Creating a Cozy Closery (Closet Nursery)
Executive Summary: When we were expecting baby girl 1.5 years ago, I looked for a space in our home for her to sleep away from big brother in the bedroom so that she wouldn’t disturb him every two hours overnight with her crying. I went into maximal minimalist mode and transformed our tiny hallway closet into a nursery nook. Behold, the closery!
This is a project we undertook 1.5 years ago, when we were awaiting baby sister’s arrival, but I didn’t want to give up the chance to talk about our closery just because it predates this blog! The hallway closet is now just a regular ole closet again, but it was fun(ctional) while it lasted. So let’s travel back in time to see what I did.
First, a bit of context. I have been committed to living in a 1-bedroom apartment with our kid(s), and I wasn’t going to let baby’s arrival force us out. Almost as soon as the pregnancy test gave me the plus sign, I started to think about how we could use our space most effectively. The ultimate goal was to move the kids into the bedroom together, but only when little sister was a bit older. I decided that for the first several months to a year, it would be best to keep baby near our bed in the main living space, as the AAP recommends room sharing for 6+ months (although they also found that room sharing results in more night wakings and unsafe sleep practices after 4 months, go figure). Then we could keep our 3yo alone in the bedoom so he wouldn’t be disturbed by baby’s frequent night wakings, especially in the early months. That’s all well and good, except in a small space, a crib in the middle of the living space by our bed is a crib smack dab in the middle of our home, a.k.a., the most noisy and active part of our home. So I wanted to find a more tucked away spot for baby’s crib for daytime naps at least, although she would spend her nights beside our bed. The only place that made sense for such a nursery nook was the hallway closet. Let’s give you some eye candy before you get tired of all the text.
Crib, mattress, and fitted sheet: Nestig | Peel-and-stick wallpaper: Amazon | Felt ball garland: Paper Source | Dish risers: Container Store | Curtain: IKEA | Tension rod and clips: Amazon
Our humble hallway closet measures exactly 36x24 inches, but then you have to subtract an inch each way for the baseboard. I struggled immensely with finding a mini crib that would fit inside and ground my teeth furiously every time I realized that the closet was 1 inch too short in one dimension (or both) for the mini cribs on the market. I thought about how we could fit the Alma Bloom (37”x19”), Babyletto Origami (38”x25”), Stokke Sleepi (32”x26”), or any number of other options into the closet without it jutting out and blocking the door to the bathroom or bedroom, which are right outside the closet. I even toyed with DIY designs that would forgo a crib altogether and just entail a custom-sized mattress on some sort of homemade base and rails (how hard can it be to nail a few straight planks of wood together?) I kept wondering about the safety of such a design, as having solid walls on three sides would not be as breathable as crib slats are. Well, thank the mini crib gods that they decided to take pity on me and dropped a well-placed ad in front of my husband’s face one random day. Behold, the Nestig line of convertible mini cribs.
I don’t know why this crib/company isn’t featured in more mini crib roundups. Perhaps because it’s a newer startup that isn’t well known yet? But they saved me from gnashing my teeth down to stubs with their 31”x24.5” mini crib – I opted for the Wave model due to personal aesthetic preferences. Now, this crib is quite a pretty penny, at $750 at time of writing, so it did cause some hand-wringing on my part. My son got a basic $120 crib 5 years ago and it worked perfectly. The way I justified the extra expense is that this fancy little crib would make it possible to stay in our 1-bedroom apartment instead of sizing up. The $600 price gap is the difference in one month’s rent between a 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom in our complex. I do have to say that it is a beautiful crib, much worth admiring for the sleek design and lovely wood. But I clicked “check out” only after rationalizing the cost and our commitment to continue living small. Fewer, better things and all that.
Now for the fun part: designing the closery. I Googled “closet crib” and found a handful of inspiring examples, all of which featured a striking wallpaper, a handsome crib, and perhaps some smart storage as a bonus. Cue the peel-and-stick wallpaper in a bold pattern, a felt ball garland camouflaging the closet rod, dish risers to create more clothing storage on the narrow shelf, and a tension rod holding up a curtain for blocking out light. It took us only a minute to remove the closet door, and the hinges on the doorframe were hidden behind the pulled back curtain. All in all, a quick project to totally transform these 6 square feet of our home and enable us to continue living in relative comfort in a 1-bedroom apartment with two kids.
So how long did we keep this closery setup? I am chagrined to admit that it was only 5 months. I had imagined baby girl sleeping in the mini crib for a year or more – her brother slept peacefully in a not much larger pack ‘n’ play on trips until he was 3.5. But I had not counted on two factors: (1) Baby girl is super tall at 98th percentile for length, so she outgrew everything way sooner than expected; (2) Baby girl is super wriggly and hates bumping up on the side of the crib (whereas big bro would voluntarily stuff himself into a corner and leave the rest of his crib empty). Something about the best laid plans … anyway, moving her out into the bedroom caused no issues. We converted the Nestig into a regular sized crib (see the shared bedroom tour here) and my son miraculously slept through her overnight crying (as I’ve been told kids are wont to do).
I feel like there should be some sort of lesson or takeaway here, but I simply wanted to share the thought and design process that went into creating our closery. I still love looking at that picture of it (RIP), and hope that anyone who wants to ogle small space living with kids (that’s everyone, right?) enjoys this post!
PS Harry Potter only wishes that his cupboard under the stairs could’ve looked half this good!