With baby number 5 coming within the next few months, we had to get creative on our sleeping arrangements in our home. Our home has 3 bedrooms so for right now, our 3 older girls share a room, Crew has his own room and Brad and I have our room. Eventually Crew and baby will share a room, but for those early months of baby waking up in the night and having to turn on lights to change and feed the baby, it wouldn’t work to put Crew and the baby together yet and risk waking him up every time. I know most people just sleep with a baby in their room but we’ve tried that and I don’t get any sleep because I hear every little coo and grunt and lay there awake for hours. When we added our upstairs bathroom a few years ago, we were able to create a little nook in the hallway for what we envisioned as a work space with a desk for the kids as they get older. Thankfully we hadn’t built anything permanent in this space yet and we were able to create the perfect little ‘nursery nook’!
Here’s a before photo to show you where we started….
And the AFTER!
I started off by giving the walls and trim a fresh coat of paint in the color Chantilly Lace by Sherwin Williams. I had it color matched in Behr’s Marquee paint line which I’ve found to be the best coverage and quality paint for walls. There were previously no window coverings on the window so I added these woven wood blinds with a blackout liner from Blinds.com. The installation on these were so simple! It’s a simple bracket that attaches to the wood frame on the window and the blinds slide right into the bracket and it just gets tightened with a nut. If I had read the directions and done it right the first time, it would’ve taken less than 10 minutes to install.
After I painted and installed the shades, it was time to start furnishing. I found the perfect caramel colored leather rocking chair and little side table from Target. This woven bassinet is such a fun and modern piece from Design Dua. The hardest part for me with working with such a small space was figured out where to store diapers, wipes, extra outfits or blankets from those middle of the night feeds where it’s almost guaranteed something is going to get dirty! I found these shelves from Ikea and added a hanging basket to the bottom one for a little storage and I can also hang extra gowns and sleepers on that bottom bar as well.
What do you think? It’s cozy and simple and perfect for our needs…with a rocking chair, bassinet, and we were even able to add a little bit of storage on the wall space. It’s just proof that you don’t need a large space to make a big impact and can make a sweet little space for baby in any little space you have in your home!
