Tiny humans, big decisions | Pros and cons of designing a nursery

Pooja Salvi explores the challenges and joys of creating a nursery space for babies with a focus on functionality and aesthetics.

When Abhishek Parmar brought his newborn home from the hospital, the baby was welcomed in a room meticulously designed by his parents. A small but warm space that sported a modern, minimalistic theme, and pastel walls.

What the now two-year-old didn’t know is just how much work his parents put into creating the space. The Singapore-based couple went the do-it-yourself (DIY) way, which came with its fair share of challenges.

During the pandemic, a small room in their house became a home-office. This was then earmarked to be the nursery. Since it wasn’t spacious, accommodating everything was not easy. “We had to keep the furniture and décor minimalistic. So, finding the right things that would meet our needs, both functional and aesthetic, was key. With plenty of options available, it took us a while to narrow things down and a couple of iterations to get it all right.” Labour being expensive in Singapore, the 30-year-old parents “had to assemble pretty much everything ourselves — bed, changing station, shelves and storage, and artwork”.

When celebrities announce the arrival of a baby, the news is often accompanied by details of a plush baby nursery — be it Ram Charan, Karan Johar, Allu Arjun, Soha Ali Khan, Lindsay Lohan, or Anushka Sharma, to name a few. While these glimpses serve as inspiration for some parents like Parmar, others prefer to keep it simple.

Some new parents focus time and energy on building a dedicated space for a baby’s arrival, but just a few years ago, this was not the norm.

Amrita Bose is a parent to a 10-year-old. But a nursery was nowhere on her list of concerns. “We couldn’t really afford one,” she recalls. At the time, a 35-year-old Bose was living with her husband, then 39, in a 2-BHK. “Having a baby alone is so expensive. We set up a cot in our bedroom — baby used to co-sleep and we would play on the bed.”

Unlike designers who tell you to accommodate the many initial life stages of a baby, Bose chose to make the best use of whatever was available. “When she grew up a bit, a mat on the floor of the living room was enough.”