You’re expecting a baby and need a nursery for the new addition to your family. The problem is that you don’t really have space. The room you need to turn into a baby’s bedroom is small, and you’re trying to figure out how to fit all the furniture and toys you need in it while creating a beautiful room. Use these Baby Nursery Ideas for Small Rooms to make a perfect space for your baby.
1) Dreamland Nursery Center
One of the best ways to conserve space is to get or make furniture that has multiple uses. Instead of having a tiny play area and a small changing table, buy a nursery center like this that combines a napper, play area, and changing table into one. This way, you can have a full-sized play space and sufficient changing area without taking up any more room than a single play place would. You can also get similar all-in-one or convertible cribs.
2) Corner Changing Table
Since you don’t have a lot of space, you’ll want to use every bit of it, including the corners or nooks and crannies of an irregular-shaped room. Get a corner changing table like this so that you can use every inch of space. The table had plenty of shelf space, too, since it’s designed in a simple way that won’t use unnecessary space. Make use of the ample shelf space for all your changing needs, and store odd-shaped items and toys in the triangular sections of the shelves. The shelf lip means nothing will roll off of it.
3) DIY Chandelier
Since you don’t have a lot of space, you’ll need to think of ways to decorate the room without bulky decorations. Lighting is an excellent choice because light makes the room brighter, causing it to feel bigger, and because you need the lighting anyway, so there’s no reason you can’t make the fixtures decorative. Try making a chandelier using the directions in this video by ALANAYA SO CHIC to decorate and brighten your nursery without using up the wall or floor space.
4) Light Colors
Making a nursery in a small space isn’t just about fitting all the furniture in. You’ll also want to make the room feel larger since you shouldn’t have a cramped and constricted space for you and your baby. The most typical way to make a room look larger and more open is to paint it with light colors like this or hire somebody to do so. You can make the whole room seem larger for the cost of a can of paint.
5) DIY Name Sign
You might not have a lot of room for wall decorations, so make the ones you have count. Build signs with your baby’s name on them since they’re personalized, and those letters will likely be the first your child sees and learns. Children grow attached to their names, and you want your baby to see theirs in their nursery. Use these instructions by The Little Frugal House to learn how to make a customized sign just for your baby. This will take up less room than individual letters, and they can save it as a keepsake as they get older.
6) Folding Changing Table
If you have a tiny room, you may not have the space to put out all your furniture and toys at once. Instead, get folding furniture like this folding changing table from Amazon so that you can store it or lean it against the wall when you’re not using it, and free up floor space for play or for other furniture pieces. These have the added advantage of being portable, so you can pick them up and bring them with you when you go somewhere.
7) Hang Everyday Items
There are few essential baby items that you’d typically put on a ceiling. This means that, other than a small chandelier or other light fixture, the ceiling will probably be empty. Since you have this extra space to place decorations, try to get creative with everyday items as decor, just like the owner of the shop in this picture did. Instead of using bottles as they did, try hanging baby toys and clothes as decorations as your baby grows out of them or before they grow into them. This way, the decorations will change over time, too.
8) DIY Polka Dots
It’s essential to keep a baby’s mind active with plenty of patterns, textures, and stimulating colors. In a small room, you don’t have as much room for decorations, so the next best thing is to paint the walls themselves. Use this tutorial to learn how to paint polka dots on the nursery walls to provide them with plenty of colors and an interesting pattern to look at. Use polka dots in multiple sizes to add variety and make them even more intriguing.
9) Crib-Top Changing Station
It might be challenging to find space for a changing station, crib, play space, and everything else you need for a nursery. Eliminate the need for a changing station by getting a crib-top changing station like this one from Amazon. This way, you can set the changing station atop the crib when you need it and stash it underneath when you don’t. This way, you’ve effectively removed one piece of furniture from your already-crowded room, but you still have furniture for all your needs!
10) DIY Book Ledges
You want your baby to grow up with a love of books and an active imagination, but baby and children’s books take up a lot of room. Instead of stacking them sideways to show the spines as you do with adult books, build book ledges using the instructions in this video by Elizabeth Bryson. These ledges are designed to display books so your baby can see the cover once their vision improves enough to see the bright colors and shapes on baby books. The ledge shelves don’t stick out into the room much, either.
11) DIY Changing Table and Dresser Combo
Combining two pieces of furniture into one is always an efficient way to save space since you’re only taking up as much room as the biggest piece of furniture instead of taking the space of both items. Check out these woodworking plans from Peachtree Woodworking Supply Inc. to learn how to build a changing table and dresser combo, or go the simple and easy but less fancy route by adding a cushion to an existing dresser. Either way, with plenty of storage, you can store clothes and changing supplies in the same place.
12) Car Rug
Since you don’t have a lot of decorating space, get decorations that have functional purposes, like a car rug that will later become a great play place for hot wheels or other car games. The great thing about using a rug as decoration is that it doesn’t take up any space since you can put other furniture over it and walk over it, and the rug provides cushioning for toddlers who are learning to walk. For now, though, the rug will simply be a decoration until the baby is old enough to appreciate its other uses.
13) Lighting
You’ll want to think about your lighting carefully since too much light in a tiny room can be blinding, but a lack of light can make a room look dingy and even smaller than it already is. Read this article by Barn Light Electric Company to learn how you can create a comfortable space with plenty of lighting for changing the baby or doing any other tasks. You can use mirrors and window lighting during the daytime to increase lighting, too.
14) Wall-Mounted Changing Table
To avoid taking up a lot of floor room, think about how you can put things on the walls instead. One common thing to put on a wall is a changing table, just like the ones you might see in a public restroom. These tables are convenient because they don’t take up any room when you’re not using them, making them great for conserving floor space. You can use this video by Nico Does It All to build your own wall-mounted changing table or look for one to buy.
15) Use Window Ledges
One thing you might not have considered when thinking about how to make the most of your space was window ledges. Every window should have some sort of ledge, and no matter how small it is, you can use it for storage, playing, or more. If you have a big window ledge like the one in this picture, you can even use it as a changing table or play area, or a spot to read to your child. Think about adding raised edges for a changing table.
16) Tiny Built-In Cribside Table
One problem with two-in-one types of furniture is that you generally have to take the piece apart a little to use it. For example, if you have a changing table and playpen, you might need to take the changing pad off to be able to access the playpen. This can be difficult when you have a baby on one hip, so think about getting small built-ins like this crib with a small changing table attached so that you can take your baby from the crib and change them without having to set up a crib top changing table.
17) Lights As Decorations
You need plenty of light in your nursery since you need to be able to see what you’re doing when caring for your baby and because light will make the room seem bigger. That said, you can make lights fun during the night by getting them in star patterns like the one in this picture that reflects off the walls. This way, you don’t have to hang decorations and can project the pattern over other furniture to fascinate your baby.
18) Hanging Organizer
Since floor and wall space is probably limited, you’ll want to find ways to store your baby’s essentials that won’t take up much room on the floor and walls. Try getting hanging organizers like this one from Amazon that mount on a crib or changing table. This way, you can keep all the things you need for changing your baby right where you’ll need them, whether that’s at your changing table or at a crib with a changing platform on it.
19) DIY Wall-Mounted Changing Table With Shelves
You’ve very little floor space, so you’ll want to find ways to get things off the floor and mount them on the wall or eliminate them altogether, but you probably didn’t think you could mount large pieces of furniture on the wall. Build a wall-mounted changing table using these instructions from diy network so that you won’t have to use any floor space for changing your baby. If you use these instructions, you can even build shelves that recess into the wall so that you’ll have plenty of storage space that doesn’t use up space in the nursery.
20) Mirrors
You don’t have to have your nursery lighting down to a science, but you’ll want to use light to make it look bigger. Mirrors are a great way to reflect light from lightbulbs or mirrors in a way that feels more natural, leading to a happier child. They’ll brighten the nursery, making it look bigger, and you can get pretty shaped mirrors like this crescent-shaped one from Amazon so that they work as decorations while making the room seem larger and feel more natural and comfortable.
21) Textures
Patterns and varying shapes are great for stimulating a baby’s mind and teaching them shapes, but you don’t just want a variety of patterns in the nursery. A variety of textures will create visual patterns to fascinate your baby as they grow older, and as they touch things around the room, they’ll learn about the world through both touch and sight. Design a heavily textured nursery like this one from Maison de Pax to give your child the most stimulating environment possible using things like furniture that you’d need anyway so that you’re not taking up any extra room.
22) DIY Hanging Macrame
Macrame is one of the most incredible DIY crafts when it comes to making decorations. You can use the instructions in this video by Emily Faith to learn how to macrame a hanging decoration and have some fun while also giving your baby an interesting pattern and texture to look at. Since this is designed to hang, you won’t waste any floor space, and it won’t stick out into the room and make it harder to walk around and use the space you have.
23) Contour Changing Pad With Safety Strap
If you have a small enough nursery, you might have to eliminate some pieces of furniture altogether. One of the easiest items of furniture to get rid of is the changing table. Get a changing pad like this with a strap on it to secure your baby so that you won’t have to worry about them falling. Then, since the pad is thick enough to stand on its own, you can simply stow it and put it on any surface you need to when your baby needs changing. This way, you can use surfaces for other things in the meantime.
24) Closet Nursery
If you don’t have a lot of room for a nursery, a great nursery idea is actually fitting one into a closet. Divide up whatever space you have the way Whitney Leigh Morris did, as described in this article by Rachel Torgerson. She made her closet into a complete nursery, and if you have a tiny room with a closet, you can do the same, giving you plenty of space in the room itself for playing with your baby. You can even use the room for something else entirely!
25) Portable Play Yard and Changing Table
One way to keep things small and compact is to get portable furniture. Since babies need to travel sometimes, you can generally get any baby furniture you want to in smaller, movable versions. Get portable things like this play yard and changing table from Amazon since they’re smaller than most furniture, and you can fold them and stash them out of the way when you’re not using them. This is also great if you’re on a budget since you don’t have to buy a second set of things if you need to travel with your baby.
How have you made the most of your nursery space? We’d love to hear about your small nursery ideas! Please let us know in the comments below.
