Our family has been on the hunt for a house for about a million years, it seems. In reality, we've been casually looking for a couple of years, but our search has gained urgency with the coming of our second child in November. With two adults, one preschooler (is it weird that I want to continue calling him a toddler at three?), three cats...and now one more little one, our 1,000 sq. ft. home seems to be bursting at the seams. We adore our home and it's served us well, but it's time. I've learned that, as with much in life, the best house for us will "happen" when it's meant to. So, I'm not too stressed about whether we find our new spot sooner (ie before November) or later (ie before our oldest enters school...or college). Because of this, we've taken a hard look at our space to figure out what will double as a nursery if and when the time comes. We've got three small-but-functional bedrooms, one of which performs office duties, currently housing several bookshelves, two desks, and walls full of my husband's quirky comic art and pieces we're proud he's written. Oh, and a Katharine Hepburn autograph. (That's mine. ;-)) It's kind of a hot mess, honestly. After realizing that a crib and toddler bed won't fit in our son's room (and, honestly, with potty-training, a new "big boy bed", a new sibling, and the possibility of moving, we don't need to add one more reason for him to revolt!), I turned to the office with a fresh set of eyes. Since I hardly ever use the office (except for, honestly, to store piles of my paperwork and books), it's time to move my DIY parsons desk to the basement and clean out most of my stuff. Poof! Room for a crib. Purging some books and storing the ones we don't need at-hand will allow room for baskets/bins to contain some baby paraphernalia. Oh, and our son only uses his dresser, so we'd probably utilize his closet for baby clothes and cloth diaper stash storage (pulling a handful of diapers and clothes each day to hang out in the little one's room as needed).

With a spark of "what if" comes the next logical step: an exorbitant amount of time spent perusing Pinterest. Since our house has a unique set-up, I actually searched for several ideas for small nurseries as well as shared space nurseries, whether office-related or not. So, maybe if any of you are in the same under-sized boat, you can glean some inspiration from the spaces and ideas I stumbled upon.

 

Source

This is a great "if the room were big enough" toddler/infant room sharing scenario. You can see the crib peeking out in the right corner, and the fun, cohesive styling in the room somehow suits both ages. Shoes Off Please also has a great general nursery-and-toddler-room roundup.

Source Ahh, Buzzfeed strikes again! Here's a great list of tips hacks that will help anyone who's trying to make raising a little one work in a small space. We already do several of these (hidden storage is a must!), but others are simply genius.

Source

This one from The Sweetest Digs may very well be my favorite. Unfortunately, we have far too little by way of "white furniture" and mama's only got so much energy for painting stuff. But, the design and utilization of space is giving me tons to work with, mentally!

Source

The Glittler Guide gives me hope that a pretty cluttered mishap of a "before" can turn into an "after" like THAT. These things can happen in real life, right? RIGHT??

 

Here we go with the white again. But, it's still a very realistic interpretation of a shared nursery space, isn't it? I know I'd love having this replace our current office monstrosity!

What about you folks? Who has a less-than-traditional nursery setup? Let us hear your tips and tricks for making it work! We'd considered co-sleeping but don't think it's for us. We will, however, have the baby with us for the first couple of months in a bassinet-type scenario, so that gives us even more time to find a larger place. ;-)