Creating a Shared Room for Brother + Sister

A few weeks ago we welcomed the newest member of our family!  Baby Theo (short for Theodore ... aka Teddy), was born on January 6th, weighing in at just under 9 pounds. We're over the moon. He's cute as can be, and actually looks a lot like his big sister Caitlin did when she was born. I've been posting pics to instagram occasionally if you want to take a peek.

When I started my Maternity leave over the holidays, I realized I still needed to think through how I was going to handle our living space with a new baby in the mix.  We currently rent a small two bedroom apartment, so room sharing is a must.  Our plan is to keep Theo in our room until he's old enough to sleep through the night, but it won't be long before he'll be moving in with Caitlin.

I've loved Caitlin's room since designing it as a nursery before she was born (you can see the old room pictures here), but I wanted to update the space to something more gender neutral and functional for both a baby and active pre-schooler.

While searching for crib bedding, I found my inspiration in the Beaucoup de Fraises crib bedding set from The Land of Nod.  The sheet has a sweet, gender neutral vintage pattern, and the navy blue in the quilt adds a friendly touch of 'boy' to the original aqua, pink and yellow color palette.

In order to make space for both a crib and a twin bed, we had to move out the dresser and changing station into our bedroom, but this opened up room for an additional bookcase.  It was originally a dark wood color, but I painted it white with a cheerful pop of yellow on the backing.  It's great added storage for books and toys.  Caitlin's bed has a pale pink quilt cover, so I added a navy and white striped throw to tie it together with the crib bedding.

With Theo being a winter baby, I thought it would be fitting to add some woodland details to his side of the room.  Earthquake safety is an issue in California, so I created a gallery area in the space above the toy chest, and left the wall above his crib simple- just a wooden 'hello' sign purchased from Oh Dier on etsy and a handmade owl mobile gifted to us by a friend.  The large fox print and ceramic reindeer were more great finds from the Land of Nod. The print is titled 'Theodore Collects Firewood' and designed by blogger Ez Pudewa at Creature Comforts. When I saw it I knew it would make a special addition.

I designed the 'B is for Baby' print myself and it's available as a download in my etsy shop with custom color options also available.  The remainder of the artwork and items you see in the room are things we already owned, some of which are even handed down from my own childhood.

images © cake. | events + design

If you're having a similar challenge designing a space for two genders or ages, I highly recommend using simple accents of color for a fun and cohesive space. Trying to divide up the space up can often make the room smaller, so instead think about using eccletic mix of gender neutral decor and toys.  If you're on a budget, scour your home for found objects and consider adding paint to make old items new again.

This post was sponsored in part by Land of Nod, but this post & my good opinion of their products is all my own.  Images are for personal use only.  If sharing them on your site, please link directly to this post.