Black and White Nursery Decor Helps Stimulate Newborn's Developing Vision

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Planning the decor of your child’s nursery is one of the most exciting activities to pass by those long nine months of pregnancy. While gender-specific color themes are sweet and subtle, we find ourselves much more gravitated towards high contrast nurseries. Aside from being gender neutral and modern, high contrast nurseries serve to stimulate a newborn’s visual and psychological development.

Vision is one of the least developed senses at birth. Newborns are capable of focusing on objects about eight to 12 inches from their face and can distinguish between black, white, and shades of gray. Research shows that newborns innately develop a strong preference for bold, high contrast colors like black and white and complex patterns. 

By the time infants are 3 months, their color vision will be fully developed but will only see the primary color, red, first. By providing ongoing stimulation as their visual capabilities evolve, the infant’s occipital lobe that is responsible for vision and visual recognition, will continue to improve until they reach full depth perception and clarity abilities by eight months. Proper stimulation has also been correlated with profound cognitive effects such as increased curiosity, attention span, and memory.

We love the above nursery’s stark contrast of black and white and the integration of several different geometric patterns. We suggest incorporating a pop of red, the first color they see, through use of toys and a modern industrial floor lamp to add a bit more depth. We also love these red giant lego blocks, which also double as storage.

We’d love to hear from you! Comment below with your creative ideas on how to incorporate black and white into your child’s visual world.