apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Our first two are only 13 months apart and have shared a room since #2 was 6 weeks old. We started with two cribs, went to a crib and toddler bed, then two toddler beds, and finally the bunk beds. Sounds a little crazy but with classified adds and hand-me-downs furniture we only paid $350ish for everything and have since sold/passed on what we don't need. Re-use, re-use, re-use!

Depending on how tall #1 is you might be able to use a toddler or youth bed until #2 is able to sleep in the bottom of the bunk beds.

And as a side note, it's awesome that yours will share. Many kids LOVE sharing a room. It has helped to make ours best of friends. Now all three of our kids share one larger room and even if we had the rooms for individual rooms I'd keep them sharing.

I've recently spotted a few gorgeous daybeds with pull out trundle beds beneath. Prices range quite a bit depending on materials and the quality of the mattresses. One of my favorites can be found on Amazon ($999). Good luck!

I'd pick up a twin bed frame on Craigslist. Buy a new mattress. If you decide in 3 years to bunk them, you'll probably be able to re sell the twin frame for a few bucks, and then you can start fresh with bunk beds for the 2 of them. Good luck! My 4 year old and 19 month of share a room and they both like it. It works well for us.

My son has the Kura bed from Ikea. We have a mattress on the top and another on the bottom. It's on the floor but very comfortable with a spring mattress. It's also a great bed for a child who is in danger of rolling out so he doesn't have far to fall. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10123996

The top bed also has guard rails so our three year sleeps up there without a problem.

I would use a twin bed and a crib. It would be nice to find something that will match in style and/ or color.
Also, you can read this for some shared room tips:
http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/742/list/Not-Kids--Play--Designing-Children-s-Bedrooms-
I know that she also posted a second part for this idea. You can click on her name to find it.

Good Luck!

i like the nurseryworks duet bunk bed and it is stackable. one of the beds rests very near to the ground when the beds are used separately. huge sale on all nurseryworks lately...

I have the same sized room and the same issue....but seriously, if you can fit twin beds side by side in that room, then you can fit a bunk and a crib no problem. (We thankfully avoided the toddler bed altogether). We ended up using the top bunk for storage until the baby got out of the crib, then we put a book shelf where the crib was and emptied the top bunk of storage. voila! yes, it was tight, but we also had them perpendicular and it worked just fine. Kindof cute actually. Looking back, I sure wish I had bought the double on the bottom sort of bunk. Oh well. And most any bunk system will come apart, so someday you can split them if you want. I found bunks to be not as cumbersome as you'd think. They make low, small ones too. Good luck!

My sister and I grew up sharing a 12' x 10' room until I was 13. We had bunk beds at first, but later split them into 2 twin beds on each side of the room. My brothers shared a 10' x 10' bedroom with bunk beds, too. My dad built a bed that "hung" from the ceiling (it was also securely attached to the wall and had a bookshelf supporting the free corner). The other bed could go under it either parallel or perpendicular. If you have the know-how/time/whatever, that's an option for you.

This probably doesn't help much, but hopefully it's reassuring! You can have 2 kids grow up sharing a small room!

IF you think your three year old is ready to sleep in the top bunk, I would consider getting a bunk bed with a futon on the bottom/twin bed on top and the crib. The futon in the couch position would give you a place to sit with both kids to read to the older one while feeding the baby, etc., as well as somewhere for you to sit with the baby at night if need be, as well as an extra sleeping space when you need it--all without taking up any more space than the twin bed plus crib.

My two daughters (3 and 5) share a full size bed, which they have done since my youngest was 18 mos old. I prefer to have extra room for them to play instead of having space for two twin beds. I really don't think my 5-year old is ready for a bunk bed, either (probably just depends on the child). My girls don't seem to have any problems sharing a room or a bed. Most of the time I find them snuggled up together, which makes me very happy.