The renter-friendly nursery

1. Plenty of first nurseries are in rentals.

Many families set up a first nursery in an apartment or a rented house, knowing they will probably move before their child starts school. That is not a reason to leave the room bare. A baby’s first room gets a lot of use, and it is worth making it a room you like spending time in at 3 a.m.

The goal in a rental is to decorate properly now and leave yourself a clear plan for later. That means doing a few things in a different order than you would in a house you own: permission first, a test before the commitment, and a record of how the wall looked before you started.

2. Start with the lease and your landlord.

Read the decorating section of your lease before you buy anything. Some leases allow changes with permission, some ask you to return walls to their original condition, and some say nothing at all.

• Ask your landlord or property manager in writing, and mention that you are planning peel-and-stick wallpaper on one wall.
• Ask what paint is on the wall and when it was applied. The answer helps with the next step.
• Keep the reply with your lease. If the answer is no, a framed print or a fabric wall hanging is still an option.

Permission and material compatibility are separate questions. A yes from your landlord does not tell you how the paper will behave on that particular paint, which is why the sample comes next.

3. Check the wall, then test a sample.

Rental walls vary. You may find flat, freshly painted drywall, an orange-peel texture, or several coats of whatever paint was on sale. Our wall surface guide explains what to look for and what to write down.

Then order a $15 sample with free US shipping. It does two jobs. It shows you the color and scale in the nursery’s light, and it gives you a piece to plan an adhesion check with on your own wall, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Choose an inconspicuous spot, note the date, and record what you see.

A sample check is not a guarantee. What you see on a sample tells you about that spot on that day. It is useful information, not a promise about a full wall over several years.

4. Keep it to one wall.

One papered wall gives a nursery most of its character and keeps everything else simple. It costs less, it is less to remove when you move, and it is a smaller ask of your landlord.

Pick the wall behind the crib, or whichever wall you see first from the doorway. A wall without windows or doors is the easiest to install and to take down. A typical rental nursery wall of 10 feet by 8 feet takes four 108-inch panels, $480 for our kids’ designs. The nursery wallpaper calculator works out your own wall.

Calm, low-contrast designs from the Quiet Nursery collection, like Clouds or Neutral rainbow, also travel well: they suit the next room, too, if you decide to buy panels again after a move.

5. The rest of the room, without new holes.

Wallpaper is one part of a nursery. Most of the rest can be done with things that move with you:

• Freestanding furniture. A dresser that doubles as a changing table and a low bookcase need no hardware in the wall. Follow each manufacturer’s instructions on anchoring furniture, and ask your landlord about anchors if the lease restricts holes.
• A rug. It softens hard rental floors and anchors the crib area.
• Plug-in lighting. A floor lamp or a table lamp with a dimmer gives you a soft light for night feeds without touching the ceiling fixture.
• Textiles. Curtains, a crib skirt and a reading chair cushion bring in color that coordinates with the wall.

6. Plan for moving out.

The easiest move-out starts on the day you move in. Photograph the bare wall in good light before the first panel goes up, and keep those photos with your lease, the landlord’s reply and your sample notes.

Peel-and-stick panels go up without paste or water. How cleanly they come off depends on the wall, the paint, the material and how long they have been up. We have not yet completed our own removal tests, so we do not promise how panels will come off your wall, and we can’t say anything about your deposit. Our removal guide sets out what affects removal and what is still untested.

Leave yourself time. Take the panels down a few weeks before your final walkthrough rather than the night before, so there is time to deal with anything you find. For the planning side, see the nursery wallpaper guide.