Little Redo: Closet Nursery

All items (or a close substitute) can be found here!

When our son reached about 16 months, I realized most of the space in his nursey wasn't getting used. Our main space was the living room, so a changing station and most his clothes were down there. The changing table in his room went untouched, we didn't use the space for play. Sleep (if we were lucky) was the only real use. I decided with him being so mobile, playing exploring, having another space for him to enjoy was necessary. 

Things I knew I wanted were a cube shelf for toy bins, a fluffy rug, and a bean bag. I did some "toddler room décor" searches on Amazon, Google and Pinterest. I found a canopy I really liked, and decided I would like a shallow pocket shelf for the wall to hold his special books. My original doodle with my phone's drawing picture edit included a low table, but I decided this would just encourage crib escapes.

There were only a few items we bought and I feel like they really transformed the space:

We got our "3 cube organizer" from target. (click here) That was on sale for $25.00 at the time.

The shelf was easy to put together. I opted to leave off the plastic screw covers, to prevent a chocking hazard. There were also dowels to insert if you were connecting more that one shelf, or plastic stoppers to fill the holes if not. I left these off also, the open holes on the end didn't bother me.

Looked just as pictured.

Turning the shelf on its side was exactly as I hoped. Sturdy and very good quality for the price. We pair it with bins we already had from Amazon. (click here) 

The Big Joe Classic Bean Bag Chair we also got on Amazon. (click here) This is by far my favorite bean bag for small children. We have bought it as a gift multiple times. If you've never bought a bean bag chair, you may not know, but they are really expensive. This is the lowest price point I have find for good quality like this. It is perfect toddler size. I often use it as a back rest when sitting on the floor in his room. It feels as if the filling is the small foam beads, the fabric is almost like a wind breaker material. Easy to clean. We paid $40 at our time of purchase in 2021.

The Canopy was also an Amazon find. (click here) Our cost was $30. The color of it was less of a navy and had more of a purple hue than I expected. The fabric was heavy and very well made. It came with hardware to hang from the ceiling, but we hung ours from the existing wire shelf above. To my surprise the yellow stars were included. I would describe them as a high quality paper party decoration. They have a slight glimmer, but are not quite metallic. It would have made me uncomfortable to hang them in reach, but they also looked great hanging from the shelving above.

This Grey 4' x 5.3' rug was perfect and only $20! (click here) It is not super thick, but the fluff makes it so soft. Has held up for a year now, being in a low traffic area. My sons favorite activity is for us to lay out a large blanket and he lays down and rubs his face all over it. It is hilarious. I knew a soft rug would be perfect for him.

We invested in a cover for his baby monitor plug now that it wasn't hidden behind his drawers. (click here) This did make it so we could only use one of the receptacles, since the plug was over sized. We adhered a pop mount to the wall for a tablet when wanting to watch, but not be a permanent part of the room. (Pop Mount: click here. Pop Socket: click here) $25 for both. We already owned his laundry bin, but since we had a second spot downstairs for his dirty clothes, this one got repurposed for a stuffed animal bin.

$140 dollars later the space really felt transformed. It was a lot less baby, and a lot more toddler. His room became a favorite place to play, and provided us another space when we needed to change up our day. It was simple, but everything we needed, and let us get a little more time our of our small space.

You can read about our original reason for setting up in the closet here.

The last thing that I needed to complete the space was a "pocket wall book shelf." I could not find exactly what I wanted online, but my husband was happy to make one. 

(Wood working was a hobby he recently took up)