One of the most wonderful parts of awaiting the birth of your baby is decorating the baby's room. Of course, there are so many options and decorating ideas available that it may actually be difficult to choose the right decorating ideas that you like. If you understand some of the basics of decorating a baby's room, it will make it a little easier to tackle this task.

One of the first and foremost issues to address when decorating a baby's room is safety. No matter how pretty or cute any item you want to put in the room is, you have to make sure it will be safe. Let's say you like the look of an old fashioned nursery and want to fill it with antiques and old quilts. If you are going to be using the furniture, and not just using it as accent pieces to look at, you cannot use antiques that do not meet today's safety standards.

Older cribs and furniture have features that are considered very dangerous. Even fairly recent items, such as your old baby furniture may not meet the standards. For example, cribs may not have bars spaced closely enough, or they may have raising mechanisms that can catch little fingers. To be safe, use new baby furniture; you can usually get furniture that are reproductions of antique styles, but have modern safety features. You will regret using old or borrowed furniture if you baby is injured.

There are those who may argue that if you do the proper research, you can find good buys on used baby furniture and save a lot of money. But there are certain things you should not penny pinch on. In addition, you can probably save money on today's furniture that converts easily, for example a changing table becomes a chest of drawers or a crib becomes a toddler bed. Buying good quality baby room furniture that grows Wit your child will save you lots of money as your child grows.

There are items that can be bought second hand, but you will be better off not buying cribs, chairs or other items a child may use. Stick to saving money on accent pieces such as pictures, lamps, curtain, etc. when you visit the garage sales or flea markets. Many times a family will sell a whole baby room set including the crib sheets, bumpers, curtains, blankets and lamps all in a matching theme. Items such as these don't have to be new to look good.

If you want to get great ideas about decorating, talk to other mothers of young babies. They have been through it all, and would love to share their ideas and experiences with new mothers-to-be. You can learn a lot about what worked and didn't for them and avoid your own mistakes while you create the ideal baby room for your new bundle of joy.