I am going to come right out and admit it: I am worried about showing you guys Mac’s bedroom. Not because there is anything wrong with it; but because every single time I look up stuff about floor beds, there are pictures of these super elaborate floor bed set-ups with highly decorated rooms. Honestly, Mac’s room is the opposite of that. But I finally decided I need to buck up and show you all her room because a Montessori toddler floor bed room doesn’t have to look like it came out of a catalog.

If you’d like to read the other posts in this series, I’ll post them here. First, I talked about how we never used a crib. Then I talked about what a floor bed is. Then I posted about how we shared our bedroom with a floor bed. Make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom for my #1 piece of advice on safety in a Montessori toddler floor bed room. (Also, check out my post about how despite this nice room, our toddler bed shares with us part time.)

Mac actually moved into her own room around the age of one. We shared a room for a while because she is not a good sleeper and woke up frequently. It also worked out because I struggle with anxiety and for my own mental health, I needed her close-by at night. But eventually, I knew she would need her own space.

So we cleared out the guest room and got things set up for her. The first thing we had to do was find her a larger bed. She had been sleeping on a crib sized mattress, but we wanted to have a larger bed where we could lie down with her at night. We had a double bed from Ikea we had bought a few years back when my brother stayed with us for the summer. We took the frame apart and put the mattress on the floor. It is important to have it elevated so air can flow underneath it, so we kept the slatted bed base under it.

I was taking these pictures as Mac, Andrew and Ralph were also in there, so there are toys strewn about. Forgive the mess, we live here 😉

There is a little tiny wall that was just perfect for these book shelves. I put some of my least favorite of her books on there because she is teething right now and loves to chew on the cardboard books. I will be swapping these out every couple of weeks. She has enjoyed looking at books when she wakes up from nap.

Ralph was excited to be let into the inner sanctum that is Mac’s room. Obviously he isn’t allowed in there often, and then only if we are in there too.

This is Mac’s reading corner and toys. We got this cute toy shelf/bucket thing from Andrew’s parents and I liked the pop of color it added to Mac’s room. I usually just put one toy in each bucket because she doesn’t need that many out. She really only spends time in there after a nap or if she decided not to nap.

The reading corner is some pillows and blankets that I didn’t really have room to store anywhere, but I liked them. Most of them have special meaning to me and were made for me by family and friends. Also, I painted that technicolor bike painting at a painting class. I figured Mac would appreciate it.

Safety

People always wonder about safety when it comes to Montessori toddler floor bed rooms. I get asked all the time if we are worried about her being in there. No, I’m not. At first, I was worried. But as time has passed and we have fixed any safety issues we found along the way, I am totally comfortable with her being in there. Here are the safety things we did for her room.

1. Took the door and hinges off and put a baby gate up in her doorway. That way we can peek in on her and not worry about something happening to the door (like her laying behind it or locking it because I’m sure she would figure that out at some point.)
2. Covers in the electrical sockets. This is a duh one. But there is also a telephone jack in there. I’m sure we could cover it with tape, but I don’t think she has even noticed it.
3. Take the rubber cap off of the doorstop. Taking the entire doorstop off of the wall would be a huge pain, especially one day when we want to put the door back on. So I just took the rubber stopper off after I figured out Mac could pull it off. Mac appreciates that we left it there because she loves the “boing” sound it makes.
4. Tie up all of the cords for the blinds. I know you can get cordless blinds. Instead of buying and installing new blinds, we bought some towel hooks and tied the cords up on them. They are really high up, so we won’t have to worry about her reaching them for a while.
5. Attached the toy shelves to the wall. Any piece of furniture you have in the room needs to be anchored to the wall! It only took Andrew 10 minutes to safely attach so it won’t tip over.

My #1 Piece of Safety Advice

Get down on the floor and crawl around. See if you notice anything that could possibly be dangerous or slightly enticing and then fix it!

What was a safety issue you found? How did you fix it?