This is a project for the adults in the house, not for the baby. Ledgebay makes kits for adults, and the reason people paint one for a nursery is that a handmade picture on the wall carries something a print from a shop does not. It is also a reasonable thing to do with the last weeks before a baby arrives, when there is a lot of waiting and not much to do with your hands.
What works on a nursery wall
Nursery walls have their own rules, and they are not the same as living-room rules.
Soft, warm palettes read better than high contrast. A picture with a lot of black in it looks heavy in a small pale room, however good the painting is. Designs built out of greens, blues, creams and warm light sit comfortably.
One clear subject beats a busy scene. From a chair across the room, a picture with one bird or one bunch of flowers reads instantly. A detailed landscape reads as texture.
Something that will not date in three years. Nursery-specific decoration gets outgrown fast. A picture of birds or flowers stays on the wall when the room becomes a bedroom.
From the catalog, the designs that suit this best are Hummingbird, which is a hummingbird at blue morning glories, Rural Route Bluebirds, which is two bluebirds on a mailbox in blossom, and the softer florals: Sweet Petunias, Ritas Pansies and Cosmos From the Garden. Orchard Puzzle is the busiest option and works if you want something to look at up close, since it has a dozen different songbirds in it.
Browse the rest in flowers and animals.
Take the framed size
For a nursery specifically, the framed 12x16 or 16x20 is the better buy. The canvas arrives already stretched on a wooden frame and hangs on a single nail when you finish, which matters because the alternative is a rolled canvas that sits in a cupboard until you get round to framing it, and that generally means after the baby has arrived, which means never.
The unframed canvas is trimmed close to the printed edge, so it cannot be stretched over your own bars. It needs mounting to a board or framing under a mat. Fine if you already frame things; a reason for delay if you do not.
Hanging it safely
Worth being specific about, because this is the one part where a nursery differs from any other room.
- Not above the crib. Nothing should hang directly over where a baby sleeps. Put it on the opposite wall, above the dresser, or beside the chair.
- Into a stud or a proper anchor. A framed 16x20 is light, but a picture hook in bare drywall is not a permanent fixing.
- Out of reach of the crib rail. Once a baby is standing, anything within arm's reach of the rail is fair game.
- Let it cure first. Acrylic is dry to the touch in an hour and properly hard in a few days. Give it a week in a ventilated room before it goes on the wall, and there will be nothing left to smell.
Painting it before the baby arrives
Practically, a 12x16 is ten to fifteen hours and a 16x20 rather more, spread over as many evenings as you want. Nothing spoils if you leave it for a fortnight, so it survives an interrupted schedule better than most projects.
The setup is a table, a lamp beside you rather than behind you, a cup of water and a paper towel. There is no mixing and no solvents. Acrylic cleans up in water, which is worth knowing if you are painting at a kitchen table.
If you are pregnant and wondering: these are ordinary water-based acrylic craft paints, used in a normally ventilated room, and there is nothing exotic in the box. If you have any specific concern, the person to ask is your midwife or doctor rather than a shop.
A photograph instead
Some people would rather have something specific on that wall: the house the baby is coming home to, a grandparent, the family dog. A custom paint by numbers kit converts a photograph you send in into a numbered canvas with matching paints, in 12x16, 16x20 or 18x24, framed or unframed. It is printed in the USA rather than drop-shipped from overseas.
Choose a photograph with clear light and one clear subject; photographs taken indoors under a ceiling light convert poorly. Go up a size if there is more than one face in it.
As a gift
A finished canvas is a good baby-shower present and an unusually good grandparent project, because it is something to give that took time rather than money. If you are giving the kit rather than the painting, take the framed size for the same reason as above: it removes the step where the recipient has to do something before they can hang it.
If this would be your first canvas, the beginner's guide covers how the numbering works, and there are more finished pieces in the customer gallery.
There are a few more beginner tips for choosing a first kit, mostly about size and color count rather than subject.
