Planning a nursery room: how to fit everything in??

[Sera123]

We're expecting our first child at the end of May, and we're currently in the midst of 'shopping for baby' and getting our heads around the giant list of things we are going to need!

Today we've been trying to figure out nursery furniture, and it's turned into an almighty puzzle working out how to have a functional house that can accommodate the new baby and not make our lives any more difficult than it needs to be! Some of it is guesswork as to what's important and what's not, as we've not done this before, so I was hoping that you wise ladies will be able to shed some light on what is key!

Our situation:

We have a three bedroom house, two double bedrooms and one box room.

Currently we sleep in one of the double bedrooms and the other does double duty as guest room and WFH office. The box room isn't really used.

DH works from home three days a week, and is frequently on zoom calls so will continue to need somewhere that stays as quiet and undisturbed as possible, so moving him downstairs into a living area is not likely to be a great solution.

My mother, who normally lives abroad, is coming to stay with us for 6 weeks when baby is about a month old, to help with childcare. Other family from abroad may also visit in future but will be more short-term social visits rather than childcare.

The in-laws are two hours drive away so although maybe on a more intermittent basis, if they come to help or visit they'll need a place to stay as that's a long return trip in a day.

The box room is literally tiny, there's enough room for two out of a cot bed, changing table unit and a chair, but not all three.

We think we will have the baby sleeping in a next-to-me crib in our room for the first six months before moving to a cot bed. But there's not enough room in our bedroom for us + main cot so that will have to be in another room.

So we're struggling to decide whether its worth turning the box room into DH's office, and the guest room into the nursery, which would be easier juggling my mum staying & DH's WFH, but would mean that after 6 months or so once baby moves into the nursery, that would pretty much mean no room for guests at all. But that otherwise seems to work ok space-wise.

Do you really get guests much with a young kid? I'm assuming friends is basically no, (we've basically never stayed at any friends house with kids ourselves) but maybe family will, and esp those abroad and several hours away, it feels like it would be really inconvenient and expensive for everyone to have to book themselves accommodation every time they wanted to see us. We don't want to be totally isolated!

Or Option 2 is whether it's worth keeping the second room as-is, doubling as guest + office, and put the nursery in the box room.

My instinct is that the important furniture is the cot and the chair, and the changing table could be one of those cot-top tables? Are those hassle-free enough to use as your 'main' changing table? Would you have another table elsewhere? I'm wondering for middle of night feeds/changes, what's super important to have on hand and what's fine to have to go downstairs/in another room for? We could maybe squeeze in a little bit of storage but baby stuff will otherwise need to be in another room. Is that just going to be a daily unnecessary pain when we could just have everything in the same room?

Slightly tangentially, is one person trying to sleep while the other feeds/changes/settles baby in the same room an exercise in futility, or does it not even matter because nobody's sleeping in a house with a wailing baby anyway?

Sorry for the giant wall of text, but hopefully that explains our situation and hoping you will be able to shed some light on what's really key to get right and what is a reasonable compromise! We don't want to arrange everything in a way that's basically setting ourselves up to fail! Or if there's another arrangement that might work even better I'd be keen to hear your thoughts.

Thank you!

We use our box room for our baby (now toddler). We have a 160cm cot and a changing table but no chair. I haven't needed a chair at all, I just fed him in our bed next door anyway. I used the table constantly when he was little and wouldn't be without it, lots of storage as well. But then I have dogs and cloth nappies so don't change him downstairs anyway as it's easier to have everything in one place. Once he got bigger I changed him on the floor next to the table.

So I think you could make the box room work. But having said that I'd use the bigger room for baby and get a sofa bed downstairs for potential future guests. Once they get older you want more space for them to actually play in their room with toys!

Babies don't need their own rooms to start off with. They are nomadic and follow you are the house. Even when older, they don't really like having their own rooms. They prefer to be where you are. You might find yourself spending a lot of money decorating a beautiful room, and then putting up a travel cot in your own room which is actually used so that you all get a decent sleep.

Also, I like having a changing-table to save my back. We had a wall-mounted one professionally fitted to save space.

Yes, my first slept through very early -a matter of weeks. My second took a bit longer. I still don’t see why you’d need a chair in the room, though. If they woke, we saw to them and then we went back to bed ourselves. We didn’t hang around in their room. We read stories downstairs before putting them to bed.

Breastfeeding is tricky standing up for me but perhaps I lack imagination

Well, they slept through, so no need for night feeds at that point. At the point a baby moves into their own room, you shouldn’t need to feed them in the night. If they are young enough to need feeding at night, they need to be in with you. No point moving them into a different room otherwise.

Mine slept better in another room but still needed feeds.

Ours is in the box room and it fits the cot one side and then wardrobe/drawers with changing table on the other. We did a pop a little chair in there by the window in the middle - it's light weight so easily moves to the side if we're getting into the draws at the bottom of the wardrobe. We also use our second double as guest room and office for DH.

For context the box room was the office until DS was nearly here, we switched it up as he doesn't need a double bedroom any time soon! The changing table is still easily used, we just changed him sideways.

That is over £30 though, for a changing mat!! So what if the shop ones fall apart after a year, you can buy 3 or 4 for the same price as that child changer one

A changing table is the biggest waste of money and space ever. Change baby on the bed or playmat. I recommend totter & tumble mats. Get a nice basket/caddy for nappies, wipes, cream etc that can move around the house where you need it. Baby goes into the box room.

We live in a small flat. One bedroom and two box rooms. One box room is an office as there's no way to get a bed in. The other is our toddlers room (16 months). He was in the next-to-me until 8 months then moved to the box room.

We decorated it beautifully but kept things minimal. Cot bed, armchair for bedtime milk and story with me, a rug and one basket of toys. His other toys are in our living room with nice storage so we can tidy it all away at the end of the day. His room has no space for any other furniture. We got a bookshelf like this and attached it to the wall low down where he can reach it himself. When he's older we'll move the armchair out and that will give him space for a bigger toy box.

Babies don't need lots of space. Don't get the changing table- you'll definitely regret it when in a matter of months you've got a wild toddler and you're chasing them trying to change them while they run about.

Our baby (10mo almost) rarely sleeps through, no room for a chair, so if necessary we bring her in to our room. If you’re in a 2 double 1 box house then it’s not a trek to get to another bedroom! She was in with us til 6 months and omg the relief of having our room back! God love her but it’s glorious.

Sorry was typing whole doing my child's bath and forgot to mention it's also way thicker so you can "throw" the baby on it a bit more and easier to clean, it doesn't get that black grime in the gaps. And it stands up leaning on the wall. And it's double sided if you like that. You can tell it is a 30 pounds one rather than cheap as chips.

I agree with others about waiting to sort out the baby’s room so you can assess your needs later on. Just set up the next to me in your room. We used a changing mat on top of an existing chest of drawers which worked well and now use the floor most of the time. Quite handy if you want to leave baby for a moment to wash your hands when dealing with poo explosions etc.

If you are all sleeping in the same room for the first bit the person not on duty for night feeds/nappy changing might need ear plugs/ear buds to get a good sleep. You will also have the option for one of you to sleep in another room when you don’t have guests staying. It’s best to feed as close to the cot as you can so you can hopefully transfer a sleepy baby to the cot after feeds rather than feeding in a different room to avoid waking your partner.

We will move into a similar house soon with our 8 month baby and are still trying to decide what will work best.

We had one of those changing tables with wheels and kept it in the bathroom, I found it really useful to be honest. Cosatto was the one we had.

After the 6 months, Personally I’d have the office in the box room with a sofa bed (if there’s room). And put your child in the larger room.

If there’s no room for a sofa bed in the box room you could sleep little one in a travel cot in your room or the box room when you have guests for the first few years, and a double sofa bed in your child’s bedroom where guests can stay. Which would double up as somewhere to sit for night wakings / nursing / lying on while watching them play 😂

We had a changing thing that went over the cot and was really useful. I didn't have a chair in the baby's tiny room until DS2 but wish I had when DS1 was a baby. Good for many many night feeds. All our family live far from us to the larger room being used for guests would be essential.

We used a tiny box room. Cot on one wall, chest of drawers with changimg on top on the other and chair wedged inbetween. Chair was almost up against cot and drawers only partially opened but it worked very well for first 2 years.

We had the same size size house when we had our first baby. The box room became the nursery. It had a cotbed ("space saver" size) and a chest of drawers that doubled as a changing table. Had 2 small rails attached to the wall for clothes. It was absolutely fine for a nursery. Here's a photo from when we were setting it up.
Managed fine without a chair in it, just fed her in bed or on the couch.

She stayed in that room until we moved house this year (she was 2) because I was pregnant again and wanted more space. If we were unable to move, she would have moved into the second bedroom and baby would've had the nursery. Easier for us though as neither of us worked from home at that point.

Oh and we also never had guests staying as everyone lives relatively close so that was a factor for us as well.

Same, no nightfeeds for either of mine after 8 weeks and I’ve never done sitting with them as they go to sleep or anything but I still really like the chair for quiet bedtime milk, which they had until 1, and a bedtime story. We do a bath before too, then into PJs in their room so it’s far easier to stay there rather than going back downstairs. Especially for DC2 if DC1 is still up and making noise! And besides, if there’s no chair where do you dump the clean laundry? You’d actually have to put it away immediately 😂

I forgot to mention that we rarely have guests but we decided to get a very good sofa bed for two reasons:

a) occasional need for a guest to stay
b) if our toddler is unwell he comes into bed with me and my husband can get a good nights sleep on a proper double bed in the living room.

The sofa was expensive but worth it to have a proper sprung mattress when we need it.

We only have a changing table as it's the top of the st of drawers and it's only used if we're in that room when the baby needs to be changed. The rest of the time it's done on the floor.

I would go with just having a cot, maybe some drawers (for clothes) and either the top drawer for nappies, wipes, etc or a basked on top with those in, a comfy chair for night feeds and a small bin.

The reason I would keep the spare room as a guest room is that there have been nights for us where 1 of us co sleeps and the other goes in the spare room to get a decent night's sleep (particularly if 1 of ours is poorly this has been a huge help)