Condo Living: Back to Nursery Cool

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WHEN PAMELA DEAN and her husband, Brian, bought their 623-square-foot, one-bedroom condo in Alexandria's Belle View complex, it was just the two of them. And then along came baby Evan. Since Dean is in graduate school for a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, and the family will likely be moving soon for her internship, they decided to stay put in their condo. So, they turned what was the dining room into a nursery for Evan, now 1, and did their best to make it an appealing space for both baby and parents.

To help the nursery blend in with the rest of the condo, they chose furniture in the same type of wood that they had elsewhere, and they painted one of the walls in a checkerboard pattern with colors found in the living area, like dark brown, ocean blue and yellow.

"We made it into a baby's room, and it's clear that it's a baby's room, but it's not like it's got blue elephants or anything painted on the walls," says Dean, 30. "We get lots of compliments when people come in and see it."

Of course, the lack of a dining room means that the Deans typically end up eating on the couch. And getting Evan to sleep for the night involves starting him out in a pack-and-play (a portable crib that can be used as a crib or playpen) in the master bedroom and then moving him to his crib once Mom and Dad are ready to go to bed.

But even with those kinds of challenges, the Deans and other parents like them have found lots of benefits to living in condos with their kids. Potential drawbacks such as a lack of storage space and communal walls tend to be outweighed by the low-maintenance lifestyle that comes with condo living, which clears up more time for swimming, soccer and other child's play.

"Times have certainly changed," says Dale E. Mattison of the Chevy Chase-based real estate firm the Mattison Group. Twenty years ago, he But even with those kinds of challenges, the Deans and other says, most families in search of a home probably wouldn't have thought about a condo. But today, Mattison has seen that, "people with kids are certainly considering condos just as much as they used to consider a house."

Because lots of condos tend to be found in downtown areas, living in one can put families within walking distance of shops, restaurants and cultural hot spots — something that might not be possible in a single-family house in the suburbs.

"I love living in a condo; we walk everywhere and just get in the stroller and go," says Molly Kaiman, 38, who lives in a three-bedroom unit at the Harbor Trace Condominiums in north Old Town Alexandria with her husband, Pete, 42, daughter Makena, 2, and son Dylan, 7 months. "We go into D.C. every week; my daughter knows the difference between the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. If we lived in a house in the suburbs, I don't think that would be the case."

Since most condos don't have the yards single-family homes do, proximity to playgrounds and other green spaces is a big plus for families, giving the kids a place to burn off some energy and get outside. "We live right across from the Mount Vernon Trail," says Dean. "I think of it as being a huge backyard." A swimming pool is another perk condo-dwelling families often enjoy.

Of course, kids can sometimes get rambunctious indoors, too, so covering the floors with carpeting or area rugs can help muffle some of their noise and keep the neighbors happy. Little tykes are also known to cry, throw their toys and cause other kinds of pint-size mayhem at times, but neither Dean nor Kaiman has ever had any big issues with noise, whether coming from their kids or other units. "Evan does like to take his toys and bang on them," says Dean. "But we've talked to our neighbors, and they've never said it's an issue."

When space is tight, finding a place to store all the Barbie dolls, toy cars, stuffed animals and sippy cups kids bring into the house could be enough to make any mom or dad have a temper tantrum. But clever thinking and smart storage solutions can help bring order to all of the chaos.

"My mom says it's like we live in a submarine, because everything has to have a place or else we don't keep it," says Charlotte Dugan, 37, who lives in a two-bedroom condo at the Old Town Greens complex in Alexandria with her husband, Darryl, 41; daughter, Casey, 5; and son, Cole, 2.

At the Dugan household, DVDs are removed from their packages and placed in thinner cases so they take up less space. Markers are stored in one large plastic bag. Even the adults do their part to cut down on clutter. "We have a rule: no knickknacks," says Dugan. "And all of our pictures have to hang on the wall — no frames on the tables."

Items that do double or triple duty also help maximize the functionality of smaller spaces. Take the Sleepi crib by Stokke ($1,000), for example. It starts out small, as a mini-bassinet, and then grows with the baby into a crib and bed. The Studio crib by Nurseryworks ($2,100) is a crib-changing table combo that later morphs into a toddler bed and desk. "It's a piece that functions well in small spaces," says Traci Fleming, the company's co-founder. "You don't need a separate changing table, and later, you don't have an unused changing table. It actually has a function."

It turns out that baby-proofing a condo with a traditional floor plan — like in the Dugan, Dean, and Kaiman residences — isn't very different from baby-proofing a single-family house. With distinct separations between rooms, it's easy to put up baby gates that keep the little ones out of certain areas.

Things get a little trickier in loft-style condos, though, which are popping up all over the D.C. area. "If you're living in a really open space, it makes it a lot more challenging to gate off areas," says Kimberly Shore Levin, owner of Nursery Know-It-All, a D.C.-area baby concierge and consulting service. "That's where people need to be creative." In those cases, she suggests installing freestanding indoor play yards, which help corral the kiddos and keep them away from off-limits areas.

A lot of the region's new loft-style condos feature very sleek and modern interiors, and until fairly recently, folks who were fans of this design aesthetic didn't have many choices when it came to baby gear. Options were often limited to bright primary colors or soft pastels and tended to be emblazoned with things like farm animals or jungle creatures. Once you reproduced, it seemed, your decor had to scream: "There's a baby in the house!"

"I think that there was this mind-set that the nursery needed to be decorated and designed differently than other rooms in the house because it was for a sweet baby," says Fleming. "Unfortunately, parents didn't have any choices."

But these days, there are a slew of products that are safe and comfortable for babies, yet modern and chic enough for even the most style-conscious parents. "We didn't have to sacrifice on the design aesthetic [of our condo], even when all the baby stuff came in," says Giles Beeker, 48, who lives in a two-bedroom unit at the Ventana building in Penn Quarter with his wife, Kerri, 30, and their 1-year-old son, Cameron, whose room is done up in a vintage train theme.

Companies such as Nurseryworks, Stokke, Oeuf and Netto Collection make cribs, changing tables, gliders, high chairs and other baby gear that would look right at home in even the hippest pads. And the trend has spread to mass-market retailers such as J.C. Penney, which have begun offering baby furnishings with a more contemporary feel.

For the Beekers, the Space Age-esque Flair high chair by Boon ($230) was a natural fit for their loft-style space. "It's very trendy and modern looking, and it blends in pretty well with the look and feel of our kitchen," says Kerri Beeker.

"Parents have realized that if they have a modern or contemporary sensibility for their home, they don't have to have that one room stand out and be different," says Fleming. "They can infuse their design sensibility into every room in the house."

Who knows? The next Philippe Starck or Eero Saarinen just might be dozing in one of these ultra-stylish nurseries right now.

Written by Beth Luberecki for Express
Photos by Kevin Dietsch for Express