Triplet Nursery Tour

I couldn't find any good blog posts about practical triplet nurseries, so I had to devise my own plan.  There is no real theme to the room and we stuck with gender neutral colors (cream and green).  I used polka dot accents throughout the room to keep it playful and colorful.  We are fortunate to have a very large space available, as we converted our bonus room to the nursery.  Previously, the bonus room had a couch bed, oversized chair with ottoman, bookshelves, filing cabinet, and desk with computer and printer.  After some serious rearranging of furniture, we cleared out the space to make room for babies!  Here is a 360 degree layout of our nursery, starting with the closet.

 

The closet was my biggest headache.  We have a walk-in closet, but there is a lot of wasted space that you cannot access easily.  The closet extends another five feet to the left of what the picture shows.  We used that space to stack storage bins full of sorted clothes (i.e. girls 3-6, boys 3-6, etc).  The top shelf also has hundreds of diapers going as far back as the wall.

 

We have been blessed with hundreds of donated clothing items for both girls and boys.  In fact, we had to donate some of the clothes we received because there were simply too many!  Over Spring Break I had family and friends sorting clothes like a little sweat shop.  While I think it's adorable to hang all the cute dresses and overalls, I won't have time to spend hanging clothes.  I decided on the more practical grab-and-go bins.  I bought 9 large bins from Ikea and my sisters helped organize and label the clothes into logical bins.  The bins are organized as follows:

• boy sleepers
• swaddlers
• girl sleepers
• receiving blankets/burp cloths
• newborn girl onesies and dresses
• newborn girl pant sets/shirts
• gender neutral onesies
• newborn boy onesies/rompers
• newborn boy pants/shirts

Underneath the shelves of bins are two dressers that are organized in a similar fashion.  They contain 0-3 month clothes.  One dresser is all boy clothes; the other is all girl clothes.  Currently, we have a full boy's wardrobe through 24 months (thanks to Jackson and his cousin) and a full girl's wardrobe through 9 months that are neatly packed away in storage bins.

 

The baskets on top of the dressers have shoes and socks.  There is a clothes hamper right beside the dressers.

 

Immediately to the right of the closet is the door to access the hallway and staircase.  On the other side of the door is the play area.  I received this fun storage furniture that we'll be able to use as the triplets get older.  Currently, the bins are full of baby friendly items such as burp clothes, bibs, board books, stuffed animals, teething toys, and toys to promote crawling.  Jackson has more toys than he knows what to do with that we will be able to rotate to the triplets once he outgrows them.  Since the walls are a plain cream color, I wanted bright polka dots and lettering along the walls.

Alongside the largest wall is the play area, swings, and recliner.  Once again, as the babies age out of the swings we will place exersaucers, walking toys, etc. against the wall.  The large windows allow for a tremendous amount of sunlight to shine through, so we bought energy-efficient black out curtains.  (The curtains were open in the other pictures, making the room appear much brighter.  This picture obviously makes the room look darker since the curtains are closed.) 

 

Continuing to the right, you will see the changing station located in the corner.  This is the same changing table we used with Jackson.  We will do a combination of cloth and disposable diapers.  (I refuse to buy any disposable diapers, but we have received over 1,000 disposables at baby showers that we might as well use.)  There are six green bins that are filled with:

• newborn fitted cloth diapers
• small Thirsties covers
• disposable diapers
• related linens (pail liner, extra changing pad cover, small wetbags)
• baby wipes
• extra inserts for nighttime diapers

There is a small diaper pail behind the recliner that will be emptied daily.

 

The girls' cribs are located together in an L shape.  They have matching polka dot sheets at the moment with pink bedskirts.  We have 9 sets of sheets that we will use interchangeably on all of the mattresses. All cribs have green Breathable mesh bumpers.  A glider is located beside the girls' cribs.  We wanted a glider and a recliner so Jesse and I could both rock the babies to sleep or take care of midnight feedings at the same time.  There are boppy pillows next to both chairs.

Finally, James' crib is in the corner.  This crib also has a polka dot sheet and a green mesh bumper.  Above each crib hangs the custom name art I made.  The small door provides access to the attic, which of course has a childproof lock on it.  We have a few bouncers throughout the room as well.  On the other side of James' crib is the closet, which brings us back to where we started.

 

 

The only thing not pictured in this nursery tour is a mini-fridge, which has been added since I took these pictures.  (It is blocking the attic door beside the glider.)  My wise mother-in-law thought it would be a good idea to keep bottles of breastmilk and/or formula ready to go.  Other triplet moms have also suggested placing a crock-pot on top to use as a bottle warmer for middle of the night feedings.  I'm certain I won't have the energy or sense to go downstairs every two hours to prepare bottles, so I'm excited to take advantage of this convenience. 

Just in case you are wondering, we did our best to divide the furniture between both floors.  We also have a pack-n-play with changing station, two swings, two exerscaucers, and a bouncer downstairs.  All extra crib sheets, baby towels, and extra receiving blankets are in the hallway linen closet upstairs.