Small Apartment Living: Nursery 1

17 Aug 2022

One of the things about us as a couple is that we have always found ways to make things work. We also take time to try it out and continue to make changes until it’s exactly what we need. We’ve had some practice over the past few years of marriage and living in not so ideal spaces.

When we were living in the 636 sq. ft. Philadelphia apartment and we were preparing for our firstborn’s arrival, I figured the best place to put the crib (initially) would be in the living room. Here were some of my reasons:

  • We were going to move to a new place within 4 months with no plans to have guests over (other than my mom who came to help).
  • We were hoping to find a two bedroom and I wanted to make sure there wasn’t much of a transition so I wanted the crib to be in a separate room.
  • I was adamant about not co-sleeping.

Crib and Dressers

Here’s how I decorated it while waiting for our firstborn. This was placed in the corner of the living room/kitchen/dining area.

  • We didn't choose the crib based on the size of the room because the crib was generously given to us by friends who used the crib once, decided to co-sleep and no longer needed it. (Same company and something similar to what we were given.)
  • We didn’t have anything to store clothes in so I placed two IKEA Askvol dressers on the baby registry and my generous co-workers bought them for us and surprised us. (Askvol is no longer available at IKEA. Because of the space, I wanted it to be taller than wide but not too deep where you can't find what you're looking for. This dresser is W 45cm x D 41 cm x H 109 cm).
  • I love the look of woven baskets with liners so I purchased them at the Pottery Barn Outlet in Lancaster, PA and other stores where they had it on sale and filled them with essentials. (A co-worker tried to convince me out of these but I knew I’d use them for years to come. 6 years later, we still do for toys and other things!)
  • For décor, my husband found these huge photo frames out in the trash room of our apartment so he brought them up and cleaned them so we could use it.
  • Years prior in my singleness, I found alphabet cards at Michaels on sale for under $5 and decided one day I’ll have children and find use for them so I purchased and saved them for 6 years.
  • We kept the IKEA Lycksele Lovas Chair Bed (W 80 cm x D 100 cm x H 87 cm) right near the crib for feeding and snuggling. When mom came to visit, it was her bed so I fed in the bedroom instead.

Changing Table


I had a changing pad (Keekaroo Peanut) on the registry that my very close friend bought and carried all the way from NYC on public transport to get to the baby registry but hubs thought it was unecessary and had me return it. (Even though I had him look through everything on the registry, he decided once he saw it, we didn't need it.) So, I made a make shift changing table. This was prior to his arrival so we changed this out to be a sturdier table rather than a pull out (because babies don't move too much during changing for the first few weeks) and I placed a thick towel underneath the changing pad. You can see the table in a photo below. I'll point it out.


Co-Sleeping with a Dock-A-Tot

After giving birth at the hospital, I could not fathom getting up from the bed, walking down the hallway to get our baby, bring him back to the bed, feed him, then walk down the hallway again to put him to bed. I wanted to cue feed and it was impossible to hear him down the hallway and a baby monitor was one of those things on my hubby’s list that was unnecessary. So, I began researching the topic of co-sleeping.

I knew I didn’t want to have him sleep on our bed without some sort of protective barrier and there wasn’t really enough room in the bedroom to put a bassinet or a crib. I came across the Dock-a-tot and decided to give it a try. We absolutely loved it. (You can find more about the product here). It is a tight fit on a queen size bed, but, in a small apartment with a fourth floor walk up where the top floor used to be the servants’ quarters and the staircase gets narrower and steeper, there was no way we could have ever gotten a king size mattress up there! Thankfully, we’re both fairly average Asian height and size so it wasn’t too bad if we slept on our sides.

Once we started packing and preparing to move, we needed all the space in the living room so we moved the crib and dressers into the bedroom. It felt a bit tight but we figured it was only for a few weeks. We continued to use the dockatot but on the crib.

In the living room, we placed the feeding chair, a little gym mat and the changing table in the crib's place. You can see the sturdier table in this photo. That's what we used to change the baby for the few months we were preparing to move.

The next apartment had a more open floor plan so the bedroom was a bit larger. You can read more about what we did for the 685 sq. ft. apartment here.

Hope this post inspires you to make the most of your space and find creative solutions to make it work!

Small Apartment Living: Nursery 1

17 Aug 2022

One of the things about us as a couple is that we have always found ways to make things work. We also take time to try it out and continue to make changes until it’s exactly what we need. We’ve had some practice over the past few years of marriage and living in not so ideal spaces.

When we were living in the 636 sq. ft. Philadelphia apartment and we were preparing for our firstborn’s arrival, I figured the best place to put the crib (initially) would be in the living room. Here were some of my reasons:

  • We were going to move to a new place within 4 months with no plans to have guests over (other than my mom who came to help).
  • We were hoping to find a two bedroom and I wanted to make sure there wasn’t much of a transition so I wanted the crib to be in a separate room.
  • I was adamant about not co-sleeping.

Crib and Dressers

Here’s how I decorated it while waiting for our firstborn. This was placed in the corner of the living room/kitchen/dining area.

  • We didn't choose the crib based on the size of the room because the crib was generously given to us by friends who used the crib once, decided to co-sleep and no longer needed it. (Same company and something similar to what we were given.)
  • We didn’t have anything to store clothes in so I placed two IKEA Askvol dressers on the baby registry and my generous co-workers bought them for us and surprised us. (Askvol is no longer available at IKEA. Because of the space, I wanted it to be taller than wide but not too deep where you can't find what you're looking for. This dresser is W 45cm x D 41 cm x H 109 cm).
  • I love the look of woven baskets with liners so I purchased them at the Pottery Barn Outlet in Lancaster, PA and other stores where they had it on sale and filled them with essentials. (A co-worker tried to convince me out of these but I knew I’d use them for years to come. 6 years later, we still do for toys and other things!)
  • For décor, my husband found these huge photo frames out in the trash room of our apartment so he brought them up and cleaned them so we could use it.
  • Years prior in my singleness, I found alphabet cards at Michaels on sale for under $5 and decided one day I’ll have children and find use for them so I purchased and saved them for 6 years.
  • We kept the IKEA Lycksele Lovas Chair Bed (W 80 cm x D 100 cm x H 87 cm) right near the crib for feeding and snuggling. When mom came to visit, it was her bed so I fed in the bedroom instead.

Changing Table


I had a changing pad (Keekaroo Peanut) on the registry that my very close friend bought and carried all the way from NYC on public transport to get to the baby registry but hubs thought it was unecessary and had me return it. (Even though I had him look through everything on the registry, he decided once he saw it, we didn't need it.) So, I made a make shift changing table. This was prior to his arrival so we changed this out to be a sturdier table rather than a pull out (because babies don't move too much during changing for the first few weeks) and I placed a thick towel underneath the changing pad. You can see the table in a photo below. I'll point it out.


Co-Sleeping with a Dock-A-Tot

After giving birth at the hospital, I could not fathom getting up from the bed, walking down the hallway to get our baby, bring him back to the bed, feed him, then walk down the hallway again to put him to bed. I wanted to cue feed and it was impossible to hear him down the hallway and a baby monitor was one of those things on my hubby’s list that was unnecessary. So, I began researching the topic of co-sleeping.

I knew I didn’t want to have him sleep on our bed without some sort of protective barrier and there wasn’t really enough room in the bedroom to put a bassinet or a crib. I came across the Dock-a-tot and decided to give it a try. We absolutely loved it. (You can find more about the product here). It is a tight fit on a queen size bed, but, in a small apartment with a fourth floor walk up where the top floor used to be the servants’ quarters and the staircase gets narrower and steeper, there was no way we could have ever gotten a king size mattress up there! Thankfully, we’re both fairly average Asian height and size so it wasn’t too bad if we slept on our sides.

Once we started packing and preparing to move, we needed all the space in the living room so we moved the crib and dressers into the bedroom. It felt a bit tight but we figured it was only for a few weeks. We continued to use the dockatot but on the crib.

In the living room, we placed the feeding chair, a little gym mat and the changing table in the crib's place. You can see the sturdier table in this photo. That's what we used to change the baby for the few months we were preparing to move.

The next apartment had a more open floor plan so the bedroom was a bit larger. You can read more about what we did for the 685 sq. ft. apartment here.

Hope this post inspires you to make the most of your space and find creative solutions to make it work!