What's a baby to do when a traditional sugar-and-spice nursery, with pretty ruffles and little bows, just doesn't cut it? Boldly deck the space in hot pink, orange, and red, of course! A bright room like this accomplishes two purposes: It will be visually stimulating for the infant, and it will easily transition into a "big girl" room in a few years. All Mom will have to do is switch out the crib for a bed.

 

An exuberantly patterned rug served as inspiration for the big, horizontal stripes of brilliant raspberry and peony pink on the wall. The stripes make a bold statement and help make the small room seem larger. From there, it was a matter of choosing youthful fabrics in the eye-popping colors.

 

Big dots, small dots, lots and lots of swirls -- it sounds crazy, but mixing patterns is an easy way to make a style statement. Keep all the pillows, upholstered seats, and window treatments in the same color palette and unite with a common theme: dots of all sizes, here.

 

Creating your own custom furniture to match a room is fairly simple if you don't let yourself get carried away. Here, an orange border on each drawer and painted dots on top of the dresser match the room without being too matchy-matchy. The same principle was applied to the vintage mirror.

 

A newborn's vision is poor -- about 40 times worse than an adult's. Your little one can see some colors, including red, green, and yellow, but has a hard time distinguishing between similar tones, such as blue and gray. At age 3 months (give or take a month, all kids are different!), colors become clearer, and baby begins to see the difference between like shades.

At this stage babies show a preference for bright colors, shapes, and complex designs. Child development experts say this is a good time to encourage a child's interest in primary colors and pastels, as well as patterns. By about 8 months, your baby will see as well as you do.