Our second child/first daughter turned two in August. Her (and her sister's) room was finally put together today. Yup, I'm totally on top of that. I blame the tardiness on several factors.
1. Found out we were pregnant New Years Eve 2009. Sold condo May 2010. Moved into temporary rental June 2010. Had baby August 2010 (after one month bedrest). Bought house November 2010. Went back to work the next week and was on the road 4 days a week until August 2011. Started to finish up room, found out we were pregnant again September 2011. This of course threw off all planning and necessitated us switching the master so we could fit a pack n' play and the realization that the girls would be sharing a room. Fast forward to May 2012, our second daughter was born and between nursing and two other kids I finally captured the free time to finish the room.
2. Pinterest. Too many ideas, too much jealousy for folks who didn't have funny shaped post & beam rooms with slanty ceilings.
3. Perfection complex. If I couldn't finish it perfectly down to every piece of decor- I didn't want to do it. I got over this.
I plan to add wall items to the room and I'm deliberating painting the bookcases but they're from my room when I was younger and I kind of like them plain.
Because of the post & beam construction of our house I didn't have much choice on where to put the crib. It was in this nook or it would overlap the window on the other wall. I think it feels cozy in here. The roller box under the crib gives us storage for all of the extra blankets and sheets.
There is some extra space between the beam wall and the crib that I think will end up with a tote of next season clothes. We'll see, it makes me feel good to have extra space.
Yup, that is an office chair. We bought a beautiful Newport rocker (made in Vermont) and it is downstairs. We're working on a quicker night time routine with our two year old and have eliminated rocking. We do still sit with her for a few minutes and chat so we have an office chair in there right now. What can I say? It does the trick. Our all important white noise fan lives in this corner as does our awesome jellyfish lamp that my father in law bought as a gift for the baby. Long story short my husband and I own a lot of jellyfish themed items, it's part of a joke from our first date on the waterfront in Boston. There's also room between this chair and the crib to set up the pack and play in case Sohayla starts sleeping in this room before Yasmina is out of her crib. We also measured and can fit a toddler bed in this area.
The changing table is actually in the closet of this room. In order to maintain a decent play space decided to repurpose the closet as part of the room. I took the bifold doors off and the changing table fits in there perfectly. The white lights are always a good distraction while we're changing the girls.
The pack and play sits next to the changing table ready to go. Also hidden from view is a trash can and the in front we have our diaper pail.
A $2 hanging shelf holds all of our cloth diapering supplies. We use Flip pocket diapers so the girls can use the same items. This saves space. Yasmina is also in the final stages of potty training so she wears big girl underwear (actually boys briefs-
read about it here) most days. The top shelf holds covers and doublers. I make my own doublers (
tutorial here). We also stock large organic thick prefolds which we folded into thirds and used for nighttime soaking power. Smaller organic prefolds are for the baby and standard cotton prefolds are for everyday use.
On the shelf a $3 pink locker shelf from Big Lots separates wipes from other items. Plastic bins ($2.50-$4 from Big Lots) hold soon to fit clothes, toys the baby will be "growing into" soon, and some dress up clothes I'm saving. Liners for cloth diapering sit on this shelf as well. The aqua basket ($1, Family Dollar) holds a thermometer, suction bulb, lotion and other little needs.
The play area is anchored on a brown carpet. I set up my office in a nook right outside of the girls' room so I wanted to make sure they had a great play space since I would be able to work at my desk and keep an eye on them at the same time. The little rocking chair is a favorite reading spot and the purple hippo pillow pet is a favorite bed for dolls. Technically mine, the purple hippo was bought for me for Christmas by my husband because I would not stop singing "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." Lesson learned, my husband is extremely literal.
I made the bull head on the wall using the head off of a recalled toy rocker. I punched holes and then used ribbon to "sew" the head to a painted canvas that I had handy. It may happen to other unsuspecting stuffed animals as well.
Toys are split up into cubbies by activity type. A few of the baskets are from IKEA (I think they were $2 each) and the other 2 were from Big Lots 2/$1. My biggest goal with the room was to use items we already had and to do this cheap and in a way that could be changed without having to buy new items.
The pink basket holds stacking blocks, the bottom left green one has dress up clothes, the aqua one holds books that Yasmina can look at and "read" to herself (there are more books downstairs and a bin full that I swap out so we don't go crazy reading the same ones over and over!), the right bottom green bin has doll clothes and blankets. I try to keep minimal toys and have everything visible and categorized. It seems to help her pick up her own stuff.
So far so good. The dog was dressed up, toys were played with, and all was picked up and put back into it's appropriate basket by the toddler.
Over the next few weeks I'll add some more wall decor but I am breathing a sigh of relief that the room is finally complete!
