Designing Your Twin Nursery in 9 Simple Steps

Designing your twin nursery doesn’t have to be overwhelming. While there are many options that you can consider, I’ve found the easiest way to design the nursery is to start with your must-have items and supplement around them.

The cribs and changing table are the first items to purchase when designing your twin nursery. These are essential items and they typically take up a lot of space in the room. Once you have these in place, you can add pops of color with décor, safety features and storage bins to complete the nursery design.

In this article, we’ll walk through how to design your twin nursery from start to finish in 7 simple steps and provide a few examples to get you started.

Start planning as soon as possible

There will be a moment you decide on creating a nursery for your child. Maybe you dreamed of turning your office into a suite for your new baby before you ever became pregnant. If you decide on staying with family after your child arrives, you may not need a nursery until you return home. It’s also possible your family has a spare room that you can turn into a nursery.

No matter what that post-baby plan looks like, you’ll want to start planning your nursery the moment you figure out how large your nursery space will be. Knowing the size of the space will help simplify downstream decisions like what size dresser you need, how large of a rug to purchase or whether everything you’d like to have in your dream nursery will fit in the space.

If you’re able to make some of these decisions in advance of your baby shower, you’ll be able to add them to your baby shower registry and receive these items as gifts.

Choose the color scheme

The color scheme you choose for your nursery will used throughout the room. This choice can impact what paint you put on the walls, artwork and décor and even the blankets and crib sheets you purchase.

If you didn’t have a dream of what your baby room would look like there are go-to options that can simplify your decision making:

Pink for little girls & Blue for little boys

The gender colors schemes may seem a little outdated for diverse and inclusive times, but I can’t help smiling form ear to ear whenever I see a baby girl in a tiny tutu with a matching pink hair bow. The gendered colors that have been engrained in most Americans since childhood can still be a solid option for designing the your twins space.

Gender neutral colors

Whether you are so over the “pink for girls, blue for boys” gender norms or simply have twins of two genders, gender neutral colors are a great option for your twins space. Gender neutral colors generally used in baby nurseries are yellows, purples, greens and greys.

Black and white

If you love a good old minimalist design scheme, black and white can be a solid option for you. It’s versatile and offers more flexibility to match with any furniture or artwork.

Purchase cribs and changing table

Cribs and changing tables typically come in a few standard colors: white, light brown wood, dark brown wood or black. Choose the colors that best fit the color scheme you’ve chosen for

Should I buy two cribs?

Purchase two cribs for your twins after 8 weeks old because twins will begin move around more during that time and start wake each other throughout the night. With two cribs the twins will get used to having their own space and sleep deeper throughout the night.

Set up the crib and changing table

Open and assemble your cribs and changing table soon as you have received them. These are two items you’ll certainly need in the space and you’ll want to organize all of the other items around them. Since you’ll have two cribs with twins this can take up a fair amount of space in the nursery.

You can place both cribs against the same wall, side by side, on opposite sides of the room, or place both cribs in the center of the space. The changing table can be placed against any wall in the room.

Select storage

Your living space might start to look like a baby department store between your purchased and any hand me downs and baby shower gifts your receive for your twins. That’s when you’ll have to add one more item to the mix: storage.

An organizer or storage unit will hold and organize your many baby items, including:

• Clothes, sorted by size
• Socks
• Hats
• Bibs
• Burp cloths
• Baby blankets

A dresser with small and large drawers, a cube bookcase with storage bins or shelving units added to a wall or closet can all serve as proper storage units for the many baby products, clothing and accessories you will certainly receive.

Keep in mind that you’ll also need to store the messy items your baby produces. That means you’ll likely need a dirty clothes basket and a diaper pail. We prefer the diaper genie.

Add your baby safety features

Keeping baby safe will remain top priority for most parents. A baby monitor and plugs for the outlet are the basic safety products for your twin nursery.

Place your baby camera so that it has a clear view of both babies inside their cribs from the monitor. The baby monitor should be placed on a high enough surface in your home so you can view the baby inside the crib clearly. You can place the baby monitor on top of a dresser, shelving unit or bookshelf.

Add the décor

Décor items can include:

• Artwork
• Toys, blocks and stuffed animals
• Lamps
• Vases
• Rug

Place your white noise machine

The white noise machine saved our lives during the first year our twins were born. For every naptime and bedtime, we turned on the white noise machine. The sweet sounds from the machine seemed to signal to our twins that it was bed time because they’ll fall asleep quickly and their individual noises didn’t disrupt their sibling’s sleep.

Instead of placing the white noise machine on a side table or dresser where it would be picture perfect, we’ve on the floor right by the head of the bed. The white noise machine helps the babies sleep so we prefer to have it as close as possible to our children – even if that placement isn’t aesthetically pleasing.

This leads me to the final point.

Create a space that feels cozy, comfortable and personal.

No matter what looks good on the internet or what seems visually appealing, you have personal likes, dislikes and needs. Additionally, your twins will have their own set of preferences when they arrive.

For example, because we often rent our rooms on Airbnb short term while we travel, we have decided not to paint our walls in our twin nursery. That makes it easier for us to remove the baby furniture add a twin bed to prepare the room for rental.

Take initiative to move things around so they look and feel good to you. Don’t hesitate to change things as your babies reveal their preferences and needs to you after their arrival.