From Office to an Almost (Empty) Room
For several months our daughter has been talking about wanting her very own room (up until now she’s been sleeping with us). And by talking, I mean asking us every single day when it would be ready. “I want to sleep there tonight.”
To say that David and I had been procrastinating on setting up her room is a bit of an understatement. To get her room ready, we first had to to tame empty the guest room/office/storage room as we live in a very small, two bedroom house. When you see the before photos, below, you’ll see why we dragged our feet. Talk about dealing with a big mess! Where to put all this stuff?!
We decided that a three-day weekend was just the right length of time required to tackle the mess and begin the transformation from a guest room storage hell into a lovely little girl room.
We had quite the project ahead of us and, as it turned out, the exact amount of time needed to empty the room. One car full of junk to the thrift store later and lots of reorganization throughout the house, we have an essentially empty room.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
(The desk and chair probably won’t stay there. We still need to find some other place in the house to put them.)
Before:
After:
(Yes, I gave up my walk in closet. Instead the closet now holds our linens. I have wanted a linen closet for a long time and I’m thrilled that we finally have a place to put all our extra blankets, sheets, towels, and sleeping bags. Now the challenge will be to keep the toddler out of there. Hmm.)
The room is now a blank slate and the fun part of the room transformation can begin. I am excited to change this sterile space into a darling little girl room. I have a feeling lots of books and toys will be involved.
Stay tuned!
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what if you move the desk in front of the closet, and make it an art table (added bonus — cleans off the kitchen table!)
Comment by mara — February 22, 2011
Mara: I like it! Except then I won’t be able to get into my linen closet! ;)
We ARE toying with the idea of using it as our art table though… now just where to keep it?! (Keeping it in her room IS a possibility if I can get over the idea of three-year old unsupervised art time while I’m downstairs cooking dinner, for example.)
Comment by Carrie — February 22, 2011
Could you cover the table with a protective cloth and then only allow “dry” supplies upstairs when you’re not there? Fine to keep stickers and pretty paper and coloring pages and crayons up there…glitter & paint & liquid glue, wait for Mama! ;-)
Comment by Alexis — February 22, 2011
Alexis is a smarty-pants! That is a brilliant idea.
The table doesn’t *look* that heavy. Or you could do a dutch-door kind of thing to the closet, and then crawl under the table and use the bottom-half door to get in ;-)
Comment by mara — February 22, 2011
Aww, cheers, Mara! =) I love a good kid-art project and am fearless when it comes to a little creative mess…but having taught nursery school for four years, I know *exactly* what Carrie is envisioning. (I never actually witnessed the gluey, glittered fingers touching the walls and yet, there the fingerprints were, time and time again!)
Comment by Alexis — February 23, 2011