If designing a room for adults wasn’t hard enough, readying a nursery for the little ones on the way can feel like a puzzle. With so many things to consider from safety and logistics to the level of comfort you can instil in your home, it is easy to feel overwhelmed at the prospect of getting started. Not to worry, though, the interior design specialists at Evelyn Lily have put together this veritable feast of nursery room layout ideas to set you off on the right foot. With your baby room layout sorted, it will be much easier to move on to the fun part – decorating!
Before we drag our feet for too long, here’s a quick outline of everything we intend to cover. Feel free to skip to whichever part you need to.
- Where to Start
- Important Considerations
- Tackling Different Types of Rooms
- 12 Nursery Room Layout Ideas by Function
- Final Thoughts
Where to Start with Your Nursery Room Layout
Part of the challenge of setting up a nursery room and working out the layout is balancing safety, logistical efficiency, comfort and, of course, aesthetics – in a way that keeps everyone happy, from tired parents on feeding duty to baby who deserves the best night’s sleep.
This means planning ahead. Often, the most popular time to start is during the second trimester; this way, you can anticipate any bumps in the road, ensuring everything is properly prepared so you can cater to each of your baby’s needs.
The easiest way to get over the initial hurdle is to list down your priorities alongside the realistic potential of the room. Some parents might want to emulate the beautiful nursery rooms they come across on Pinterest, whilst others knowing they’ll redecorate the room in a few years might be more focussed on the practicalities of the space. Whatever elements make it into your top 10 list, remember that parental requirements vary – not to mention the room itself – so really your task is finding out what suits your unique family unit best.
Important Considerations
As we just mentioned, there are so many aspects to weigh up on the quest of designing your nursery room layout. To make it easier to consider them, here are the main ones to ponder over.
Flow
While it’s easy to focus on ways to ensure your little one is well looked after, it’s equally important that parents and carers feel comfortable in the nursery too. Ideally, it should feel like a retreat from the outside world, a space where you feel at ease and can care for your child to the best of your abilities. Typically, this entails optimising each ‘zone’ or station in the room for efficiency. Common examples include:
- Building a dedicated changing station with the necessary supplies at arm’s length
- Incorporating seating for feeding or bedtime stories
- Organising supplies and toys with nifty storage solutions
- Ensuring seating is ergonomic, so parents and carers are comfy and well-postured
- Maintaining a logical flow for foot traffic throughout the room to minimise accidents and make sleep-deprived parents’ lives easier
- Putting the main elements such as the cot or a playpen at good vantage points from the door.
Negative Space
When you have a new member of the family pending, it’s easy to accumulate a world of clutter from heirlooms and supplies to an endless stream of toys. For this reason, negative space and clearance are often overlooked aspects of a comprehensive nursery layout.
Ideally, there should be free floorspace for your child to play and easy access to any storage pieces from sideboards to dressers – but this doesn’t mean shoving all of your furniture up against the walls as this can create a sense of unease. Instead, think about how you can float pieces side by side; for instance, you wouldn’t want to strand an armchair by itself when you could position it beside a round side table, floor lamp or a blanket box.
Safety
Safety is a big one when it comes to children of all ages, but this is never more important than when they’re still crawling. This means that you have to think very carefully about electrical items like nightlights and charging points, and how this will affect the intended nursery layout. Aspects like the direction of the room also come into play; after all, you don’t want your baby to overheat in the sunlight or their sleep to be disrupted. Finally, let’s not forget that heavy items of furniture (wardrobes, bookcases, dressers etc.) should never pose a risk of toppling – in this case, anchoring them to the wall might be in order.
Longevity
Make sure to think about the longevity of the space and the bedroom furniture too. While it’s easy to forget when your child is this small and this cute, they will eventually outgrow their baby grow and cot. For example, for your baby changing station, could you opt for a wide chest of drawers that can be repurposed here or in another room? If this is the case, you might want to avoid fixtures that are difficult to change or furnishings that will become obsolete post-childhood.
Tackling Different Types of Rooms
Like we said earlier: every family is different, as are many rooms. From boxy new builds to the fascinating but sometimes inconvenient layouts of period homes, there are unique challenges to be had with each type. Fortunately for you, we’ve anticipated the most common ones, so you can take them on head-first.
Box Rooms
Box rooms are a bit of a paradox: they’re a simple nut to crack, but it’s more of a challenge to inject a true sense of personality into them. Often, the solution is as simple as opting to place the cot along the back wall, with the changing table / dresser adjacent and any seating positioned in the opposite corner. If square footage is seriously limited, you could try mimicking the classic galley kitchen layout – i.e., two parallel walls of furniture – leaving ample clearance in the middle of the nursery for traversing the space and for playtime.
For a more comprehensive look, definitely go give our dedicated box room inspiration guide a read.
Long & Narrow
The issue with long, narrow rooms is that, when furnished incorrectly, they feel like a transitional space, rather than a place to hunker down into. To get rid of that ‘corridor’ feel, resist the temptation to fill up the walls, either with furniture or accessories; this might end up emphasising its length and contributing to an exhausting sense of visual clutter.
Instead, take steps to break up the dimensions and define areas. Rugs are a brilliantly simple tool for achieving this, but placing furniture in groupings or angles also works. We’d also recommend placing the cot along one of the lengths of the walls, not too far from the door, as opposed to the far end of the room. Trust us – in the night, you’ll want to get to your baby’s side in a heartbeat.
Small Spaces
Diminutive rooms, however extreme their tiny stature, can put a real spanner in the works if you lie on the maximalist side of the interior design spectrum. With lots of important supplies, clothing and toys, it’s a good idea to invest in vertical or wall storage to make the most of the inches you do have. Another helpful tip is to keep the furniture slimline. Could a console table with a small stool do in place of a traditional changing table set-up?
Sloped Ceilings & Attic Rooms
Sloped ceilings are a hallmark of attic room design, but that doesn’t make it easier to work around them. Nevertheless, there are plenty of creative solutions to mull over in your quest to formulate the ideal nursery layout. Perhaps one of our favourites is using the tallest wall for ceiling-to-floor storage, keeping things visually tidy and all of your baby’s things ordered. The small nooks where the pitched ceiling is at its lowest present a wonderful opportunity to create a seating area that feels effortlessly sheltered, satisfying our animal inclination towards protected spaces.
12 Nursery Room Layout Ideas By Function
With the universal tips explained, it’s time for us to move forward into more specific advice territory. From the changing station to storage, we have all bases covered.
Sleeping Zone
1) Place the Cot Within Line-of-Sight from the Door…
Arguably the single most important element of a properly designed nursery is a well-placed cot. There are numerous possible arrangements, but many parents opt to go down the ‘line-of-sight’ route – for obvious reasons. With the cot instantly visible when pacing by, this layout provides optimal peace of mind for parents responding to baby monitor alerts, and less distance to travel when putting the newborn to bed. Here, it’s all about convenience and safety combined.
2) …Or Nest the Cot Between Other Furnishings
Another equally valid option is placing the cot between other pieces of furniture that serve functional purposes. Imagine the little one is just about settled but then starts to fuss. With your drawers right there, it’s easy to grab whatever baby needs before the real crying begins. Close one!
A word of caution, though: when you get to the toddler years, do ensure that there is enough space between the furnishings to prevent climbing. They really do love to get their hands on anything that can help pull themselves up and out!
3) Keep the Sleeping Zone Away from Windows
While, admittedly, there is something romantic about the idea of putting the little one to bed with the night sky as your lullaby backdrop, keeping the cot by the window may result in a handful of unwanted complications. Many parents have discovered that it makes regulating the temperature of the sleeping zone trickier, along with the noise control and protecting their child’s privacy. Instead, with the night-time routine happening by an interior wall, you can rest assured that things will be much cosier and, crucially, feel more secure.
4) Try a Montessori-Informed Approach
Without going into too much detail (as this is the perfect rabbit-hole topic of discussion), Montessori is a child-centred philosophy of education and child-rearing – a method that prioritises a child’s sense of initiative and independence. When it comes to furnishing a nursery the Montessori way, this means instilling freedom of movement and choice in the layout and furniture pieces available. For example, you might place a floor toddler bed in a corner, some cubbies with an array of toys at baby-height and a play mat in the centre of the room.
5) Utilise Nooks & Crannies
While awkward to furnish, corners can provide an essential feeling of enclosure and protection, which is crucial to a nursery room. Therefore, these spots should be dedicated to areas where this sense of protection is the priority, whether that’s a play den, cot, reading nook or a simple armchair. Sleeping areas, in particular, thrive on this energy, making for an effortlessly restful spot for both mum and baby to doze off in.
Changing Area
6) Use a Dresser as a Changing Table to Save Space…
One way of making your nursery room layout truly work for you is by keeping the essential areas like your changing table versatile additions to the interior; AKA additions that both look beautiful on a pure aesthetic level and don’t eat up too much floorspace.
The easiest way to achieve this in this example is to swap out a traditional changing table with a dresser with ample surface space. Think of it as two birds, one stone (possibly even three!) – a dresser can complement the décor in an understated way whilst providing storage, it can be repurposed when your baby has outgrown the need for a changing table, and it doubles up as two pieces of furniture. It’s as simple as placing a changing pad on top of the dresser and keeping your supplies at arm’s length.
7) …And Then Some with Baskets & Organisers
To maximise the utilitarian potential of your dresser, why not invest in some storage baskets or drawer organisers? With loads of storage space available, it’s easy for things to get cluttered, especially when we’re talking about pint-sized items. Luckily, drawer dividers and storage boxes completely circumvent the issue. Get into the habit of rolling baby’s clothes into tiny, burrito-shaped scrolls, and it’s much easier to pick out outfits in the morning rush.
Reading Nooks
8) Keep Your Reading Nook Floor-Level
There are few things cosier than a reading nook comprised of a mammoth pile of cushions and beanbags. Instilling not only a sense of groundedness, this arrangement is also full of childish joy, which can be elevated further with the addition of a mobile, children’s tent or canopy. Here it’s all about creating magic.
9) Position Seating in Close Proximity to the Bed
Sometimes, simple is best. In the instance of reading nooks, you might find that a simple armchair or rocking chair near the crib fits the bill nicely. Facilitating easy movement and a deep sense of comfort during storytimes, this arrangement is all about ergonomics.
One last thing: don’t forget about your seating material here. When you’re feeding, fabric chairs might pose a risk of stains and demand more rigorous upkeep, whereas a leather armchair is infinitely more wipeable. For more tips, do check out our armchair buying guide.
10) Create ‘Islands’
A great idea when carving out a dedicated reading nook is to properly delineate the space with your furniture arrangement. Instead of simply plonking a bookcase and chair side-by-side, put thought into how you could create a grouping or ‘island’ of furniture. You might want to think about banquette seating, marking out the area with task or pendant lighting and tying things together with colour motifs. Bonus points if you design one by a bay window.
After all, who doesn’t love a bay window? They provide additional space, plenty of natural light and are visually striking when dressed well. Assuming that you invest in proper blackout curtains and/or blinds and keep the cot away, you’ll love how this stunning feature can enhance the space. We’re thinking a dedicated seating area, with plush armchairs, a handy side table and a footstool nearby. That’s comfort and aesthetics covered for feeding time.
Storage
11) Turn Alcoves Into Floor-To-Ceiling Storage
These attractive pockets of space add visual intrigue and depth to a room, but it can be quite hard to know how to best exploit their potential. The easiest hacks usually involve storage; turning the empty gap into a built-in bookcase with open shelving or a tiny repository for the cutest clothing you’ve been gifted. Besides storage, you may want to nest your furniture in these spaces. Drawers, your changing table or even a little reading nook would look cosy as can be – just ensure that each element is properly scaled, so things don’t become cramped.
12) Regain Floorspace with a Walk-In Wardrobe
Why make life harder for yourself when open or walk-in wardrobes exist? Endlessly handy when you have so many bits and bobs to keep track of, and oh-so much laundry to do, incorporating a walk-in wardrobe into the nursery is both a baby-proof and future-proof option. And, when your child turns teen, they’ll thank you. After all, who doesn’t want their own dedicated dressing area? Talk about an exciting morning routine!
Final Thoughts: Getting it Right for the Little Ones
Setting up your nursery should be two parts strategic planning and one part fun. The latter not to be understated since this room will be the site of many special memories you’ll want to cherish forever. So, from settling on the best nursery layout ideas to furnishing the space with beautiful pieces you know you’ll hold on to for years to come, we hope this guide makes the process of creating the perfect baby room not only an efficient one, but a positive one too.
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