Back in the day, the color for nurseries was pretty standard with pink, blue, yellow or green when technology didn’t allow us to know the gender of our love bundle. Today, we do have the means to know the sex of our baby yet the color trends are very, how should I say, neutral.

How did nurseries go from pink, blue or yellow to white?

This photo shows an all-white room (photo credit: Sherwin Williams) of Pure White SW 7005 (wall) and Gray Screen SW 7071 (trim). Where did all the colors go?

It seems over the years that neutral nurseries have been popular. This never sat well with me and I’ll tell you why.

When babies are first born, their eyes are developing along with every other part of their body. So jumping right in because I like to get right to the point, is why on earth would you want to choose a colorless room for a baby that is trying to see?

Twenty-five years ago when I started my family, the nursery was full of the primary colors. Not only did my kids get a colorful start as their vision developed but they also naturally grew into color lessons.

“This is red and there are no colors that you can combine to create it. This is yellow and there are no colors that you can combine to create it. This is blue and there are no colors that you can combine to create it. These are the primary colors and with these three colors you can create just about any other color in the world.”

They learned about adding black and white to those colors to add to the list of colors that they can create later on in years. What? Did you NOT think I was going to give my kids color lessons at a very young age?

But you see? How would my kids have known about color at a VERY young age if they did not see it? Would they have waited for first grade and saw it in their reading books? Oh, that would be too late in my eyes.

Which colors would be best for the baby to see first as their eyes develop? These colors are to stimulate baby not to make your home look like it should appear in House Beautiful.

Compromise is key here. You certainly don’t have to paint the entire room one color because yes, the rest of the family has to be in the nursery as well and we have to keep the balance. Have just one wall an accent color or as I did in my kids’ rooms, just the bottom half of the chair-rail.

Again I’m going to suggest colors from the Color Stories Collection of Benjamin Moore because of how crisp and clean they are.

So what do you think, a white nursery or something with a bit of color?