It's Week 1 of the Apartment Therapy Spring Cure, and we're excitedly poring over reader-submitted photos in our Flickr pool. Right now, everyone's bravely posting their "before" photos, and this one caught our eye. Joyce is expecting a baby girl in May and she and her husband are planning to convert their small office/loft space into the nursery. She's looking for your ideas.
Before we go any further, however, let's pause for a moment and admire that amazing coffered brick ceiling.
Wow.
Moving right along, Joyce tells us:
My husband and I are still deciding whether or not the office will be heading downstairs, but we are leaning toward moving it. The square footage with the office is 35 square feet. Without the office it's 103 square feet (a much more manageable space to work with). We live in a renovated brewery loft, so the nursery is upstairs in our loft/bedroom and has no walls, just a railing.
Do you have any design and layout tips for Joyce? We know that a number of you live in loft spaces, so we're especially interested to find out what has worked and not worked for you. (If you're curious, Joyce has also created a virtual inspiration board for herself here.)
Images: Joyce Cadena-Hannon
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The room needs some light and noise control along the railing. I also envision a crawling baby throwing toys through the railing and maybe getting a hand stuck. I would recommend covering the railing area with clear plexiglass panels and running a track with light blocking curtains around the railing to help block noise and light during bed and naptimes.
Some kind of partition might help (like cubicle dividers) and yes, needs more light, but also need to be able to make it dark as babies are sensitive to light when they nap. I like the exposed ceiling, you could hang a baby swing like the haba ones.
I would start with a fun floor treatment in a lighter color to help brighten up the space. From the pictures it also seems like the ceiling is a bit low? Incorporating some vertical elements on the wall might help make the space taller and lead the eyes to that pretty ceiling!
Noise barriers or you are going to lose you mind...but then again, if you live in a loft maybe you don't have that issue.
I hate to say it, because the space is really cool, but my 18mo girl is a little monkey with absolutely no fear. I could totally see my daughter scaling that railing.
Maybe a corrugated plastic wall or something? It would soften the light for naptime too, and provide someone mentioned. There's a triathlon store on 58th st with a corrucated plastic wall with lights inside. It looks really cool, and would fit with the whole industrial vibe.
>provide the sound barrier someone mentioned<
oops
Thank you all for the great suggestions! I agree with alot of you that the railing may be an issue once she is mobile. Lots to think about and research. I will post an after photo when its all done.