Shared Sibling Room Tips and Ideas for Parents and Guardians

This post is sponsored by Pampers Swaddlers at Walmart, but all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own

4 Tips for Shared Sibling Room For a Newborn + Older Sibling

JB is super excited to be a big brother. Like beyond excited. He kisses my belly every day and asks to “talk” to the baby every night. He just celebrated his 6th birthday yesterday and was disappointed to discover that his birthday did not bring his new sibling.

“I thought you said the baby would come when I’m 6!”

Trying to explain a two-month wait to a 6-year-old is an exercise in futility, so I had to think quickly. He’s into dinosaurs and loves to play with those hatching eggs toys, so I explained that my belly is an egg and that it’s not yet ready to hatch to let the baby out. Thankfully, this explanation seemed to satisfy him and he gladly went about celebrating his birthday at DinoLand.

Which leads me to the topic of this post: Dinosaurs. Okay, not dinosaurs, exactly, but they do play a role in the way in which I was able to create a cool shared sibling room with a nursery.

Shared Sibling Room Tips

Combining a big brother room and a nursery isn’t as tough as you may think. My main objective was to include the baby’s essentials (crib, crib mattress, changing table, storage boxes/bins for our Pampers Swaddlers diapers, wipes, Diaper Pail, and lounge chair for nursing/cuddling) while keeping the room functional and “cool” for big brother. Cool, for JB, means dinosaurs, and lots of them. He has at least 300 toy dinosaurs (no exaggeration), so it wasn’t hard to figure out that no matter what I decided for their room, dinosaurs were a must.

Four Tips for Creating a Cool Shared Sibling Room:

1. Think on a budget. Babies and children grow, so you don’t want to be locked into expensive furniture and decor you can’t swap out as their personalities and likes change. I was able to purchase most of their room decor from my local Walmart, and I know sure you can do the same. Think quality items at an affordable cost.

2. Keep the colors fairly neutral. Both baby and big brother have elements of gray and white throughout their decor, which helps the room to flow together nicely.

For JB’s bed, I snagged this colorful dinosaur comforter and sheet set, while the baby’s crib was decorated with a grey and white checkered sheet set. I also selected grey and white changing pad covers, grey and white elephant themed mobile, and a little gray elephant chair to go with the theme.

3. Keep the color of the furniture consistent. I chose dark wood for both sides of the room, so Big Brother’s twin bed matches the dark wood changing table and crib.

4. Allow the older sibling’s personality to shine through. As much as I would have liked a completely “matching” room, the reality is JB is his own person and deserves to not be drowned out because a new addition will be coming to the family. He was here first. And just as my husband and I will continue to have all of our favorite things readily available to us, as should JB. He loves dinosaurs, so dinosaurs are all over his side of the room. We even filled the storage bins with his dinosaurs.