While many young couples know the gender of their baby long before he or she is born, there are still many expectant parents want the surprise of not learning the sex of the child until it is born. When the sex of the new arrival is not known, it can be a challenge choosing a color palette for the nursery, yet most parents-to-be want to have the nursery ready well before the baby is due. One way to handle this dilemma is to paint the nursery a neutral color, and add gender specific accessories after the baby is born. And the perfect neutral color to use is gray.

Neutral Gray

Selecting gray as the base color for a baby's nursery is brilliant on several different levels. First of all it is a fresh, modern color, and in pale, neutral shades it brightens up a room. It also goes equally well with pink or blue, so not knowing the baby's gender is never a problem. When painting the walls, use a good quality primer, and then add two layers of gray paint on top of it. Keep any molding or trim crisp white and the room will look fresh and new.

A Little Girl's Pink

Yea! It's a girl! Now is the time to add pink accents throughout the room. It can be added to all of the fabrics found in the room including bedding and curtains. Hang pictures and wall art with splashes of pink. This color palette lends itself well to a baby elephant theme. Add stuffed elephants with pink bows on shelving or on the dresser. Incorporate elephants into fabrics, and add an elephant shaped pillow to a rocking chair. Or, rather than a whimsical theme, pink could also take the nursery décor in a more elegant direction by adding pink and white French toile for the curtains and lace for baby's bedding. Add a gray toile printed fabric to the chair, and the nursery will begin to take on a distinctly elegant appearance.

A Little Boy's Blue

Yea! It's a boy! Finally the nursery can don its baby blue accents; or for a more modern vibe, darker blue accents can be incorporated into the nursery's design. A blue and gray palette works perfectly with everything that a little boy might be interested in. Design a theme with cars, trucks and even trains, and blue will work for all of them. For a more formal appearance in the nursery, think about including interesting patterns like check, plaid or gingham. Then once the main fabrics including bedding and curtains are chosen, it is time to finish adding blue accessories to the room.

Gray is not a color that normally comes up when designing a nursery, but it is modern and versatile making it a candidate that is certainly worth considering for the nursery. By keeping the tone of the gray in a mid range between warm and cool, the color offers depth and calm to the nursery's design. It works equally well with pink or blue, and it is stylish and modern. All of these things make gray the perfect base color for a nursery, even when the new parents do not know whether their new baby will be a boy or a girl.