Decorating a baby nursery is parents’ first — and maybe last — opportunity to have total control over their child’s living space.

Somehow, learning to talk has a certain influence over the decision to buy Dora the Explorer sheets or Jimmy Neutron pillowcases.

Until those negotiations begin, today’s parents-to-be must choose a crib, changing table, bedding, rocker and room colors on their own.

At Goore’s, a Sacramento, Calif., store that caters nearly exclusively to infants and toddlers, Richard Goore says most first-time parents have a good “base knowledge of what’s available. They have lots of questions, but they’ve also done their homework. They don’t see their baby’s room just in terms of pink and blue.”

Three items Goore says are the most important purchases for parents to make are the crib, car seat and stroller.

“The biggest thing with a crib is that it adhere to safety standards,” Goore says. “That means 2 3/8 inches or less between the slats, and that it has a good mattress.”

After these purchases, everything else is a matter of personal choice.

In “Mary Gilliatt’s Complete Room by Room Decorating Guide” (Watson-Guptill, $35), the interior designer writes that today’s new parents typically view the nursery as “a room that grows with the child.” It’s practical in terms of furniture with the door left open to have fun with the decor.

Designer Amy Coe’s latest infant bedding collection for Target is called Three Acre Farm. It’s a mix of bright colors in prints and florals for sheets and blankets, duvet covers and bumpers and nursery accents such as hangers and pillows.

Coe unveiled a new line with Target a year ago. From her office in Connecticut, Coe says this time around she wanted to offer parents a variety of patterns so they could mix and match, regardless of the gender of their child.

Gina Genshlea and her daughter, Elide, work to put together a bassinet in the nursery. Genshlea will be a third-time mom in July and has a 2-year-old daughter and older son. l For a checklist of baby's first furniture, see Page 2E.

“Because everything is sold separately, the nursery can look coordinated but not so matched,” Coe says. “Instead of the softer colors, I chose cheerful colors like red and blue and green. Then I did linens in gingham, paisley and denim with details like tiny flowers.”

Coe says new parents are especially eager to show off their nurseries. “They like to surround themselves and the baby with things that feel good because it’s a reflection of themselves.”

Her Target collection is priced from $8.99 to $39.99 and is also available online at www.target.com.

Besides the car seat and stroller, most parents put the rest of their nursery money into a crib.

Pottery Barn offers several styles of cribs, including a new spindle crib ($399) and one of its most popular styles, the sleigh crib ($799). Most of Target’s cribs are priced between $200 and $350.

One of the most innovative cribs now available in the United States is from a Norwegian company, Stokke. Geir Stokke, president of Stokke USA, has found a niche for his family’s unique baby furniture. “Our products are for consumers who want a clean, European look — something that’s simple yet functional,” he says.

The Sleepi System includes a crib, which follows a child from birth to pre-adolescence, and an ergonomically correct changing table that eventually can serve as a video stand or bookshelf.

The beechwood crib, which is oval, adjusts to four different heights and is built to travel through doorways “so that a parent has the ability to have the child in the same room with them, especially if they’re not feeling well,” Stokke says.

The crib ($699) comes with its own specially designed mattress.

The Sleepi Care changing table ($399) is also unique in that the baby is laid down facing the parent rather than sideways. This way, the parent no longer has to torque his or her body at an awkward angle.