The photo below is how the space has been set up since my son was born. When my son was first born we thought we’d use a basinet or something next to the bed but that didn’t work out so well far us. We all found that we got much better sleep when co-sleeping but it was very important to me that set up our space to do co-sleeping safely. For more info, check out the Behavioral Sleep Lab at Notre Dame, run by Dr. James McKenna.
As a part of co-sleeping safely, we decided to move our bed into storage and place our mattress on the ground. We also had a diaper changing station that was super functional but that was no longer needed. Finally, this space was pretty much thrown together with only thoughts to functionality and we were ready to make it look a little nicer and less cluttered. The color scheme in general needed simplifying but we thought we tackle that on a separate round. For now we wanted to focus on getting additional sleeping space for our toddler and putting the diaper changing station away.
Making Space for a Toddler Bed
The first thing I wanted to do was to get a small bed for my toddler. We’d actually picked one up that someone was selling which was really inexpensive, like new and eco-friendly. We had started using it by just putting it on the floor next to our bed but it was getting frustrating because we had nowhere to put it during the day when it wasn’t in use and it was taking up too much floor space.
My idea was to get a bed frame that would allow us to slide the small bed under our bed during the day and then slide it back out at night. We thought about bringing our bed frame back from storage but it was such a high frame that it seems like it wouldn’t be the safest option, in case my son fell off.
We looked at a lot of frames searching for one that was a platform style that would have just enough space to slide the small bed underneath. After a long time looking and even buying one at Ikea that we realized wouldn’t work when we got home because of an extra leg in the middle of the frame and having return that, we were almost ready to give up. We then started thinking about cutting our bed down to a platform height.
Deciding to Cut the Legs on our Bed
My husband originally bought the bed before he knew me and at the time wanted the highest bed possible so that he could use the space below for storage. Having a small child sleeping on our bed, we now wanted the lowest bed possible in case he fell out while sleeping. It occurred to us that the steel legs on the Parson bed we had from Room & Board might be possible to retrofit to a low bed. We first asked Room & Board for help and they mentioned they had heard of people doing that but didn’t have any resources to help us get it done.
We live in Chicago and so it seemed like there were probably a lot of resources around that could do something like this so we started searching. It was a pretty expensive bed so we wanted to make sure we chose someone who would do a great job.
We did find a lot of options for metal workers who could do this work and settled on working with. It was an extremely easy process. We sent them a photo and our specs and they gave us a quote.
We got the frame out of storage and drove it over and it was done while my husband waited.
We got home and set it up and slide the small bed under and it fit perfectly!
Upgrading the Sheets
While we were updating the bed, we decided to upgrade our sheets and after much research decided to go with white linen sheets from Magic Linen. I was stuck forever on what color sheets to get and I don’t recall the source but I came across a designer’s blog that recommended keeping the sheets the same color as the walls to make the space appear bigger and debating was over.
I’m happy with the sheets but now they clash with the curtains and the gray blanket so next step is to address that by simplifying the color scheme which I’ll do next.
Clearing Off the Dresser
The last steps were to clear away the diapers and accessories that were no longer being used. We decided to leave the shelves in place for now and address them at a later date. We were still using the towels and blankets occasionally so it was good to still have a place to put them.
Next steps are to address the color scheme. Both simplify and make it more cohesive as well as better tie it in to the rest of the house. Stay tuned.
