Shared Boys Room with a Crib and Twin Bed

This post contains affiliate links.

I was as surprised as ever to hear that my boys wanted to share a room. They are 2.5 and 4 years old and honestly fight as much as they play nicely. I always assumed that they liked their own space, but they continued to ask for a sleepover night after night.

My younger son was in that in between stage of wanting a big kid bed and being ready for it, so I had planned to switch him to a shared room AND a big kid bed all at once. However, shipping dates and timelines had other plans. Keeping him in his crib for a bit longer hasn’t been a big deal, and I love the way that this space turned out in this shared boys room with a crib and twin bed.

This is a small space. Sharing a room in a small space was giving me minor panic attacks in terms of measurements, but it has turned out great! We have about 18-24 inches between the crib and bed. It’s far enough that each tummy gurgle doesn’t wake them, but close enough that they can talk quietly and still hear one another. While it may not look like it, the closet doors open just fine and the child in the crib cannot reach them. I was so surprised that this small space shared boys room worked!

I struggled at first to determine the decor that we would use. I, of course, wanted the boys’ input. That input was truly all over the place - superheros, animals, adventure, etc. After giving it some thought and knowing I wanted this shared toddler and baby room to be a low budget home project, I decided that we would do it all!

Working around the furniture that we already had in the boys’ separate rooms - blue dresser that I adore, this Babyletto crib, and rustic crates - I filled in the holes to create a cohesive animal, superhero, LEGO, boys room. (As cohesive as it could get, at least)

I opted to keep the main colors basic - green, red, and yellow pops can be seen throughout the room in the blankets, DIY headboard (tutorial coming soon!), DIY bunting leftover from a super cool superhero birthday party, and a Target lamp filled with red and yellow LEGOs. Plus a sweet little faux Christmas tree that the boys haven’t let me put away since last Christmas!

I snagged the animal prints after seeing this showstopper of a shared boys room from Arin Solange. I popped them into affordable IKEA frames.

When you get down to it, the aesthetic of the room doesn’t matter. In reality, the kids just want to be together whether they are in a tent on the ground or in a designed room. If space concerns are what is causing you distress over putting your toddler and baby in a shared room, don’t fret. Find a way to fit everyone in there and leave extras to a minimum. We even considered removing the closet doors completely to buy a little more room since the boys don’t have a lot of hanging clothes.

When we switched into the shared boys room, we started to limit the time that we spent actively playing in there. We will read books, have alone time, and play with quiet toys, but running, jumping, and squealing are kept to a minimum in their room. So oodles of extra room are just unnecessary.

All in, this room was an extremely low budget shared room idea. I only purchased the animal prints, their IKEA frames, and the twin bed (2 actually because when we do switch to a big kid bed, I wanted the beds to match).

All links can be found below. And stick around for the DIY woven headboard tutorial coming soon!