A great number of non-functional child care facilities for children up to the age of three have been created in Poland to this day. This state of affairs may be the consequence of the low level of knowledge in this field, as well as few available studies on topics associated with nursery facilities, which may familiarise readers with the legal aspects, administrative procedures, or examples of good functional and material solutions of such units. What is more, there is also little information about the needs and preferences of people directly related to the topic. The aim of the article is to analyse the expectations and preferences of nursery facilities’ users in terms of the functional and material solutions. Based on a survey conducted among the nurseries’ employees and parents placing their children in the care of such institutions, a number of guidelines has been defined, allowing for the design of an optimal nursery facility that would meet the market’s expectations.