It feels like such a big milestone deciding on how to decorate your nursery, or whether to even have a nursery. A lot of people will tell you that you might not even need it, especially at the beginning. For us it was important for her to have a space that we can keep all her little clothes in, toys and also for her to get changed in. Also I think for your first child you want to go through the whole experience and a nursery is definitely part of it.
How to start your nursery transformation
We decided to turn our smallest room in our 3 bedroom house into the nursery. This of course comes with challenges around space, storage solutions, size of the cot/crib. I got really into this and was trying my hardest to find the best solutions for it and for it to still look stylish but yet be super practical.
I thought I would share how I got the inspiration and what I decided to buy with you all, especially as we had very limited space. Blogs and Pinterest really helped me with this.
The Wardrobe
So we started with the wardrobe space - we have a small space in the room already like an integrated area but it only had a top shelf and one clothes rail in there. I needed to make it more user-friendly especially knowing babies will have a lot of little clothes and just in general a lot of stuff. So I had to come up with how we can incorporate more storage but still utilising the space to its fullest.
We found this great solution after a visit to IKEA :) yes the fun store of many possibilities as well as the danger of getting lost for hours. Luckily my pregnancy bladder didn’t allow for that, so James was rather happy. 😅
I also added a little door organiser which I am using for socks, bibs and little hats which takes no space at all but again offers all that additional storage for little effort. I got this one from Amazon.
The Cot, Cot-bed, Crib
The bed is another big decision, we decided on a cot-bed as this turns into a bed as well and gives us the opportunity to have more use out of it in the long run and it also works out better financially. They say you can use then up to 4 years. Therefore, I narrowed down my search and looked for cod-beds, which then aided me to get a feel for different styles available and what I think would be best in our small room. I also made the decision to go with an under bed drawer as that was another storage solution for me as it will hold a lot of clothes, bedding, other bits that you don’t need to get to on a daily basis. In addition to all the different styles I found that we can also opt for a smaller version much narrower called a mini cot, lucky us we just made some more space in the nursery with that decision.
Tip: ✨ Mini cots or cribs are also ideal when you're looking for twin room ideas or want the bed to be in the main bedroom with you, or just have a smaller apartment or like us a small bedroom available.
We ended up going with Ickle Bubba mini cot and I got the bundle with the drawer. I also didn’t want to spend a fortune on this but seen some good reviews and the style was really going with what I had envisioned at this stage for our nursery.
Tip: ✨ Make sure you check if you have a specific mattress in mind that they do the relevant sizes or the mini cot you have your eye on.
✨Mattress I got is from the little green sheep, as they have amazing reviews and for us it was so important to go with an all organic solution based on some research I have done based on chemicals used and cot deaths (SIDS).
Changing table and area
When researching changing tables I nearly fell of my chair several times 🤪 The amount of money you can spend on a changing table is crazy. So I got my DIY head on and wanted to look at alternatives. I needed an area that was a good height for me (I am only 5ft 2) to be able the change the baby on as well, therefore deep and long enough to facilitate the baby laying on top of it. I had a style in mind to link in with the rest of the nursery. Ikea was the winner for this, I found a white chest of drawers that had the perfect size and was more narrow to fit the smaller room in the house. I had some ideas how to make it look more nursery appropriate, just alone by changing the handles to some very cute safari styled ones I found on Etsy.
Shelves and Storage solutions
Some other areas that can really help with storage but at the same time can be stylish are shelves!!! And if you position them correctly they can be handy and very decorative too. I got my inspiration from Pinterest again and decided on 2 shelves above the changing table that can aid as storage for creams, hair brushes, toys for distraction and I can also use to hang up outfits for the day, especially when James is in charge of getting her dressed 🤣. I used a trick that I saw online and just positioned one of the shelves upside down, so they both look different but have great storage solution.
I then found another shelf more like a bookshelf for some space I had behind a door and thought it would be great to keep the baby’s first books on as well as some soft toys and pictures. It attaches to the wall and I was able to fit it right behind the door without being in the way too much when opening the door but it is again very versatile and you can also get lots of use out of it until the get a lot older. You can see I am trying to make most of the available floor and wall space I have 🤓.
The perfect set up
Once you decided on the room, it is all about the look and feel once you know you can start looking at particular styles and elements that are a must and a like to have.
I believe in functionality, it being long lasting and still good value to make sure you get the most out of it. Having a baby is expensive as it is, so I wanted to be as cost savy as possible when creating the small nursery space.
Most of all enjoy it. I loved creating the space and seeing it come to life as well as decorating all the small elements. I keep sitting in the room and just staring and imagining what it will be like to have her sleep in there and change her daily in there, makes it all a lot more real!
I hope you like it and find it somewhat useful. If you have any questions on any of this just reach out to me on social media. 💕
ALL THINGS NURSERY
ITEM | PURCHASED |
|---|---|
Bed | |
Chest of drawers | |
Handles | |
Changing Basket | |
Wardobe | |
Hanging Door insert | |
Light Shade | |
Book Shelf | |
Shelves | |
Mattress | |
Wall colour |