Everything in the world has texture. Everything you touch and feel has different characteristics that make it rough, smooth, wrinkled or delicate. Imagine yourself blind-folded and asked to feel different surfaces. One might think a series of smooth surfaces is nice, but when compared to a variety of textured surfaces, it unmistakably gets much more interesting.

When it comes to interior design, the art of texture is perhaps the most underrated design element used in households. Textured surfaces add components of wonderful contrast that give your design much more personality. You can turn a room full of boring, flat surfaces into a beautiful canvas of textures to give your nursery depth and character. So if you are looking to give your nursery a more noticeable look that is not 'in your face' bold, work with different textures and see a beautiful transformation take place.

Types of Textures

Depending on your nursery theme, various textures give different characteristics that can be loosely classified within these categories:

1. Traditional: smooth, refined, detailed, like fine hand-stitched embroidery, laced, beaded, tassels
2. Contemporary: lots of contrast between textures, like smooth-rough, thick-thin, shiny-dull, stripes-checks
3. Feminine: elegant, soft, subtle difference in textures like chiffon, silk, taffeta
4. Masculine: rugged, tweedy, and strong textures like leather, animal skin, wood, stone, metal, and thick rug on tiled floors

Warm & Cool Textures

There are also textures that are considered warm and some that are cold. Warm textures include: wood, brick, velvet, linen, upholstery, and anything else that would give off a warm and cozy touch to the nursery. Cool textures include: leather, stone, plastic, glass, stainless steel, anything that can give up a cooling sensation to the touch.

Layer Them Like Cake

A wonderful technique to glorify your beautiful textures is 'Layering.' It's easier for the untrained eye to notice the differences in textures when it is skillfully compiled together. Layering also provides subtle contrasting points to certain areas that you would like to highlight. For example, you can have a nursery glider that has a knitted or fuzzy blanket on top for snuggling. Then layer on a couple pillows with different textures. Your nursery glider will look inviting and I bet you my lunch that guests will want to sit there. And since your baby crib will be the focus of your nursery, use a textured baby blanket like a quilt, then layer with different pillows and perhaps a toy that all have a unifying color or theme. Just don't forget to remove all items besides the blanket when baby is in the crib.

Bringing It All Together

Thinking outside the box is what will make your nursery look unique, but keep an anchored thought to tie everything together somehow. It could be a specific type of texture you are using, like wicker, wood, wrought-iron, or it can be a unifying color, or nursery theme. There should be an element or two that all your designs and textures gravitate around.

More Tips

And by the way, there is such a thing as too much texture which can be distracting and take away from your nursery theme. I would recommend using no more than 5 different textures. Also, neutral colored rooms are a very good base to start with because it will help provide better contrast and bring out more texture. Try white, light grey, or beige for your nursery. You can even try applying texture to your walls like faux wall treatments, which work well for traditional themes to give off an aged look.

Honestly, you can get lost in all the different options of applying contrasting textures to your nursery so please don't spend too much time on this, as there are other important tasks like picking out nursery furniture, color scheme and decor. Just keep a texture-focused mentality when you are working your magic. Applying beautiful, contrasting textures can be the finishing touch to create a wonderful nursery that will look simply amazing.