Sometimes, you just don’t have a lot of space in your nursery. Maybe you’re using a smaller guest bedroom as your nursery, or you traded out your home office for a nursery nook. Some parents even make a mini nursery out of a walk-in closet.
Whatever your situation, you want to make sure your small nursery works for both you and your baby. While your child may not necessarily need a lot of room when you first bring them home, having a space that’s convenient and well-designed will make your life as a new parent that much easier.
Check out these small-space nursery solutions to see how you can make the most of your compact space.
Go smaller when it comes to your crib
Have a mini nursery? Buy a mini crib, such as a bassinet or a convertible crib that goes from bassinet to a larger crib with a bit of swapping out parts and pieces. Opting for a mini crib or convertible crib will allow you to not only adjust or upgrade your crib as your child grows, but as your space grows, as well. After all, you will need more space for your fast-growing tot eventually. For newborns, though, a mini crib provides just the right amount of space for sleeping while giving you plenty of room to fit other must-have items in your nursery, too, whether it’s a rocking chair, changing table, wardrobe, or whatever else you think you need.
Make your decor work with your space
Whatever your dream decor is for your baby’s nursery, if you’re working with a mini nursery, you need to take your space into account, then make your nursery’s decor work toward making that space seem bigger. Whatever style, theme, or color palette you choose, there are a few things you can do to make a small space seem larger than it actually is.
When choosing wall colors, opt for lighter tones that make rooms seem more spacious and more airy, such as pastels, grays, light oranges, or yellows. You can also make small walls and floor spaces seem longer than they actually are by incorporating stripes into your decor.
Additionally, try to keep your decor on the walls. Floating shelves, murals, and wall art take up zero floor space, leaving you more room for the important stuff.
Consider the furniture you actually need
While there are tons of different nursery-specific furniture items you could add to your baby shower gift registry, before you go picking and choosing all of it, consider what you really need. Extra pieces of furniture aren’t going to help you save space in your mini nursery.
One of the easiest pieces of nursery furniture to ditch? Your changing table. Rather than purchase a dedicated changing table, you can make another piece of furniture in your mini nursery pull double duty, such as a dresser.
Speaking of dressers, will you need a dresser at all? If you don’t absolutely need the extra storage, you might opt for under-crib storage to hold all those tiny baby clothes, or affordable in-closet organizers that stay tucked out of sight and out of the way.
Make use of every single inch of space
When it comes to your mini nursery, you can’t afford to let any floor space go to waste. One of the most underutilized pieces of floor space in many kids’ rooms is the closet. Make your nursery’s closet work for you by removing the doors and creating extra open space, whether you use it to hold additional pieces of furniture or storage solutions, or as extra space for seating or toys.
You can make your nursery’s closet look more cohesive with the rest of the room and less like, well, a closet, by adding paint or wallpaper, as well as wall decor.
Remember — your nursery needs to be functional as well as fashionable
When designing your nursery, it can be tempting to jump on the first Pinterest trend you see and go all-out with the latest fads in furnishings and decor, but remember that your nursery needs to be as functional as possible as well as fashionable. When you’re working with a mini nursery, function takes first priority. Consider how best to use your space and how to most conveniently care for your baby in that space, and you’ll save yourself many a headache later. Once you have the best way to utilize your small space as a nursery nailed down, you can move on to perfecting the decor.
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