How to turn a closet into a nursery.

I took these photos a while back and they are finally making their big debut!  JD and I live in a one bedroom apartment {in what we'd consider the very best part of the city!}.  We rented out the place thinking that eventually we could turn this closet {which used to house all of my clothes} into a little nursery for a baby.  We always said that we could have one kid in this apartment, but that the moment we had a second, we'd need to find a new place.  I mean, I knew regardless of the situation that we'd have to be creative.  Little did we know…!!   A lot of people tried to convince us to move.  We don't have laundry facilities in the building OR an elevator {and we live on the 4th floor!}.  However, I kind of despise moving and if you've looked at the housing market in this crazy city right now, I don't think you'd move either!  On top of all that, I literally think that having Paper Source, Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, GAP, Walgreens, a grocery store, Apple, a movie theater, Sunglass Hut, Starbucks, Giggle, Janie and Jack, and a million restaurants as neighbors is pretty freaking awesome.  Someone might have to physically tear me out of this apartment one day.  I love our location.  

When we found out we were having twins, literally one of the first things I thought was, "How in the world are we going to fit TWO babies in that closet?!"  I hadn't completely thought everything through beforehand, but I sort of assumed we could keep some of my clothes in there.  Not so!  When you have double the equipment, things start to get a little tight.  This little mini "reno" literally would keep me up at night.  I'd try to brainstorm every possible nook and cranny that we could shove my clothes into.  We ended up lifting our bed higher, folding a lot of my tops, and putting them into storage bins under the bed.  Then we cleaned out the coat closet {we purchased some wall coat hangers} added a second bar, and put all of my tops that needed to be hung, in the closet.  I put my skirts and a lot of dresses with JD's clothes in his closet, and then we bought 2 large shoe racks for the doors.  It was quite the ordeal.  It hasn't bothered me much yet to have things so spread out, but I also can only fit in like 6 different outfits, so my options are limited anyway!

The great thing about being surrounded by so many city dwellers, is everyone has their own little tricks of the trade.  Almost everyone I know here has their kid in a closet!  My friend Klarissa told me about the Babyletto mini crib and said it had held her son since birth {and now he's two!}.  I loved that option because it was a little bit more long term than other twin ideas I had seen and we knew there was absolutely no way we could fit two normal size cribs in there.  

Finding bedding was a bit harder than I had imagined since we needed mini crib sheets, but I scoured Etsy and ended up finding this lovely lady who had a million options!  She was so easy to work with and extremely accommodating.  I originally wasn't planning on doing crib skirts, but when you have a lot of baby stuff to store and not a lot of places to put it, it's a pretty great option.  My mother-in-law was amazing and found the fabric at the LA fabric mart and then made the skirts all on her own{!!!}.  If only I was that talented…

Home Goods also came to my rescue about a million times.  Every basket in the open wardrobe, all the pillows, laundry basket, and book/toy bag is from there.  The open wardrobe {called the PAX} was on IKEA family special for $19 one random weekend we were there.  Of course we had to custom design and then purchase all of the shelving and drawers which made it pricier, but we were pretty happy and it fit perfectly {although it does cover a lot of the window}!  It was originally a birch color, but we sanded it and then painted it mint green.  

We just bought some pieces of wood from Home Depot for $8 and then painted them white to create the book shelves.  I'm fairly certain I only purchased like 2 of those books between the shelving and book bag.  These girls were spoiled rotten by our friends and family with so many incredible books to grow up reading!  I am a little bit giddy over them!  I have TONS of chapter books from teaching 6th grade, but basically no picture or board books, so I was pumped!!  

While searching for twin nursery ideas {for hours and hours…} I came across this nursery and fell in love with the paintings!  I couldn't believe how much she paid for them, so I decided I'd just make my own.  I went with a quote from Shel Silverstein {"Anything can happen child, anything can be."} and Dr. Seuss {"A person is a person, no matter how small."} since they were some of my favorites as a kid.  

There are certainly some things that I'd love to do differently one day when I have a larger space to work with, but it was sort of a fun challenge and I'm happy with the end result.  I think this will be a whimsical little space for these girls to grow into.  I'm just waiting for the day when they leave the city to visit a friend or family member and realize that their room is abnormally small compared to everyone else's!  One day I'll admit that it was once a closet and we'll all have a good laugh about it!  

We are just thrilled to have these girls in our arms in 6 days.  I cannot wait to meet these two and get to know their little personalities!  It's mind blowing when I think back a year ago - if you'd had told me we'd be having twins I would've laughed in your face and thought you were insane.  In fact, it's still not real to me most days.  I can't even imagine the feeling I'm going to have when we get to look into their eyes for the first time.  I just know they are such special little girls.  

We love you, girls!  Can't wait to bring you home with us SO soon!