Sharing Bedroom with Baby – 15 Brilliant Design Tips for Parents 2024

One of the most controversial topics in parenting is none other than “Should I sleep in the same room as my baby?”. In most of these topics, there is no right or wrong answer.

However, there’s an answer to this sharing bedroom with baby controversy. According to American Academic of Pediatrics (AAP), you can share the bedroom with your baby, for a certain period.

The question is, why should you share your bedroom with your baby? For how long you’ll have to share your bedroom with your baby? And how do you create a suitable environment for your newborn baby in your room?

Well, if you’re facing the same dilemma, you’re in the right place! We’ve collected some parents sharing small room with baby ideas – let’s go!

Why Should You Share A Bedroom With Baby?

According to AAP, sharing a room with baby could help to decrease the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) by 50% as there’ll be background noise that can prevent baby from sleeping too deeply, according to Dr. Michael Goodstein, AAP task force of SIDS.

Sharing a room with baby also helps to ease the process of breastfeeding, which is another way to reduce SIDS.

In addition, Dr. Paul Jarris, deputy medical officer at the March of Dimes also stated that it is easier for parents to monitor and notice any potential difficulty when the newborn baby is nearby.

For How Long Can You Share Your Bedroom With Your Baby?

It’s best to share your bedroom with your baby for at least 6 months, ideally a year. This is due to SIDS and other sleep-related death are highest in the first six month.

15 Brilliant Tips on Preparing a Shared Room with Baby

The AAP suggested that babies should have their separate sleeping surface – instead of bed sharing, your sleeping baby should have his or her own slumber area, with at least a baby’s crib or a bassinet in parents’ room.

To prepare a shared room with baby, you might need to get creative with designing the shared space, or rather, re-designing your existing room.

By following some of our space-saving tips for a parent’s room and nursery combined, you don’t have to sacrifice style or comfort anymore though!

#1 Convert your Walk-in Closet to a Nursery

Walk-in master bedroom closets are known for their spaciousness, so why not turn all of that extra space into a small nursery? Not all master bedroom closets are the size of a small room, but even the smaller closets, when designed right, can be turned into a functional nursery.

Related: Best Mini Cribs

#2 Create a Cohesive Style

When sharing small bedroom with baby, you don’t have to start from scratch. Just go along with your existing theme or style in the room – don’t opt for furniture or decorations that will clash with what you currently have.

For example, if you have chevron patterns in your comforter and rugs, use similar bedding in your baby’s crib to make your room space looks more in harmony.

#3 Keep the Nursery at a Corner of the Room

When you are sharing your master bedroom with baby, don’t let the nursery spread across the entire room. Instead, consider creating a baby corner in your master bedroom by simply referring to some crib in master bedroom ideas.

Setting a corner specially for your little one provides both you and the baby some “me” space. Apart from partitioning your room with nursery furniture, you can add some wall space decorations to add an interesting dash of color, or shelves for storage purpose.

#4 Transform Dead Space

All master bedrooms have areas of dead space, such as alcoves. You can transform this redundant area into something useful for your baby’s nursery .

Create built-in drawers for clothes, partition it off so one side is a dresser with the crib fitting nicely next to it. If you can’t build drawers, find a tall slim dresser to fit in the tiny baby’s space or add a series of shelves in tandem with the sleeping area!

#5 Use Small/Mini Baby Furniture

One of the best master bedrooms with crib ideas is to opt for a mini crib instead of a full-size crib. The smaller furniture takes up less room as it has a smaller footprint. Opting for smaller furniture prevents the bedroom from appearing cluttered.

I recommend the Bloom Alma Mini Crib – it’s one of the smallest models on the market!

#6 Skip the Changing Table

While most parents enjoy the benefits of a changing table, when you are sharing a bedroom with baby, the extra furniture takes up precious room.

As you want to take full advantage of the limited space, consider converting the dresser into a changing table by adding a non-toxic changing pad, like this one, to the dresser’s top. Alternatively, you can also look into getting the best crib with changing table as a space-saving option.

#7 Use Bright and Soft Color Tones

Avoid using dark and saturated colors if you’re going to create a baby nursery in the master bedroom. This is because it creates a cluttered look and makes your room appear narrower.

Choose a brighter color like powder blue or something pastel to make your room look bigger. A bright and cheerful looking room will also create a calming effect on you and your baby, which contributes to a good night’s sleep.

Remember that your baby is sensitive, so use paint that does not contain harmful chemicals.

#8 Use Partitions to Separate the Spaces

To help keep the master bedroom separate from the baby’s nursery, consider adding a room divider.

Partitions aren’t just done with walls; consider using a folding screen, bookshelf, curtains, a hanging space room divider or something similar to distinctly mark the separate spaces. This also helps add some privacy in a shared bedroom.

#9 Declutter the Master Bedroom

Before you start bringing in the baby furniture for your nursery, you would want to declutter the current space. Go through every aspect of your master bedroom and get rid of the things you don’t love or need.

For example, replace the settee with a nursery chair or move your dresser into the closet to help make space on the floor. Time to Marie Kondo your bedroom!

#10 Use Furniture that Serves More Than One Purpose

Instead of buying furniture that only serves one purpose, purchase furniture that can be used for multiple functions.

For example, go for a baby’s dresser that can also function as a changing table, or convertible cribs that come with built-in drawers for storage like this one by Stork Craft.

#11 Utilize The Space Under the Bed or Crib

Storage planning is always important if you’re going to share bedroom with your baby, as there’ll be extra baby things like diapers, toys and baby clothes in your room. In this case, you can also consider utilizing the under bed spaces by adding storage boxes or a DIY drawer to store all the many baby items. After all, out of sight, out of mind!

#12 Update your Window Coverings

What kind of curtains you want to upgrade to depends on the amount of natural light your bedroom receives.

If there is a lot of natural light, consider investing in some room darkening shades to block out sunlight during the day, since the warm bright light will cause discomfort to your baby’s nap sharing a room.

You can also get your windows tinted to prevent too much light from entering the room.

#13 Add Rugs to Wood Floors

If you have hardwood floors, you might want to add several rugs throughout the bedroom. Wood flooring reflects sound, making ambient noises louder.

Spreading rugs throughout the room helps absorb those ambient sounds, thus reducing the chances of disturbing a light sleeper napping baby while you go about your day.

Besides, rugs can also act as a space divider to separate your space with your baby’s. Talk about a good territory marker!

#14 Make Good Use of Vertical Space

When setting up a shared bedroom for you and your baby, floor space is often minimal. To help create more space, it helps to think vertical.

You could turn the empty walls in your sharing room into additional storage space. Add shelves with or without hanging rods to create excess storage space for clothes and various accessories.

You may also use the over the wall shoes hanger to store the small items like baby bottles, a white noise machine, or baby bibs.

#15 Utilize Foldable Furniture

Apart from adding a floating shelf unit, you may also use foldable furniture to maximize parents’ share of space in the master bedroom. Using a foldable shelf as a changing table would be a good choice, but remember to close it when not in use!

Wrapping Up on Sharing Bedroom With Baby

For soon-to-be parents currently having limited bedroom space or new parents who just want their baby closer to them, sharing small bedroom with baby is relatively easy to do.

All it takes to safely share your bedroom space is a little bit of thoughtful design plus creativity!

Our design tips above allow you to create two distinct spaces in a single bedroom so that everyone, your baby included, gets to enjoy a great slumber at their own personal space.

That’s a wrap on our list! If you have any tips to save space and design for sharing a master bedroom with a baby, feel free to leave a comment below and join in on our discussion!

Alternatively, you can share this post with other families who may find it helpful, or share your photo with us on Pinterest @babyjourney0183!

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Last update on 2024-04-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API