Umm so people really gave a crap about my newborn must have list, wow! That post triggered a few questions about the "nooks" I spoke of. This post is a break down of my nooks, both the nursery nook and the nook in our living room.
NURSERY NOOK.
We decided to create a nursery nook for Kennedy in our room instead of building a nursery in a separate room. As I've mentioned in the past we are simple minimalist folks, we still like pretty things but we don't like clutter and unnecessary items...a clean, simple, and practical space is what we were going for. From what we heard those early weeks and months would mean lots of middle of the night feedings and changes, we also heard that the baby wouldn't do much but eat and sleep during that time so we didn't need toys (other than the jungle gym).
Here's what the nursery nook included furniture wise:
- Bassinet. This is where Kennedy slept every night, in our room but not in our bed.
- Dresser. A plain white 3 drawer dresser from Ikea that also doubled as her changing table. We made it our own by purchasing knobs from Anthropologie. We also purchased drawer divider boxes in various sizes to organize the drawers which were especially helpful since her stuff is so tiny. On top of the dresser we have: changing pad, noise machine, hand sanitizer, humidifier, audio monitor and a salt lamp.
- Wall Shelf. This helped us with additional storage and decor space without taking up actual space in our room. We put a woven basket on it to hold swaddles because we went through those DAILY.
- Accordion Rack. This was another decor piece that also doubled as storage. This is where I hung her little headbands, turbans, bonnets, and an occasional "pretty outfit".
- Wall Mirror.
- Diaper Genie. Initially I didn't want this because it didn't seem like a "necessity" and I guess technically it isn't but I am glad Jack was persistent about getting one. There are so many diaper changes and since our kitchen is downstairs for the convenience factor the diaper pail was a huge help not to mention it helped with keeping dirty diaper funk out.
- Laundry Bag. Simply hung a laundry bag on our door for her dirty clothes.
LIVING ROOM NOOK.
Our bedrooms are upstairs and the living room is downstairs so we decided to create a little nook downstairs since that is where we spend the bulk of our time. The living room nook has changed slightly now that she is 6 months but I will share what it was like from the day she came home from the hospital and the first 5 months.
- Wicker Bassinet/ Moses Basket. This was her place to sleep, hang, and get changed up until 5 months. I placed a sheepskin mat from Ikea in the bassinet as well for additional padding. I still use the wicker basket and the mat just for something different now.
- Jungle Gym. When she wasn't sleeping or being cuddled we would lay Kennedy down under the jungle gym to work on her focus and grabbing.
- Ikea Raskog Utility Cart. This is key! This cart holds it all and allows me to have everything I need for the baby downstairs in an orderly manner. I keep a diaper caddy in the top level but you honestly can do without and I keep: diapers, wipes, a portable changing pad (like the ones you find in a diaper bag) ointments, swaddles, hand sanitizer, a nail file and pacifiers in there. The middle tier had swaddles and breast pumping supplies. The bottom tier has Dreft cleaning wipes, one of those drawer dividers to toss any of her clothes in that we take off downstairs.
- Foam Mats. I only got 4 mats and they were black, I didn't go with the colorful alphabet set...I simply don't have the space for that. The mats are great for floor time be it tummy time or on the back especially once the baby starts becoming mobile like kicking their feet, lifting their head etc.
- Woven Basket. I set this up initially for any clothes or any of her items that belonged in our room upstairs so again it wouldn't be all over the place. Now I use it for any toys that are not in use downstairs (you don't have to worry about toys until they're a few months).
*I put the wicker bassinet on a small area rug to give it the feel of it's own section.
As always, we kept things simple and practical! These specific setups were for newborn days up until about 5-6 months, now we have started to make some changes to grow with our growing baby and I'll share that later on. Let me know if you have any questions via email or in the comments.