Twin Nursery Ideas for Small Rooms

As a mum of twin girls who are now 21 months old, I thought it’d be helpful to others currently expecting twins to write a blog with twin nursery ideas for small rooms! When searching for twin nursery ideas myself, I came across so many blogs that were written by people with no experience or just a list of generic nursery themes with no thought on how to cater for two babies instead of one, which I didn’t find very useful. I’m hoping there are some practical solutions and nuggets of wisdom from the last two years in here.

A twin nursery in a small room requires problem solving and space saving ideas, but a cosy inviting space can be created.

Let me tell you where we started - when we were planning to have a baby we originally thought we’d turn our spare room into part nursery, part spare room so that we could still have family who live far away stay easily. That all changed at our 12 week scan when we found out we were having twins! As we were waiting in a little room after the scan for more information following the news, our thoughts did turn to where everything was going to go! Do we have enough room? We live in a 3 bedroom semi detached house in Stockport, my partner Nick works from home, I run a small product business with all the stuff, our third bedroom is very small and we couldn’t fit two cots in there and be able to walk in too! So once we’d soaked in the news and told family, we tried to reconfigure everything and come up with solutions, but we ended up coming to the conclusion that our spare room would need to become the nursery, the box room would remain our office and we’d get a sofa bed for family when they came to stay. It’s not ideal, but it works for now. Our spare room is what we thought at the time was a decent size - it fits a double bed, some built-in wardrobes and a desk, but suddenly when you need to fit two cots and all the stuff that comes with two babies, it starts to feel very small!

If you’re reading this blog and are expecting twins, congratulations and welcome to the twin club! Twins are amazing - they bring absolute chaos to your lives but what a joy to see their incredible bond develop. There’s so much for you to look forward to. If that’s the case though, I imagine you might be in a similar situation, everything has shifted since finding out you’re having two babies, not one and there’s a lot of adjusting and problem solving to be done. You might have thought you’d use the smallest room in the house for a nursery for your baby, but can’t with two, you might be thinking about moving for more space after the twin news or you might be having to reconfigure how you use your house. There’s so much problem solving involved in raising twins that I think it helps prepare you for what’s to come, but I also hope I might have some small nursery ideas for twins below, gained from our own experience, which might help you.

When to start decorating your twin nursery

Now let me just put it out there, I didn’t properly finish (with all the details) our daughters’ nursery until they were 20 months old and I design nursery decor for a living. Eek. Although there were times when I wanted their nursery decor to be finished earlier, if I could go back, I still wouldn’t decorate their nursery ahead of their arrival. You see, in those very hazy newborn days, our spare room remained as it always was and we hadn’t changed it into a twin nursery at all. We ended up sleeping in there in shifts for months, as it was the only way we could get some sleep. I know it sounds crazy and I thought the same when I read about people doing sleep shifts before our own experience, but these little chunks of sleep in a cosy double bed really did help get us through the first few months. The girls were in our room (which had many configurations of cots and beds over the months) until they were six months old and then we gradually started turning the spare room into a nursery. I mean very gradually. Twins bring absolute joy and chaos to your lives, so finding the time to come up with twin nursery ideas and decorate was very tricky, especially as we don’t have family nearby to come and help for an hour or two. I’m also self employed, so any naps or evenings are normally spent working. However, as they now approach two, I'm very happy that we’ve created a really fun yet calming space for them which they love being in and I think promotes good sleep too. (The dream!) Timing is a really personal thing and I completely get it when people want to have the nursery decor and everything else prepared ahead of the arrivals, but I think you just have to do what suits you best and not get caught up in the Instagram ‘nesting’ reels you keep being shown!

Retaining your spare room until your twins need to move into their own nursery can help give you and your partner a space to get some chunks of sleep in a peaceful place.

Tips for decorating a twin nursery

Let’s cut to when you’re ready to start planning your twin nursery.

Twin cot layouts

Getting your twin cot layout right is a really great place to start. There are a few options on how to configure your cots and it really depends on the layout of your room, the basic choices are either opposite sides of the room, parallel, end to end or an l-shape. We opted for the cots being parallel with about a foot gap between them. The gap means that any banging on the side of the cot or mattress movements doesn’t affect the other baby and they can’t easily pass things back and forth when they’re a bit older. The foot of space also means we have room for a white noise machine in between - our babies have always reacted well to white noise and we’ve also found it helps muffle the noise to prevent waking each other up as well as some of the external noises. I know that some twins find being able to hold onto each other's hands or being close by really comforting so it really does depend on the babies. Ours have always slept very differently to each other, and although they started in the same cot which they found comforting in the early days, it wasn’t long before we encountered problems and separated them - getting better sleep really is always top of a twin parents’ mind!

The basic options for twin cot layouts in a square room. There are lots of other elements to consider such as doors, windows, radiators and built in furniture.

Keeping the cots apart can help reduce distractions from each other and allows for a white noise machine to muffle sounds if you choose to use it.

Twin Nursery Safety

Obviously there’s a few safety aspects which could dictate your twin cot layouts, for more on this head to The Lullaby Trust

We wanted to avoid either of the girls being too close to a radiator or draft from the window so had to take this into consideration when discussing our twin cot layouts.

Window treatments in a twin nursery

I know I’m talking about sleep again, but it’s so important! Again, every baby is different, but we found a really dark room was essential for one of our little girls to be able to properly switch off. We opted for adding curtains with a separate black out lining on top of our existing blackout blind to create a really dark space to reduce distractions.

A black out blind paired with black out curtains can help create a dark, calm space to promote restful sleep.

You don’t have to paint or wallpaper your twin nursery

One of the reasons we weren’t really stressed about decorating the twin nursery was that we’d already refreshed the room a year or so before. We’d kept it completely neutral, knowing that it might be used for a nursery in the future. The walls were a soft beige and we modernised the built-in wardrobes with new doors. However, I was really keen to make sure the twin nursery had personality despite the lack of feature walls, murals or wallpaper. My way of doing this was to add removable wall stickers, lots of nursery prints and a really fun mushroom garland. The removable wall stickers really made a difference here, they made our reading nook look really cosy and were really easy to use too. For more ideas on decorating a nursery without committing to wallpaper and paint, head to my ‘How to decorate a nursery without painting’ blog.

You don’t have to paint or wallpaper your twin nursery to make it fun and child friendly - these tree removable wall stickers add some fun and pattern to the room without the commitment or cost of wallpaper or paint.

Making your twin nursery personalised

I think it’s really important to give twins their own space and possessions as it’s a key aspect of them developing their own identity outside of their twinship. I originally wanted to create their own mini gallery walls above their cots, with their favourite animals, name plaques and initials, but quickly realised as they got more able, that my one little girl in particular would be climbing to get all those interesting things off the walls! So instead I decided to design them their own initial prints so their cot area became their own space. These prints have their initial and illustrations of lots of things beginning with their letter and we often name them all and talk about them and they ask ‘again’ as soon as we’re finished! I’ve designed them in coordinating colours but switched the colours around for each one so that they’re unique and the initial is really bold to clearly identify the spaces. I’ve hung these out of reach and opted for a hanging frame so that there’s no glass or perspex if it falls down.

You can also create a zone for each of your babies with a stripe of colour, a picture of one of their favourite animals, a different coloured rug under each cot or a different feature wallpaper. The more individual the better! As our girls grow up and develop more of their own interests, I’m really keen to lean into this and celebrate their individuality in their room, but this will be an ongoing process.

Nursery prints can be a great way to add individualism to a shared space, take a look at my range of Little Em Nursery Wall Art for more ideas.

Switching the colours keeps this duo coordinated yet unique.

Twin Nursery Storage

With two babies comes a lot of stuff! Now whilst you don’t need two of everything (we’ll come to that later) there is certainly more stuff than with one baby. We already had built-in wardrobes, but these also house some of our clothes and other things as our house is seriously lacking in storage. We added a large chest of drawers and don’t have a crazy amount of clothes for the girls. We actually find that this makes the laundry more manageable but we still have enough for all of the changes that inevitably happen throughout the day! We also added a storage cart from Hobbycraft which was handy when we were moving from room to room a lot - it housed nappies, wipes, cream, poo bags, muslins and flannels. We also have a laundry basket, cart for blankets and teddies and some hanging baskets for bits and pieces. We added some wire drawers from Ikea to one of the wardrobes where we store spare sheets, towels, out of season clothes or clothes that are too big. We opted for forward facing book storage as we were keen for the girls to be able to see what books they have and choose which books they wanted to read at bedtime.

There is so much lovely decorative storage around at the moment and it can definitely add to the personality of your nursery. I’d encourage you to add as much storage as possible if you have room!

Plenty of storage is a must - we added a large chest of drawers for clothes, plus some more decorative storage such as the hanging basket pictured above.

Do I need two of everything?

I really want to answer no and for some things you don’t, but honestly, you do need two of most things. Nursery wise, the most important thing is two cots, even if they’re sharing at the beginning, as they could outgrow that setup quite quickly. Then you’ll need two lots of sheets, sleepwear, towels, clothes and potentially different sized nappies.

My top recommendation outside of the nursery would be two bouncer chairs - we used these so much for the first few months, as you always need somewhere to put a baby to free up a hand and you can rock the bouncers with your feet if need be. As the girls have got older we’ve found that we need duplicates or the same but different of a lot of toys, as the constant arguments aren’t worth it. I’m obviously keen to encourage sharing, but some things just aren’t practical - one bike between two anyone?! Plus, they don’t have the mental capacity to understand sharing until they’re around 3.5 - 4 years old. Two single carriers are really handy too - we felt such a sense of freedom when we didn’t have to go everywhere with the double buggy!

One thing I would say is think whether you really need some items at all, which I’ll discuss a bit more below.

How to make the most of a small space for your twin nursery

Once the two cots and a chest of drawers were into our fairly standard (for the UK anyway) double bedroom, we found there really wasn’t much room for anything else. I think I’d originally pictured a pretty changing table and an armchair for nursing, but these just weren’t practical for our space. We found it was best to change the girls for the first six months in our own room anyway, so we used the top of our chest of drawers as a changing table (obviously never leaving them on it) and an armchair just wouldn’t fit. As an alternative to the armchair, we created some cosy reading nooks where we could snuggle up at bedtime. We used a big floor cushion in the gap between the wardrobes, lots of cushions and book shelves above to create a reading nook - the girls love this space and often cosy up here to look at some books or for their post nap cuddle. We’ve also utilised our twin pillow to create another cosy space - we got the cheap one below from Asda but cover it with swaddles when we’re feeling fancy. This is great to lie the girls down on to put them in their sleep bags and so they each have a cosy space without getting in each other's way. I absolutely love seeing the girls making use of these spaces exactly how I’d imagined when planning them!

Another small nursery idea to maximise storage is to get a cot with a pull out drawer. Our cots have this option which we may add on as the girls get older and get more stuff.

Save space by opting out of chairs and sofas and instead create cosy reading nooks with cushions and floor pillows. Our daughters love these spaces!

21 months on, the twin feeding pillow still comes in handy for bedtime and as a cosy place to read a book. The twin pillow is covered here in a Little Beacon swaddle.

Twin baby monitors

We didn’t go for a baby monitor with a dual camera, although this might be the best option if your room is big enough for their cots to be on opposite sides of the space. However, ours were always going to be fairly near to each other because of the limited space we had to play with, so a standard camera works for us. The camera function has been really helpful though - it means we can tell which baby is making noise, if they look like they’re likely to fall back asleep and whereabouts they are in their cot if we need to get them quickly in the dark without waking the other! Also, you get to witness some of their twin antics you’d otherwise miss!

Twin Nursery Art

For the twin nursery wall art I added the initial nursery art prints I talked about earlier, which identify their own cot space and then added the Seasons Children’s Print and the Camping Adventure Fabric Wall Hanging in our loosely outdoor / woodland themed nursery. I’d love to design a range of twin art prints soon as I think it’s a great thing to celebrate and let them know they’re part of something special! For other nursery prints, please do take a look at my Little Em nursery wall art.

The Camping Adventure Fabric Wall Hanging adds personality and texture to the walls.

The Little Em Seasons Children’s Print hanging on the wooden peg rail with other accessories from small businesses.

Twin Nursery Details

A few nursery details we added to make the space feel personal, fun and cosy, without the need for accent paint colours or wallpaper.

A place to display treasures

One of my favourite additions to the nursery is this thimble house my mum found at a flea market for £5 - we’ve currently displayed a selection of shells the girls collected on a trip to Wales and will update it with the seasons as a talking point, including acorns and conkers in autumn. The girls love recalling our trip to the beach and how we collected treasures in our buckets. We also added the picture shelf with hooks so that we can easily change up the pictures and objects as we feel or as the girls grow.

Vintage finds can add so much character, as well as being budget friendly!

Door handles

A quick change of the door handles to these cute mice instantly made the space feel more fun and kid friendly - the girls love them and try to count them.

Details can make all the difference - transforming adult spaces into fun and playful spaces for children.

Mushroom garland

If you follow me on Instagram you probably haven’t heard me shut up about this mushroom garland. I got the pattern from Efi Little Things and set about making a garland to go across the whole back wall. I ended up making 15 mushrooms in total and hand beaded 5 of them too. I actually really enjoyed this task - batch sewing the machine part and then doing a couple everytime I’d watch tv. I feel like they’ve made the back wall so much more decorative and fun and one of my little girls gave me a brilliant review the first time she saw them ‘wooooahhhhh, mushrooms, big!’ which made my day!

I love to add handmade touches and the girls have loved this mushroom garland, made out of fabric scraps and samples.

Homemade gifts from friends and family

We were so lucky to receive so many beautiful homemade gifts from friends and family, which included knitted blankets from Nanny, handmade dolls from Grandma, hand carved name plaques from my brother, knitted cardigans from my sister in law, quilts from our friend Alice, crocheted rattles from Alice’s sister Belinda, initial cushions from Alice’s mum (they’re a family of many skills!) and wall flags from our friend Sophie. These special touches make the space more unique and personal and they’re things we’ll treasure. (Not all of these are pictured as we’re keen not to share the girl’s full names online.)

This cart is a great place to store teddies and blankets. These blankets made by Nanny are perfect for extra warmth in the winter or playing dens in the summer.

Lovely dolls made by Grandma which the girls love playing with (even if one went for a swim in the bath!)

Nursery details to avoid

This is completely personal preference, but we decided to avoid any distracting details like mobiles hanging above their cots (so cute, I know!) but anything as stimulating as one of these beautiful creations would have one of our girls chatting for hours and wouldn’t help her sleep! I’m sure other babies love looking at them and find them relaxing, but each baby is so different.

The finished twin nursery feels fun yet calming and cosy. The girls love being in there, utilising the reading nooks, playing peekaboo around their cots and playing with their teddies. The space has made nap time and bedtime more relaxed and I think it really shows how much our environment can affect how we feel.

I’m really pleased to finally have the twin nursery decor finished and have loved watching our daughters enjoy it.

I hope this blog has helped give you with twin nursery ideas and small nursery ideas in general, please do get in touch if you have any questions, I always love chatting all things twin! If you’re reading this blog because a friend or family member is expecting twins, then my Turtle Twin New Baby Card is a lovely way to welcome them to the world!

Emma x