How To Fit a Whole Nursery Into 49 Square Feet
Parenthood likely means learning a few things along the way — discovering your child’s likes and dislikes, how you can rally after pulling an all-nighter with a restless baby, and your ability to remember all the lyrics to the most popular songs on kid-specific channels.
There’s another learning curve that some parents, like DIY content creator Kathleen Martin, have to work through: designing a nursery. And what makes Kathleen’s experience unique is that the space she was creating for her son Ben was super small.
“Initially, I had such a hard time trying to design a nursery in 49 square feet in our bedroom,” Kathleen admits. “There is only enough floor space for a crib and one other small piece of furniture.”
Kathleen and her husband, a carpenter, are renovating their one-bedroom home, so having Ben’s nursery in their primary bedroom was the only option. But Kathleen chose to see the positives of the situation: if the baby woke up in the middle of the night, she’d be nearby, and having her son near her “calmed her nerves.” Plus, it was a way for Kathleen to challenge nursery norms that are portrayed on social media.
“Social media can make you feel like you have to have a large, expensive nursery, but that’s not true,” Kathleen explains. “If you only have one bedroom like us, you can still create a magical space.”
And create a magical space they did. It all started when Kathleen hung a large, colorful painting above the Woodland Cloud crib from Nestig. Once the color palette was determined, it was time to figure out the best way to maximize the room. Kathleen had to question what other furniture piece (she could only have one!) would get the most use. Ultimately, she chose the rocking chair but used vertical storage for everything else.
Kathleen’s husband built a changing box (painted in Clare’s Good Jeans) that fits over the crib perpendicularly and is the correct size for a molded plastic changing pad. An over-the-door storage solution holds all of the supplies for changing diapers. Kathleen appreciates the diaper storage because it looks nice and doesn’t require her to bend over to retrieve items.
A bold bookshelf, colored with Sherwin-Williams’s Real Red, holds colorful books, ties the colors together, and adds excitement to the wall. For more storage, Kathleen’s husband moved a bar closer to the ground to display Ben’s clothes and installed shelves for bin storage in their closet.
The couple wanted to save money while designing the nursery, so they made their own furniture and partnered with brands (Kathleen partnered with Nestig and SelectBlinds for the Roman shades) and used secondhand items. “The rocking chair came from a neighbor, and the wool blanket on top is from a trip to Ireland. I found a small table in our basement and covered it with a piece of scrap fabric,” Kathleen says. “Each object added a little more color or pattern to the space.”
Designing the small nursery only took two weeks, and Kathleen learned more about parenthood. Namely, that “you don’t need a lot for a new baby,” she admits. Even though it’s only 49 square feet, there aren’t any sacrifices — Ben has all he needs to be comfortable. Most importantly, his parents are only a few feet away.
“I love that we made the best out of a small space,” Kathleen says. “I love how colorful it is and that I was able to reuse a lot of things we already had. Ben loves staring at the colorful painting too!”
Further Reading
These 15 Kids’ Storage Beds Have Hidden Depths
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I Tried 8 Baby Food and Kids’ Meal Delivery Services — Here Are the Best of the Bunch
