Montessori-inspired homes are designed intentionally to support a child's natural development and learning. They are set up so that the child can access some of the home safely and independently once they are able to so. Here are some elements of a Montessori-inspired home:
Child-sized furniture and tools: Some of the furniture and tools are sized appropriately for the child's age and developmental stage. For example, a child-sized table and chair, kitchen utensils, and cleaning tools may be provided. Montessori-inspired homes may also include furniture that enables the child to access adult-sized areas of the home, such as a learning tower in the kitchen and stool in the bathroom. Artwork in the child's spaces is hung low so they can enjoy it.
Simple and natural materials: Montessori materials are designed to be simple, natural, and beautiful. Examples include wooden toys, puzzles, and materials for sensory exploration.
Order and cleanliness: Montessori environments are orderly and neat, with a designated place for every item. This helps children develop their sense of order and organization and enables the child to put toys and materials away more easily because everything has a place.
Access to nature: Montessori homes often incorporate natural materials and provide opportunities for children to experience nature. This can include having natural light, plants, a garden, or access to outdoor spaces.
Child-directed learning: Children are given the freedom to choose their own activities and explore their interests as long as they respect the environment and materials. Adults provide guidance and support, but the child leads the learning process. The adults can observe the child to learn what the child's needs, interests, and skills are, then provide activities and materials to support them.
Respect for the child: Montessori homes prioritize respect for the child's unique needs, interests, and abilities. Adults communicate with children in a kind and respectful manner and encourage independence and self-regulation. They set limits firmly and hold high expectations, but in a respectful way.
Our Montessori-Inspired Home
As someone who considers myself a little (okay, a lot) obsessed with Montessori, I designed our home with Sophie and the Montessori philosophy in mind. We moved into our current home when Sophie was 11 months old so I was able to design it from scratch, although I included photos and information about her infant spaces here as well. The majority of our home is safe and accessible to Sophie, with exceptions being our bedroom and bathroom (mostly safe but not designed to be accessible to her), our office, and our guest room. Our home is set up to meet the needs of everyone in the family, both the toddler and the adults. We have more Montessori-type "things" than most people; all of these things are certainly not necessary to practice Montessori at home. To be frank, our home is a little over the top "Montessori" compared to most, and by no means does yours need to look like this to have a Montessori-inspired home.
However, the prepared environment is important (more about the prepared environment here); it should be accessible to the child, orderly with elements of beauty, and meet the needs of all members of the family including the child(ren). We also have a relatively large home, but by no means is a lot of space necessary to incorporate Montessori! Montessori can be incorporated into any size of home; a few of my favorite Montessori families that I follow live in city apartments that are less than 1000 square feet.
Creating a Montessori-inspired home does not have to be expensive. You can begin creating a Montessori-inspired home with basics such as a step stool, child-sized baking and cleaning items from the Dollar Tree, and shelving and bins or baskets you already have (like a bookshelf or TV stand) or can find at a thrift store or on Facebook Marketplace. While I've prioritized spending on certain things I wanted for Sophie, the majority of our larger items (learning tower, play kitchen, table, slide, ball pit, Nugget-style couch) were birthday or Christmas gifts from grandparents or close friends. We also have found many items on Facebook Marketplace (shelves, ball tracker, play mat, many toys and books) and have strategically saved credit card points for purchasing items around her first birthday (Pikler triangle set and weaning table). Additionally, thrift stores and dollar stores are great places to look for inexpensive Montessori style items for your home. The important thing is that Montessori homes are accessible to the child, enable independence, orderly, and meet everyone's needs. Touches of beauty can be added with plants and art or pictures hung low at the child's level.
Living Room / Playroom
In our current home we are lucky to have a dedicated playroom, but to be honest, our living room play area gets used much more at Sophie's age because she wants to be near us and we are downstairs in the main living area the most often! So, if you don't have space for a playroom, no worries; it's totally not necessary. All you need is an area somewhere in your home where you can set up an accessible, open shelf with a limited selection of toys for your child, as well as some books and maybe a gross motor play item if possible. In our living room we use our TV stand as our Montessori shelf and it works great! We added a forward-facing bookshelf next to it, but in our previous house we just used a book basket that sat on the floor where she could reach it. Floating shelves such as spice racks hung low are a great inexpensive way to add an accessible book display too. On the toy shelf, display around 6 to 10 toys at a time and rotate them based on your child's interests and skill level if possible to keep things fresh and interesting (more on toy rotation here). Montessori-style play spaces should be accessible to the child, organized, inviting, and tailored to the child's needs and interests. Toys are generally presented un-done (such as the puzzle's pieces out of the puzzle) to encourage exploration and baskets or trays are often used to store pieces or group items. Thrift stores are great places to find baskets and trays for this purpose. Toy and book storage recommendations can be found here, gross motor toy recommendations can be found here, and all my links and lists are available here. This list includes all of the most-requested links to items in our home, including most of those pictured above.
Bedroom
Sophie's toddler bedroom features a twin-sized floor bed, a glider (soon to be switched out for a fun swing chair), a forward-facing bookshelf she can reach, a basket of blankets, a basket of dolls and stuffed animals, and a mirror and stool. The floor bed allows her to get in and out of bed independently (more on floor beds here). She can choose and access her own books as well. Some of the art is displayed low, where she can see and enjoy it. The mirror is hung low and the toddler-sized stool allows her to sit to help with dressing and undressing. Her bedroom is small, so we opted not to have any other furniture and not to keep toys in her room (some people suggest that no toys or only quiet/calm toys should be kept in the bedroom to make it more conducive to sleep, but at our previous house we had toys in the bedroom since we didn't have a playroom). We keep her sound machine, air purifier, and humidifier on a high floating shelf that she can't reach with the cords covered. The room is fully child-proofed and safe for her to explore even without supervision. It is a calm, peaceful space that meets her needs, allows for independence, and is conducive to sleep. Montessori-inspired bedroom suggestions, including most of Sophie's bedroom furniture and item links, can be found here.
Closet / Wardrobe
Sophie has a good-sized closet, which is currently home to not only her clothes but her out-of-rotation toy storage. In the center of her closet is a toddler wardrobe that allows her to select her own outfits from a limited number of seasonally and activity appropriate choices. The bottom drawers house pajamas and socks (the drawers are labeled with pictures), which she can choose as well. Her other clothes are hung above or stored in over-the-door organizers on the insides of the closet doors. To the right of the wardrobe is her dirty clothes basket, where she puts away her own dirty clothes each evening. On either end of the closet are shelves and clear bins with her out-of-rotation toys (see more on storing out-of-rotation items below). I would like to move the toys elsewhere, because she has started wanting to get them out, but for now her closet is where we have space. On the upper rack of her closet are bins for next-size-up clothes, next-size-up shoes, clothes she has grown out of, and puzzle storage. The most important thing about a Montessori-inspired closet for a toddler, preschooler, or older child is that it is accessible to them and organized so they can find what they need and know where to put things back. If you don't have a toddler wardrobe, you could mount a few hooks where outfit options can be hung or use a few bins or baskets. Before buying our toddler wardrobe, we used two hooks on the wall to display two outfit options for Sophie.
Kitchen & Dining Area
Our kitchen and dining area includes a learning tower (one of our favorite Montessori-inspired items!), a low cabinet with all of Sophie's eating items that she can access, a play kitchen, and a Tripp Trapp accessible high chair. We love our Little Partners learning tower (her 1st birthday gift from her grandparents) for its small space-saving footprint, adjustable height, sturdiness, and because it allows Sophie to be involved in the kitchen. She also enjoys eating snacks and doing activities up at the counter. A low cabinet in our kitchen contains all of Sophie's plates, utensils, cups, and other supplies so she can reach them (she often helps set the table and unload the dishwasher). All eating-related recommendations can be found here. Sophie's play kitchen (a Christmas gift from her grandparents) ended up next to our real kitchen because we realized it would get much more use there than in the playroom. It's just for fun at this point, although we'll probably eventually make it "functional" with running water. The play kitchen cabinets contain pretend food as well as small pots and pans and Sophie's actual toddler-sized baking and cleaning supplies (most of it is Melissa & Doug brand linked here & here or from Dollar Tree). Next to the kitchen is also a toddler-sized cleaning set (find all of my practical life item recommendations here). At our dining table is a Tripp Trapp high chair that Sophie can now climb into independently. In addition to the items shown here, we have a weaning table in our dining area next to our home learning shelf (below). We mainly use it for activities, but she also sometimes eats snacks at the table.
Home Learning Area
In the main area of our home across from the dining area we have a home learning setup. It includes a cube shelf (this was an old one we already had and is not good quality, but if you want a cube style shelf I recommend IKEA Kallax or Better Homes & Gardens brand) and Sophie's Sprout Kids adjustable height weaning table. All shelving and tray links can be found here, and all other furniture links are available here. We added the home learning shelf when Sophie was around 16 months old so that I could set up units on varying topics she showed interest in. More information on our home learning units is coming soon, but for now, check out Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok to see the shelf setups and unit recaps! A home learning shelf is not necessary unless you're homeschooling, but I enjoy setting up the activities for Sophie and she loves doing them.
Entry Station
Our entry station is just inside the door from our garage, and includes a toddler-sized chair, a tray for everyday shoes, a weather poster, hooks for jackets, and a bin for other shoes like rain boots and winter boots is nearby in the cube shelf. An entry station doesn't have to be spacious or fancy, but it should include a place to sit and a place for shoes. It helps promote a young child's independence when leaving and reentering the home. It also encourages choice and autonomy. Find all of my entry station links here, including the chair, hooks, and tray pictured.
Bathrooms
Our downstairs powder room (half bath) and upstairs bathroom are fully accessible to Sophie and set up with her needs in mind. Both include a toddler potty, books, diapering supplies (as of this writing Sophie is 20 months and we haven't completed toilet learning), a stool to reach the sink (white stool, black stool), and low hooks for Sophie's towel(s). The bathroom is an important place to make accessible for toddlers, especially as you near toilet learning. In our upstairs bathroom, we even added an automatic hand soap dispenser so Sophie could wash her hands independently. We have an adult-height traditional changing pad on our bathroom counter for messy changes and grandparents who don't want to bend over, but most of our diaper changes are done standing up and have been since Sophie could stand well. All toilet learning links can be found here and care of self links can be found here.
Backyard
Our toddler-friendly, Montessori-inspired backyard is still a work in progress and not the most aesthetically pleasing. I am hoping to add a natural playscape area along the back side of the yard with a balance beam, stumps, and plants to create a fun place for Sophie to play and improve the look of the yard. We also plan to add a climbing dome with a slide (similar to this) to the backyard when Sophie is a little older (it will be a future grandparent birthday or Christmas gift). Right now, we have an "outdoor Montessori shelf" with toys and activities (chalk, water painting, scrubber, silicone rainbow, balls, bubbles, watering can, wagon, etc.), bubble lawnmower, garden beds that Sophie helped plant, water table, picnic table, slide, and a "sandbox" (with pea gravel instead of sand, for less mess). All of our outdoor links can be found here.
Infant Spaces
When Sophie was a baby we didn't have a playroom, so we had a play area for her in our living room and in her bedroom. Before she was able to roll far we just gated off a small section of our living room (the gate was to keep the dogs out of her face and off of her things) with a mat, high contrast cards and books, a few soft and silicone toys and wood rattles, a mirror, and a wooden play gym. For a future baby (still far in the future!), we would add a topponcino and the traditional Montessori mobiles; we did not use these with Sophie because she was already over two months old when I started getting more into Montessori and learned about these. Find all 0-6 month recommendations here.
As Sophie began sitting and rolling further, we set up a Montessori style shelf in our living room and in her bedroom. Both were IKEA Kallax cube shelves that I found on Facebook Marketplace. The 4x1 IKEA Kallax shelf was great because she would reach all of it; I recommend it as a relatively inexpensive Montessori infant shelf option (similar option on Amazon here). In the living room we expanded her movement area to most of the open space in the room (we were able to gate off the whole area from the dogs if needed by blocking the area from the couch to the fireplace/wall), added a long mirror to the wall horizontally (we hung a cheap door mirror with command strips), and eventually once she was crawling we added another play mat, a wooden push walker (baby shower gift), a ball tracker (found on Facebook Marketplace), a Nugget-style play couch (Christmas gift), a play tunnel to crawl through, and a ball pit (baby shower gift), and a basket for books. All of these items are still used now at 20 months old!
We began using a Montessori-style floor bed at around 6 months old; more information on floor beds and our experience with them is available here. Sophie's bedroom was larger at our previous house, and we did have a traditional changing table dresser. When we moved to our current home when she was 11 months old we began doing standing diaper changes in the bathroom to foster cooperation and prepare for the toilet learning journey. When she began to crawl, we ensured that the whole room was baby-proofed (removed the nightstand, etc.) and added a mirror and pull-up bar (we used a shower wall bar and shatterproof stick-on acrylic mirror tiles) in her bedroom.
Organization & Storage
Once you have set up a Montessori home, you will likely need some kind of organization or storage for out-of-rotation toys, books, and other items. For me, this is the least fun and most challenging thing to set up. While the rest of the areas of our home serve us well, I feel that our storage and organization for Sophie's things could be improved upon. Ideally, it should be easily accessible to the parent but not to the child and organized so that you can easily find what you need. We are lucky to have a lot of storage in our home, but if you don't have closet space available, you can use cube shelves in rooms the children aren't in frequently or cabinets with doors.
We have different storage systems in different spaces in our home, some that work well and others that I would eventually like to rework. Across from our kitchen we have an amazing storage closet (under the stairs) where I have a small 2-cube IKEA Kallax shelf with educational activities (one shelf for literacy and one for math), most of which Sophie is not ready for yet. Most of these activities I already had from teaching and tutoring and others I've purchased from Facebook Marketplace or on Prime Day deals. We also have a rolling art cart in the closet; at some point I plan to make it accessible to Sophie, but she is not ready for free access to art supplies yet. On the inside of the door of the closet I have an over-door organizer with craft and activity supplies; many of these are from Dollar Tree. In Sophie's bedroom closet are our out-of-rotation toys, although I would eventually like to move them elsewhere because she sometimes gets into them. They are on shelves in clear bins that were formerly organized by category but I can't seem to keep that way. Puzzles are stored on the high shelf of her closet in pot and pan organizers that we already had. It works okay, but I have to wrap the puzzles in saran wrap so the pieces don't fall out and the space is getting a bit overcrowded. Our book storage is in our guest room closet and is organized by topic and type of book, but I would like to redo it with IKEA Kallax shelves because the cubes in the ones we have aren't tall enough for many books.
One organization tip I have is to get rid of items that you don't foresee using again or that are broken or missing pieces and to put any items you won't use any time soon (like baby toys for a future baby) completely away, out of the accessible storage areas. We have sold or donated toys and items we wouldn't use again (for example, we were gifted two push walkers so I sold one) and have all the baby toys in a box in our attic.
A Montessori home is designed to foster a child's independence, curiosity, and love of learning through a supportive and nurturing environment. While our home is more "Montessori" than most and we do have a lot of space, the important thing is that the environment is accessible to the child to enable their independence, orderly and beautiful, and supports their needs and development. The prepared environment at home is an important component of the Montessori philosophy and has many benefits for both children and parents.
