I posted a home tour showing a little of how we make living in a one bedroom apartment with a toddler work for us. In short, Belle (and eventually her little sister or brother) has the bedroom and we use the rest of the space as a studio apartment.

Following that, I wanted to share some photos of Belle’s bedroom/nursery/play space…

We rescued a sofa second hand. It was like new and going to be thrown out, can you believe?! A quick Uber XL home and it was saved.

We took off the feet so that Belle could get on and off it herself, added a throw and some cushions, and there it is.

It is so nice to have inexpensive, second-hand bits in a playroom as it just takes away some of the stress of things getting damaged, soaked and coloured on (which does happen people).

This little sofa and rug spot is now my favourite part of her room.

Maybe we will eventually paint the walls, but until we do this rug does a great job of adding a burst of colour to her room. It is bright and colourful (and hides stains really well!) but it isn’t a ‘kid’s rug’ – which I really like. Plus with all hardwood floors it in the apartment, it makes a lovely spot to sit and play.

Jono put up a shelf so that we could have a space to store a few bits out of her reach. I cannot stand seeing books get ripped and ruined and so I decided that her precious books needed a safe haven! I keep a few of the more resilient books in the drawers where she can get to them herself, but I wanted an area to store her growing collection of nice books where I can get them down to read with her.

We bought Belle this little play kitchen for Christmas and she loves it. I love listening to her crashing around ‘making dinner’. There is nothing sweeter than watching her pile food into the pan and then sit and feed her creation to all of her toys. So sweet.

We found this print for Belle on our first family holiday to the Lake District when she was just six weeks old. We saw it in a little arts and crafts shop and couldn’t resist. She loves to point to all of the animals and tell me what noises they make – so cute! I especially love that she says “quack quack’ to the Pelican and tells me to “shhhh” because the bear is sleeping.

Jono sketched this drawing in an old notebook when Belle was really little. He didn’t think anything of it but I loved it so much that I tore it out and framed it straight away. I just love (and envy) those long beautiful eye lashes there.

Inspired by every Pinterest nursery photo ever, we got these IKEA spice racks to store some of her books. They were a little boring though, so when I was putting them together I painted just the front bar to add a little splash of colour to the wall. I really like that mint/aqua colour and so I used the same paint on the ‘B’ on the door. Although it means that, in the interest of sibling equality, I will need to hurry back to Target when the new baby is here (and named) and get a letter for them too. I kept the paint pot for that reason!

I know, I know that she probably shouldn’t be sleeping with so many toys and pillows in her cot… but she does. She cuddles up there with her dogs and nestles into the ‘v’ pillow to sleep.

I used this ‘V’ pillow when I was pregnant to support my bump and then when I was breastfeeding her to support her. She got so used to sleeping on it that we had to give it to her when we eventually moved her into her own room. I have actually had to buy another one to use for this pregnancy because Belle is not giving that up anytime soon!

Parents, you know. When you have found something that works and means that your child sleeps, then you do not mess with it. If she needs ALL of those soft toys in her cot with her, then that is fine with me. It is all about survival when you are talking sleep.

And that is it for Belle’s first bedroom! Once the new baby is old enough then they will be moving in with her (which will be interesting!). But for now, it is such a blessing to have a room (with a door!) for Belle to play in, make mess and most importantly sleep. We managed a long 14 months sharing either a bed or a bedroom with her and let me tell you that we are SO grateful for her bedroom and the fact that she does now sleep in a cot.

Parents of babies that don’t love to sleep alone: be encouraged that it really won’t be forever. When we were in the thick of it I honestly couldn’t imagine a day coming when Belle would sleep on her own. But it did. I am glad that we were patient and gentle with her but equally that we persevered to get her to a point of getting a good night of undisturbed sleep. It was so hard but it was the right thing for all of us and now I would actually consider her a ‘good sleeper’! I never thought I would be able to say that.

I am so glad that I have these photos to show B when she is older. She is very blessed and so are we.