When I was pregnant with our daughter, we painted our nursery blue because we hope to have two children and knew they would need to share a room for a time – that was the start of designing the room for years to come, so that it would grow with our family. Planning the room for two kids from the beginning has had many unplanned benefits! For example, we had the crib and the twin-sized bed in there from the start. Before our daughter transitioned to her crib, my husband would sleep in the twin bed on nights when he needed a good night’s rest (before a big presentation, for instance) and my mom slept in it on the nights she stayed with us in the beginning. After our daughter transitioned to her crib in her own room, having the twin bed in there was great for nights when she was sick because my husband or I could sleep in there with her. The twin bed is also used when my niece spends the weekend with us, and it’s used like a day-bed as well where we can all read books together.

I like to plan, and I was trying to be smart about planning a space that our baby girl could grow into and (hopefully) eventually share with her sibling. I was looking for a list of elements in a nursery/toddler room/kids room that I could either add now or plan for in the future, but couldn’t really find one… so, I compiled my own:

Bed and/or crib
Clothes storage (dresser and/or hanging)
Rug
Curtains
Bedding
Pillows
Book storage/books
Changing table or area
Toy storage
Seating for grown-ups/nursing
Laundry hamper
Diaper bin
Baby monitor
Reading nook
Lamp (with a dimmer) or night light
Growth chart
Cork board/art display
Collection area/display (for when kids start collecting stuff)
Map/globe
Clock
Child’s name or initials
A place to create art/music
Study area
Mirror (for play)
Dress-up area
Coat rack/hooks
Picture of parents and grandparents
“Secret” area/place to hide
Play kitchen
Small table & chairs
Pouf
Mural/wall painting
The alphabet (print, rug, painting)
Something sentimental
Rocking horse/big stuffed animal

The idea wasn’t to incorporate ALL of these elements, it was just to help in design and planning. I consulted it when I felt like the area next to her bed needed something tall and decided a growth chart would be perfect… and she loves it! It’s so cute when she backs up to it to see how big she is :)

It seems like our baby girl became a toddler overnight – suddenly she was moving around and we couldn’t just keep her toys in a basket in the living room. We needed a space where we could all spend time together. Also, it wasn’t long after that she wanted to do everything herself (“my do it!”) so everything needed to be accessible. It was nice having a space that I didn’t need to completely re-do to accommodate our growing girl. We hope to have another baby next year, and our plan will be that the baby will sleep in our room for the first six months and then we’ll convert the toddler bed back to a crib and Clara will move to the twin bed (with a bed rail). So far, this room has truly grown with us <3