling theme. They add great decor as well as inspire awareness of the natural world.

Photo credit: Contexture Design

• For general cleaning, use natural or organic cleaners to keep baby's environment toxic-free as possible.

By providing a household that is safe as well as eco-friendly, children will become familiar with such concepts that will make growing into responsible stewards easier and more fun. For further information, check out some tips by the U.S. Green Building Council. (LL)