Blue nursery wallpaper: powder, dusty and navy palettes

1. Choosing a blue nursery.

Blue is one of the easiest colors to live with in a baby’s room, and one of the easiest to get wrong. The decision is less about “blue” and more about which blue, and how much of it the wall should carry.

• Powder blue is pale and airy. It makes a small room feel lighter and sits happily with white furniture.
• Dusty blue has some gray in it. It is the most forgiving, because it looks calm in daylight and in lamplight.
• Navy is the dramatic one. It works best as a single wall or in paint and furniture, with a lighter pattern beside it.

Blues also change with the light: cooler and grayer in a north-facing room, softer and warmer under an evening lamp. That is a good reason to see a sample on your own wall first. Every design here works for any baby, and all of them come from our kids’ collections.

2. The two blue designs.

These are the two kids’ designs whose catalog descriptions are blue, and they go in different directions. Our nursery peel and stick wallpaper page shows them beside the rest of the range.

• Ocean life: watercolor fish and sea plants in easy blues and greens. The more pictorial pick, soft enough to read as a gentle pattern from across the room.
• Minimalist floral: loose blue-and-white flower marks in a small printed repeat. The quieter pick, for a cooler take on a floral wall.

For a whole room built around the sea, see the ocean nursery guide. For themes that suit a boy’s room, the boy nursery guide covers animals, planets and cars.

3. Companions for blue walls and decor.

None of these is blue, and we do not call them blue. They are quiet gray, white and warm beige repeats that sit beside blue paint, bedding and a blue wall, or give a second wall a calmer partner:

• Clouds: rounded white clouds drifting across a soft gray ground, a sky to go with a blue room.
• Moon and bunny nursery: rabbits resting on crescent moons with stars, in soft gray and white. A bedtime partner for navy paint.
• Stars: small gray stars scattered evenly across white. From across the room it reads as a light texture.
• Neutral Nursery Cloud: watercolor clouds in warm beige and olive tones, to warm up a blue room.
• Teddy Bear Striped: teddy bears on gentle beige stripes in a sage palette, for a blue and sage mix.

Blue sits well with white, pale wood and warm neutrals such as cream, oat and linen. For a little warmth, a rust or mustard blanket, basket or framed print stands out against blue without adding more pattern. To sort designs by palette, see the gender-neutral nursery guide; for clouds on their own, see the cloud nursery guide and the stars and moon nursery guide.

4. Plan the wall and the panels.

Every kids’ design comes in 30-inch-wide panels in nine heights, priced $90 to $180 per panel. Divide the wall width by 30 and round up for the panel count. Add 4 inches to the wall height for trim and alignment, then choose the shortest panel height that covers it.

Prices are before tax, with free US shipping. The nursery wallpaper calculator does the same math for your own wall. If you rent or may redo the room later, read the removal guide: we have not published our own removal tests, so test a sample on your paint.

5. Start with a $15 sample.

A blue that looks right on a phone can turn gray or icy on the wall, and a navy paint chip beside a paper tells you more than either alone. Order a sample of each finalist from our samples page, or straight from a design: Ocean life sample, Minimalist floral sample, Clouds sample or Teddy Bear Striped sample. Each is $15 with free US shipping.

To compare several gray and white repeats at once, the Calm nursery pack adds three soft ones:

More designs are on our kids’ page.

• Tape the samples where the panels will go, next to your paint swatch.
• Hold them against the bedding, the rug and the crib.
• Check them in morning daylight and under the lamp you will use for night feeds.

Ordering your wall after the sample? Use code SAMPLE15 for $15 off orders of $300 or more (one use per customer).

Questions

What is the best blue wallpaper for a nursery?

Two of our kids' designs are blue by the catalog's own description. Ocean life is watercolor fish and sea plants in easy blues and greens, the more pictorial pick. Minimalist floral is loose blue-and-white flower marks in a small printed repeat, the quieter one. Both suit any baby.

Do you have a navy nursery wallpaper?

Not in the kids' range. For a navy accent wall, the practical route is navy paint or a navy piece of furniture, with a quiet gray or white repeat such as Clouds or Stars on the wall beside it. Order a $15 sample to see how the papers sit next to your navy.

How do I choose between powder, dusty and navy blue?

Powder blue is light and airy and suits a small room. Dusty blue has some gray in it and is the easiest to live with. Navy is the most dramatic and shows the most contrast against white furniture. Blues also shift with the light, cooler in a north-facing room and softer in warm evening lamps, so check a sample at different times of day.

How many panels does a blue accent wall take?

Divide the wall width in inches by 30 and round up. A 5-foot wall on an 8-foot ceiling takes two 108-inch panels at $120 each, $240 for our kids' designs. A 9-foot wall on a 9-foot ceiling takes four 120-inch panels, $500.