NYC Nursery Layout + Furniture Selects
Thanks for following along as I quickly work through the design of this nursery. The space is roughly 13’ x 13-15’ depending on which area you’re standing in as the exterior facade wall is at a sharp angle. This, paired with the column creates tight parameters to get in all of our needs. Here’s how we approached the layout…
Layout
The entrance to the room is a corridor with a door to the bathroom before it opens up into the main area. I haven’t decided exactly what i’m going to do here but I’m leaning towards having picture ledges mounted to the wall and display books that way so its easy for the child to recognize and grab her book for bedtime. The main room is a tricky layout. WIth the slanted exterior facade wall and a closet door on another, there were really two walls to work with for all furniture. We tucked the crib and glider in with just enough room for the closet door to swing open. The opposite wall houses the pull-out sofa and dressers that function for both the nursery and guest room use cases.
Furniture + Fixture Selects
Because this is a NYC apartment, this space needs to serve several purposes: first and foremost a nursery, second a playroom and third a guest room for when the grandparents come in town to visit. This means every piece of furniture has to be extremely functional. Layer on the lead times plaguing the industry and you have a really small but complicated project.
The seating
After settling on a direction and ethos for the space with the foundational elements, I started with the soft seating. I went with a custom order via Clad home to create a pull-out sofa and a glider with ottoman (not shown). I had clear objectives for these pieces:
I wanted something versitile that did not feel like baby or nursery furniture. I wanted something that could be re-used in kids rooms or guest rooms down the road but felt really appropriate for this space.
I chose performance boucle so it would still look nice with a few years of wear and tear but still had the ‘touch and feel’ texture I was after.
For the sofa, I wanted it to be armless so it felt clean and streamlined, easy for a small child to climb upon to read a book, but most of all so that when the sofa bed was pulled out, the back of the sofa worked like a headboard and there weren’t any arms on either side ‘trapping’ guests in the bed.
For the glider, I wanted to glider mechanism but I wanted it to be hidden and look like a modern chair. Ideally, I wanted these to match to give me versatility down the road in terms of where we might reuse these pieces.
The Crib
Selecting the crib was a challenge as I again had some key objectives:
Something modern, with clean lines but didn’t feel austere. I still wanted it to feel warm and inviting.
Something that could be used for a boy or girl should we have a second child down the road
Something versitile that could become a toddler bench
something less than 31” wide (the width of the doorway to the room) to allow us to move the crib into our room if and when we needed to use this space as a guest room. Our bedroom has the space and while this isn’t the most convenient, it does allow us to comfortably and easily host guests when needed.
I selected the Caravan Crib (shown above) as it checked all the boxes and I loved the raw natural wood finish - modern but timeless. It’s so beautifully made and transitions from a crib to a toddler bed and then to a daybed/bench for an older child. Super functional and really fits the vibe of the space.
Dresser + changing table
For the changing table I also went with Kalon Studio. I laid the space out with two smaller dressers, also from their Caravan line in raw maple.
I selected two smaller dressers instead of one larger unit for both symmetry in the design and functionally for more flexibility in the space. The right dresser will house the changing table topper and accessory needs. The dresser on the left allows for extra clothing storage as well as a surface for a fun plant, the sound machine and a few family photos to warm up the space.
The dresser on the right will have a changing table topper that they offer that custom matches the unit:
Since we’re using this space as a guest room on occasion, it is really easy to take the changing table topper and crib out of the space and into the primary bathroom and the space truly is able to function as a guest room with the dressers flaking the pull-out sofa acting as oversized dressers.
Again, these don’t come across as nursery furniture and are gender neutral. These could work for a baby boy down the road, could grow with our daughter as we iterate on her room in years to come, or be reused in another bedroom. Versatility is something I focus on when buying higher end furniture for a rental apartment.
Walls + Decor
The renderings show the selects in context and its looking pretty good! The next step is to refine the artwork, lighting and accessories that will really warm the space. More details on that to come!