What follows is basically an all-you-can-eat photo buffet of my absolute favorite, most magical room in our home.

By “home,” I mean rental apartment, of course. But because of this room, we will never ever be able to move.

If you missed the story of how we renovated (i.e. patched, painted, and constructed) this itty bitty disaster of a storage closet and turned it into the most charming baby room in existence, you can catch up here.

If I sound like I’m patting myself on the back, I am. Forgive me.

This room is small (just 72 sq. feet!) and awkwardly shaped, but it marvelously stretched to accommodate everything we needed to welcome a new baby.

The crib shimmied perfectly (within inches!) into the space where we formerly stored our bikes:

… and the closet became a glorious beacon of organization fit for a baby butternut.

All of this work might seem silly because Beatrice could probably care less how her room looks, or that she even has a room, but it makes me SO happy.  It doesn’t take much. And you can never underestimate the power of parental happiness.

This room warms my heart to the extent that it actually inspired me to do a 20-minute online prenatal yoga class in it every single morning before work while I was pregnant, just because I wanted to soak in its amazingness. And that was when it still looked like this:

When Beatrice was around two months old, we finally started hanging the art I had been hoarding … and we’ve been gradually adding to it since. I have tried very hard to keep things simple and airy because we need at least one clutter-free room. Hopefully, I am succeeding.

I’ll do a separate post about all the art and other stuff. This one is just about the tour! Especially because baby sleep took a big hit this weekend, and I’m still having a hard time stringing together a full sentence.

Anyway, voila!

The closet lives to the left of the changing table. Removing the closet door was the best decision we made for maximizing this space. It used to take up half the room!

Here’s the view back toward the entrance.

And panning slowly to the right of the changing table toward the crib, complete with diaper pail.

We turned the deep windowsill into a window seat of sorts to increase the room’s capacity from 1.5 to 2.5 people.

Baby!

Storage system for toys, pjs, and blankets:

(We keep this storage area neat because of the small space. The real play zone is out in the hall and perpetually chaotic.)

Happy walls!

… and back to the door.

That was kind of a quick tour. I guess it doesn’t take long to cover 72 sq. feet!

What do you think about dedicated baby rooms? Honestly, if our bedroom were bigger (and if Beatrice hadn’t stopped sleeping in our presence around four months!), she might still spending her nights in there with us. I do love that she has a tucked away space at the end of the hall for quiet naps, dirty diapers, and the way too many microscopic baby clothes that would otherwise be coating all our surfaces. Plus, having the option to turn on a light in our room while we get ready for bed is pretty awesome, something I didn’t even realize I had missed until her first night in the nursery.

Stay tuned for more baby room chatter …