Solid‐state NMR measurements coupled with density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate how hydrogen positions can be refined in a crystalline system. The precision afforded by rotational‐echo double‐resonance (REDOR) NMR to interrogate 13C–1H distances is exploited along with DFT determinations of the 13C tensor of carbonates (CO32−). Nearby 1H nuclei perturb the axial symmetry of the carbonate sites in the hydrated carbonate mineral, hydromagnesite [4 MgCO3⋅Mg(OH)2⋅4 H2O]. A match between the calculated structure and solid‐state NMR was found by testing multiple semi‐local and dispersion‐corrected DFT functionals and applying them to optimize atom positions, starting from X‐ray diffraction (XRD)‐determined atomic coordinates. This was validated by comparing calculated to experimental 13C{1H} REDOR and 13C chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) tensor values. The results show that the combination of solid‐state NMR, XRD, and DFT can improve structure refinement for hydrated materials.