New Parents Build A Nursery In Their Living Room

It’s a known fact in the New York City that once couples are married and a baby is on the way, many choose to leave Manhattan. With high rents, little space, and strollers to handle, the city just isn’t very conducive to childrearing. But for one couple and soon-to-be parents, the idea of leaving their upper east side one bedroom apartment was out of the question. Having the money and resources to create certain additions, they actually constructed a nursery in their living room to avoid such a move.

The New York Times reports:

After talking to people in the building who had faced just such a problem, and analyzing their 850-square-foot apartment, the couple came up with a plan. At the far end of the living room was an alcove with a small dining table that they seldom used; on the rare evenings they were home, they ate on the coffee table near the windows and the TV set. So they decided to partition off the alcove to create a nursery, and a few weeks ago, workers installed $3,000 worth of temporary walls, which were trimmed with molding and painted cream to match the rest of the room.

New York City kids are accustomed to being raised in small quarters, but $3,000 in “temporary walls” seems like a lot of money to invest for an extra year or two in the apartment. Many parents wing it in less than comfortable quarters for the first year of their kid’s life while they consider different living arrangements for their growing family. Parents are undoubtedly creative with space, as I’ve encountered the nursery/office, the nursery/laundry room, and of course the simple nursery in the mommy/daddy bedroom.  But a living room partition, complete with moldings and painted cream presents, perhaps, a new NYC trend with parents who can afford it.

(photo: nytimes.com)

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