Sunday, January 8, 2012

Nursery to Big Kid Room

My first brag - transitioning the nursery to a big kid bedroom

My two little ones were sharing a sweet little nursery. The five year plan for owning our little townhouse had turned into a ten year plan due to the real estate market. I planned on two little ones in a tiny bedroom, but never pictured two bigger ones in the same bedroom.

My four year old daughter could touch both ends of her little white toddler bed when she stretched out, and my almost two year old little boy was learning how to climb into his crib by himself - how long until he climbed out?

I realized that I would need a solution. First, I thought I'd just go and get a twin bed for my daughter and then the baby could move into the toddler bed, right? Simple. No, that wouldn't work. I measured the floor space and we'd have to lose a dresser, but I needed the dresser space. Besides, I would love to be able to lay next to my kids sometimes. OK, bunkbeds then. Nope, that wouldn't work either. I took the kids to the furniture store and almost had a hard attack. A four year old and two year old alone in a room with a bunk bed. Bad idea.

So what then? The search was on. Lots of furniture store visits, Craigslist hunting, online shopping, blog and message board reading, and Ikea browsing later I had a solution: The Ikea Kura. Yay!!! So cute! Target bedding and wall decals - voila! Cute little kid room. Yes, I realize it's only going to last me a few years until I need a bigger kid room, but that's OK. I love it and so do the kids.

I realize that there are creative people out there who have done cute things with the Kura, but we're happy with it just the way it is.

First, we got the super cheap yet super cute Target bedding:


Unfortunately, my almost two year old son wasn't excited enough about his big boy bed to give up the crib yet, so we had to stick one dresser in the closet and leave the crib in the room for a few more months until we convinced him to give up the crib and move to the bed.

Then we added the fun matching wall decals. I thought it may look junky, but now I couldn't imagine the room without them.


After getting rid of the crib and removing the glider (sniff, sniff) we had a lot more room.


We had enough floor space for a new reading nook. This bookrack was from Pottery Barn Kids. Love love love it. Takes up zero floor space, the kids can see all of their books, pick them out, and put them away.... and it looks great.


We also had enough floor space for a little play area. They had never really played in their room before. Only in the great room of our little townhouse. I thought about what each of them plays with most and how to create a combined area for them to play in. Dolls for my daughter and cars/trains for my son (I know, I know - sounds stereotypical, but it really is their preference, and my son loves to play dolls with his sister and my daughter loves to play cars/trains with her brother). So here is my big masterpiece just completed for the holidays:

Looks a little "busy"/crowded but it also looks like a little kid room - which is what it's supposed to be. I'm very proud of the doll house/garage area so I will be posting some detailed photos and step by step instructions on it next.

Jessica

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