The Nursery Rearranged

Last week I shared the recommendations for our playroom from the professional toy organizer. She also made awesome recommendations for the boys room that were simple, easy and only used what we already had. I implemented these recommendations right away and it made such a difference! First we rearranged Matthew’s room to give him room to play. I can’t believe we never did this before - especially when Oliver was in here and had moved to a toddler bed. It’s so simple, and yet it creates so much more usable space. All we did was move the crib to the corner where the rocking chair used to be and the put the rocking chair to the foot of the crib. It's so simple it's embarrassing.

The old layout (with the crib centered on the wall) was ideal for a baby that needed nighttime feedings and only used the room for nursing, sleeping and changing. This new layout is ideal for a toddler - there’s now room to sleep, read books in the chair and play. Matthew can pull out books and toys from the baskets on the bookshelf shelves. We also added a lamp to the bookshelf as a reading light, it makes the room a lot cozier - I never realized how important task lighting was until we added it in (how did we live without it?!).

The storage ottoman and the baskets contain the toys. The room cleans up really fast, which is so important for my sanity. (And it’s the biggest problem we have with the playroom - not enough storage so the room never really gets cleaned up!) While there isn’t enough room for Matthew and Oliver to really spread out (most of their playing happens in Oliver’s room), the fact that they play in here at all is a miracle considering how TINY this room is at 7’x10’! It’s the first time they’ve ever been able to play in here, it’s so great!

Long term the centered-on-the-wall gallery wall of artwork is now out of sync with the crib, but I’m not going to worry about it for now. It doesn't look terrible (though I now realize the frames need straightening!) and before we know it Matthew will be in a toddler bed anyway - that will be a better time to reassess artwork.

We’re really happy with this new room layout. I can’t believe we never thought of it before!