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4 tips for choosing new nursery carpeting.

Bringing a baby home is a joyful occasion. Your family is growing, and when the tiny newest member comes home for the first time, you want to have a cozy place ready and waiting. For the first few months, your little one will probably spend most of his or her time in your arms or in the cradle. But before you know it, it’ll be time to explore.

Children spend a lot of time on the floor, scooching, crawling, walking, tumbling, and finding things to put in their mouths. So, in addition to color and texture, it’s important that the carpet in the nursery be safe and child-friendly. Here are four things to consider when you choose new carpet for your nursery.

1. Carpeting or not?

A padded floor can be a great advantage in a nursery. It keeps your feet warm during middle-of-the-night trips to calm a crying child and, more importantly, protects a child from the bumps and bruises that often accompany the first attempts at walking. It’s also quieter to walk on, making it less likely that you’ll disturb your child at nap time, and that they’ll disturb you less once they start tumbling about and making a ruckus. So if you’re trying to decide whether or not to carpet a nursery, carpeting is definitely the way to go.

On the other hand, if you already have hardwood floors, consider adding a rug to help cushion the area. This will help protect your toddler in case of a fall, and will also prevent toys from breaking to pieces if they’re dropped. Rugs are also easier to replace if they get ripped or stained, and you can update them to suit your child’s tastes and interests as they grow.

2. Install early and give it a good clean.

While carpets are a great option to help keep a room padded and baby-friendly, it’s best to install a new carpet early and give it a good clean before the baby arrives. This is due to that “new carpet smell” which adults recognize and easily forget about, but which can be much more troubling for babies. While it may sound odd to clean a brand-new carpet, Modernistic can help remove any residue left over by the manufacturing and installation process. And all our cleaning agents are pet and child-friendly, so there’s no need to worry about your little one crawling over the carpet.

3. Soft, safe, and secure.

When considering carpet or a rug, run your hands along it and think about how it feels. You want to choose a fiber that feels naturally soft to protect your baby’s delicate skin. Remember, this is where your baby will be practicing tummy time and pre-walking army crawl. Also consider choosing a natural fiber for your carpet. They may be a little more expensive, but they have other benefits, such as being naturally antibacterial and hypoallergenic.

If you’re looking at an area rug, remember that they can slide all over a hard floor if they’re not secured in place. So find a carpet pad that will grip and protect the floor below, and, as a bonus, add some extra padding for those toddler tumbles.

4. But how does it look?

The most obvious consideration in choosing new carpet for your nursery is how it looks with the rest of the decor. You want to create a space that’s inviting and calming and beautiful, but that also provides fun colors, patterns, and textures for your child to explore.

If you’re already planning lots of patterns and prints in the room, a solid color on the floor is your best bet to prevent the room from looking too busy. Consider the rest of your decor: What color do you want to highlight? Try to find a rug or carpet in that color. A splash of blue on the floor will bring out the blue in the patterns on the curtains and furniture.

On the other hand, if most of the nursery is blocks of solid color, the rug can be a fun place to add some pattern. Try to find a rug with one or two colors also used elsewhere in the decor to tie the room together. You can also use a patterned rug to highlight a theme in the nursery. A kid’s zebra-print rug can enhance an animal theme, or a leaf pattern can boost a woodsy theme.

Be sure to measure the room and make a plan before purchasing an area rug. Size is important, but so is shape and position: if the crib or dresser has one leg on and three legs off, it will wobble.

Keeping your nursery carpet clean.

Carpets and rugs are far and away your best choice for nursery decorating, but they need regular cleaning to stay that way. Blot up spills as soon as they occur, and vacuum on a regular schedule of at least once a week. When you do, make sure to go slowly in both directions to help pull up dust and dander from lower down.

And with all the excitement of bringing a newborn home, don’t forget to keep up with your semi-annual carpet cleaning. As parents, you know how important it is to keep your children healthy and safe. Regular professional carpet cleaning will cut down on allergens buried in the carpet fibers, and our truck-mounted extraction system will go even further, removing 96% of all bacteria and allergens with every cleaning. You’ll keep your growing family healthy, and extend the life of your carpet while you’re at it.

When you’re ready to set up an appointment, contact Modernistic. We’re here to help you create a clean and cozy environment for when you bring your new baby home.

Keeping nurseries clean in Middleville, Michigan for 40 years.

Making Michigan January a bit brighter.

When you move into a home many of the choices about general lighting have already been made for you. The builder or landlord has installed overhead lighting in each room that provides each room’s ‘natural’ light. However, most of us want something to make the room feel more inviting, and that will make the room work better. In our forty years of experience of home care and repair, we at Modernistic have learned some design secrets. Here’s our short guide to picking the best task lighting for every room.

Focus on counter space in the kitchen.

The counters are where all the work gets done. It’s important to see well while you chop and mix. Also, under-cabinet lighting illuminates the shadowy space above the countertops, which makes the whole room feel more spacious and clean. There are many permanent and temporary solutions for under cabinet lighting. You can have a contractor install a hardwired system, or mount the plug-in variety, which are a great option for renters.

Living rooms follow the rule of three.

The lighting design team at Real Simple recommends lighting three out of four corners of the living room. You’ll get the best effect if you use lights at different levels, and which vary between casting light upwards and downwards. Try for a mix of floor lamps and table lamps, and choose bulbs with a warm tone. Light as much of your seating as possible. This will make it easy to relax and read or converse in the evening.

Light your office space for productivity.

It goes without saying that you’ll want a bright focused lamp at your desk. However, make sure that the rest of the room is well-lit with alternative work spaces. Set a floor lamp by a comfortable armchair, or a table lamp by a couch. This is also a fun place to experiment with bookshelf lighting. Like under cabinet lighting, there are several affordable plug-in systems that make it easy to get a custom look.

Bathroom light should be flattering.

A common mistake in bathrooms is to make all the lighting overhead lighting. A ceiling fixture and an overhead vanity lamp will cast unflattering shadows on your face. If you have the option as a homeowner, consider installing two lights on the side of the mirror, which will give the most flattering illumination, and be functional for applying makeup or shaving. If you can’t, consider buying an illuminated makeup mirror. Some of these can even be mounted on extendable arms by the sink, for easy use.

Hallways can be more than walkways.

With the right lighting you can turn your hallway into a mini home gallery. You can angle a row of track lights on the ceiling to accent favorite art pieces, or, if a permanent change isn’t an option, add a framed piece with one of these LED wireless picture lights. You can easily mount it above a favorite print, and remove it just as easily later.

Bedroom light should help you wind down.

At the end of the day you do not want to be laying on your back staring up at a glaring ceiling light. If you have the space for nightstands, set up two beside lamps. These can be in any style, but make sure that the light is not angled to shine directly on your pillow, since a soft glow is more soothing than a spotlight. If you don’t have room for nightstands, think about mounting two sconces on either side of the bed, so that you’ll have good light for bedtime reading.

Different sorts of light need different kinds of bulbs.

Different tasks require different kinds of lighting. In the bedroom and living room look for a package that says “Soft White/Warm White,” which will cast a cozy glow. You could also experiment with pink bulbs in these places. For bathrooms, especially dim ones, look for packaging that reads “Daylight.” It creates the most contrast between colors, making it the ideal lighting for applying makeup. These bulbs are also the better choice for the kitchen, which should look bright and natural.

Light Therapy for SAD

Since Michigan’s gloomy months often lead to seasonal affective disorder, you might want to purchase a light box for your home as well. These therapy lights provide light exposure while filtering out harmful UV rays, and are said to reduce the symptoms of SAD. Since these lights should be used first thing every morning, think about where you’re most likely to be thirty minutes after waking up. In the kitchen drinking coffee? At your desk catching up on last night’s emails? Put the light in the room where you’re most likely to use it.

Are your new lights showing up your dirty carpets?

Now that you’ve clearly illuminated every room, you might see your carpets are looking a bit dingy. If so, schedule an appointment with our easy online scheduling tool today. Together we can make 2017 your home’s best year yet.

Serving Bay City, MI for 40 years.

How to choose new carpet for your nursery

Posted Wednesday, January 18th, 2017