I absolutely love playing with our home. It's a chance to try some different things and experiment. Playing around with arrangements, layout, colors, pattern, lighting, textures - it helps me learn in an environment where mistakes are accepted, and I can really get some experience under my belt.
But back to the mistakes. Our daughter, Shire's, room has probably been my greatest mistake yet. It's the smallest room in the house and when we moved her in here, I gave no thought to smart, functional space planning. I shifted things around on a whim, built her a bulky pallet bed platform, (leaving no under-bed storage), snagged a giant used wardrobe from Craigslist in mediocre condition, and called it good enough.
As the only girl under our roof, my heart went out to Shire. While she said she really liked her room, she never played in here. Not even once in a blue moon. Her dolls and doll clothes and puzzles were stashed messily in the wardrobe, (not pictured but just about 20" from the foot of her bed), and because the thing had become so disorganized she rarely opened it's doors, (which were hard to open anyhow because there was hardly any room left). After updating the boys' room when we bunked their beds, I saw how smart space planning really increased the use of their room for play time. Our three kids are all the same age so they naturally play with the same things and always together. It's hard to get alone time here; everyone's interested in the exact same things at the exact same times! This past summer it occurred to me that the kids bedrooms could be used for quiet, alone play time. And to get them that way they needed to be spatially planned better than they were.
So as soon as I was done with the boys' room, I turned my attention to Shire's. The mission was to spend nothing on her room makeover and this was the plan I designed on Olioboard:
The thing about a room makeover rather than a room design is that a makeover implies that you at least have existing stuff in a room. And the thing about having existing stuff is that you can either reuse it in a different way, or try to make a profit from it. And if you can make a profit from it, you've got yourself a little extra $ for your makeover! So up went the pallet bed and a few other things for sale, and with the money I invested in a few things I thought would really make this a special place for our girl.
A few players in the plan above include:
-Black twin metal bed frame from 9 by Novogratz
Sahaj Jute Curtains from World Market, (which would actually just be traveling across the hall from our room to hers)
Paint an unused bookshelf in our basement white, move it to her room
Move this painting by my grandmother above the bed
My goal has been to shop our house for pieces that make better sense for this room and use the extra cash from selling pieces we don't need on items that will compliment the room better. Aside from creating a room that makes better sense functionally and feels special to our Shire, the hope is to have a completely madeover space without spending a dime!
I've got a little ways to go and have deviated from the Olioboard design above just a bit, but will be coming back next week to reveal the full room makeover in it's entirety! Stay tuned, friends!
Thank you for stopping by!
