A Couple Squeezed a Tiny Nursery into an 8-Foot Bedroom Alcove (It Looks So Luxe!)
When families grow, unfortunately, the square footage of said family’s home doesn’t magically grow to accommodate. This can result in projects like turning closets into nurseries, creating shared bedrooms for kiddos, and adding stylish toy storage to a living room corner.
New mom-of-two Julie Garel (@lavender_julep) and her husband created a nursery in an alcove in their primary bedroom during the One Room Challenge. In other words, now it’s a sleep space for three.
“The little nook in our bedroom was the perfect spot for a tiny little nursery space!” Julie says. “We were about to welcome our second child, and we didn’t actually have a dedicated bedroom for him. We put a lot of time and effort into designing a nursery when our daughter was born, so we wanted to do something small to welcome our little guy, too!”
A peel-and-stick wall mural makes the nursery feel like its own room.
“This was a pretty easy project, with no demo required,” Julie explains. The biggest steps, she says, were moving the old furniture out of the way and measuring to see what new additions might fit. The Livette’s wall mural, especially, took a lot of measuring, but it was actually fairly easy to install.
“Wallpaper installation can definitely be challenging, especially peel-and-stick, but we’ve done it so many times now that the wall mural installation took us way less time than anticipated!” Julie recalls. “It’s definitely much easier with two people, and it’s all about getting the first piece level.”
And she says the wallpaper and the beadboard “both made a big impact in making the nook feel like its own little space, while also staying cohesive with the rest of the bedroom.”
Painted beadboard makes the whole room feel cohesive.
Julie and her husband added beadboard all along the left wall of their bedroom, which starts in the nursery and continues behind the headboard to create a seamless flow throughout the whole room.
“We had never done any kind of wall molding or paneling before, so installing the beadboard was a first for us,” Julie says. “We watched a few YouTube videos to make sure we had the proper supplies, and it ended up being pretty straightforward. I love projects where you can get the hardware store to make all the cuts for you, and then you just need to do the installation. It saves so much time!” (Better yet, they had enough leftover beadboard to do a similar project in their bathroom.)
One of the hardest parts of the whole project, Julie says, was choosing the right paint color for the beadboard. “I’m normally all about the white walls, but I just felt like the space needed a pop of color,” she adds.
After lots of samples, they ended up with “the perfect greenish-blue,” as Julie puts it. It’s Benjamin Moore’s Stratton Blue, which pops against Valspar’s Ultra-White walls, and is repeated on the shelves above the changing table for even more cohesion.
Shopping for nursery furniture secondhand saved money.
Julie’s new bedside sconces are from The Home Depot, her rug is from Loloi, and her chunky white blanket is from Sunday Citizen, but in fact, most of the furniture for the nursery was found secondhand. The Snoo bassinet, dresser, and shelves are from Facebook Marketplace, and the brass duck hook was thrifted. (Some of the new nursery items include the mobile from Pehr and the glider from Target.)
“I set up Facebook Marketplace alerts for wall shelves, wooden dressers, and baby bassinets, and we ended up saving so much money by buying secondhand,” Julie says — and she’s ultra-proud of the transformation.
“The nook space is obviously really cute, but it’s also so functional for us!” she says. “Having the change table right near his bassinet and our bed makes nighttime changes so convenient, and having the glider right there as well has been so helpful! You spend a lot of time in your bedroom in the early postpartum days, so it was really wonderful to be in a space that felt so serene and relaxing, and had everything I needed without having to venture too far from bed!”
Her project is a testament to her advice to other nursery DIYers out there: “Babies don’t need much, so even the tiniest space could be the most perfect setup for you and your new little one!” she says.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.