Q: My husband, 10 month-old son, Alexander, and I live in a good-sized condo, but it is a one-bedroom. The living area is very large, but it is long and narrow with all of the windows on the short side. We've converted a rear corner (with two of the three windows) into a little room for Alex. The problem is that with very little wall space, I'm running out of ideas for how to add more design and detail to his space. (See and read more below.)
I'm attaching some other photos to show how the nursery connects to the rest of the space, and to give an idea of my general design aesthetic. I'm open to being much more playful in Alex's space than I am in the rest of the home, but it has to be balanced by the fact that it is open to the living room. Any thoughts? I'd really appreciate some advice!
Sent by Jessica
Editor: Pretend you live at Jessica's - what would you do with this space, especially to make Alex's space more his own? Add your ideas in the comments below.
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Some of that non-skid stuff you can buy might help with keeping the rugs in place. I know Target has it in their home decor section. You might also be able to do some fun stuff with fabric on the curtains themselves, like starburst cutouts or something (I'd use fusible webbing instead of sewing them but I'm lazy). It would show as shadows in the main room but might look really cool.
And you can never go wrong with neat mobiles. There have been a bunch of nifty ones posted here or you can make your own. I used to use thin, stiff wire that can be purchased in the hardware store in long tubes and then I'd make paper cranes with pretty beads underneath.
Good luck!
I second the idea of the mobile. There are plenty that kids would love, but also look great in the home.
Am I missing the photo of the actual nursery? I could probably get a better idea if I could see the "room" itself.
I don't know why they didn't post a picture of the nursery! Here's a link to a before and after on flickr (I've made a little progress on my own):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45863780@N03/
hmm. my first instinct would actually be to convert that living room nook into your bedroom and make a space for your son in the bedroom. i know it seems counterintuitive to give the littlest one in the house a private space, but it may mean that all the toys and other kid stuff can be contained in there. also means having the rest of the house available if the babe is sleeping.
Wall decals. There are a ton of cute decals on etsy. Maybe you could place them underneath the window, ceiling or dresser. They are not to expensive and if you want to change the look easy to remove.
me and my husband are looking at a 1 bedroom condo, and we have a 2 year old. we plan on setting up the living room as if it were a studio, and giving our son the bedroom. its nice to have our son in the other room away from any noise (like aneelee said) and we can close his door and hide the toys
I also suggest giving him the bedroom and using the nook as your room, which is exactly what we did in our one-bedroom condo. It really worked out well - we could hide the baby stuff (and it seems to take over at a certain point, doesn't it?) and entertain without worrying about waking her up. Even when we finally moved to a two-bedroom apartment we again gave her the bigger "master" bedroom and took the smaller one, since we use our room to sleep and she uses her to sleep, play, jump, dance, have play dates, and anything else a two year old can think up.
I thought of giving him the bedroom-- the problem is that the only full bath is off of the bedroom. I'd have to make the bedroom smaller and set up kind of a corridor so we could access the bathroom without disturbing him. Would it be worth it?
it would... to have the rest of the house to yourself. definitely.
Thanks for the additional photo!
Could you apply decals or wallpaper to the front of the dressers in bold patterns?
Totally give yourself the nook and give him the bedroom. You can then have the option of opening the curtains during the day when your bed is made up - or even replacing the curtains with some expedit shelves that create the barrier but let the light through to the living room! It makes much more sense for the back of the room to be our bedroom and office than it does for it to be office and kids room. Use the curtain set-up to make the corridor to the bathroom, so you can see how it goes and not ruin the house for resale.
Give him the bedroom, I say. Our oldest slept in our dining nook and we held up in the bedroom every night after bed. I hated being cut off from the kitchen and the outdoors. When our second turned 6 months we gave our two girls the bedroom and put a murphy bed in the living room for us and moved our office into the dining nook. We are so much happier. When they go to bed we have the apartment to ourselves. As for the bathroom, I find that they are so fast asleep in the first half of the night they don't hear us when we go in. Though we do tip toe. I didn't think I minded before when we were locked down in the bedroom. The second we made the change, we asked why we hadn't done it before. It also made it possible during nap time for me to play freely with my oldest, do dishes, laundry etc. because we can close the bedroom door. She's never woken up from someone going in to the bathroom.