Gender-Neutral Kids’ Room Reveal!!!

The kids’ room is FINALLY done!  I won’t get into why I’m late again because maybe you already know but hey!  The kids’ room is a real kids’ room now – not a small brown box of a space.  It’s happy and fun and so, so cute.  And I can’t wait to show you but first, let’s trot down recollection ave because you can’t really appreciate where it is now without seeing where it was.  :)

When we moved into this house, we tried something new – we moved all four kids into one room together.  It’s by no means a big room (maybe 11’ x 11’) but, with them all in one room, all of their toys could then be tossed into the other spare bedroom in the house and get labeled “playroom”.  So, squeezing beds and a couple of dressers in wasn’t a big deal in a small room since toys didn’t have to fight for the space too.  Bunk beds were a crucial component but I’ll get to those later.

Here’s what their room looked like before we moved in:It was dark and ultra brown, just like every other room in the house.  This room doesn’t get a ton of light, especially in summer with the higher sun plus a tree stands almost right in front of the window and blocks a lot of light.  It’s great for sleeping though.  #halffull

After we moved in, those darker curtains went and the kids slept on an air mattress until we could build them some bunk beds (you can read more about those plans here).  A month in, we still hadn’t built those beds (le sigh for a busy life) but we were given a set from some good friends.  With that set plus a toddler mattress slipped underneath as a trundle for Sebastian and Gianna’s crib in the corner, the kids slept soundly for months.  Or did they?  Welllllll…kind of.  The thing about that bunk we were given was that it was big and awesome but there was only one side rail up top and it was low and the girls were afraid to even go up much less sleep up there lest they roll over and out.  So they shared the bottom twin.  Sound sleeping?  Questionable. 

(In the above pic, we had taken the rail off the top and not added the ladder so the adventerous two-year old didn’t go on a climbing spree as she’s highly apt to do.)

But then we got the deal of a lifetime (slight exaggeration…but only slight) on a new pair of bunks and finally, everybody had a bed.

That fact was fantastic, fine and dandy except our kids were still sleeping in a boring room and it didn’t have to be that way.  I wanted them to have a space that felt fun and that they loved retreating to.

So…

Tiny, Tiny Home

Hey friend!  So, uh, yeah.  I know.  I’m supposed to be revealing the kids’ room.  That’s what you should be reading right now.  But you’re not.  I gave a short explanation over on Instagram the other day but if you missed that, basically, I ordered something for their room a month ago, got an email it was shipped from Virginia (or at least that a shipping label had been created) on October 30th, and that still have not yet received it.  I know I could just go ahead and share the final result but that thing is going to be a part of a big piece of design in the room and I just can’t show the room without it.  Sorry!  Hopefully when I get the reveal up and can explain a little further, you’ll understand.  I’ve since ordered from another company (and just got a shipping notification yesterday!) after contacting the first company multiple times without a response.  SO, the silver lining in this little mess is that the new thing will be here by mid-week and a reveal will be up on the blog by week’s end.  Huzzah!  Look for it!

I know I missed the deadline for the big One Room Challenge reveal but I’m not too sad about it.  I wasn’t in it for recognition or blog fame so there’s nothing lost in the delay and only a cute kids room gained in a six-week motivational scoot to a finish line.

Enough about that though, how about this little house?!

I had been very casually hunting for a dollhouse for the girls for the past year or so and, while the four kids and I were traipsing through a local thrift store here at the end of the summer, our eyes beheld this little house and it’s fine $15 price tag.  It was in great condition besides being a little dusty and VERY heavy.  Phew!   

Oh, and a little too frilly.  I realize that someone once painted this sweet little thing for some little person they loved and you can tell that A LOT of love and elbow grease went into it.  But, all of that love came in the form of lots of scrolls and sponge paint and that’s just not my language.  So, I changed things up a little.

Spotted

I know you’re expecting an update on the kids’ room but…

uhhh…

I don’t have one.

I mean, I do but it’s their “new” rug and I kind of wanted to save that until the reveal week.  I painted their old rug and I want there to be some element of surprise in the final week and the color of that rug is going to be it.  :)  I was planning on sharing how I spiced up their ceiling fan this week but I ordered some stuff for it (three weeks ago) and those things still have not yet come.  My impatience is only slightly killing me. 

So, I’m going to skip over the kids’ room for week five of the One Room Challenge (but you can still click the link and check out everyone else’s rooms!) and show you what I found secondhand this week.  It’s another post in the “Spotted” series but this one involves a few different places vs. one store.

Gianna was in an especially cranky mood during this run so I didn’t catch prices because it was more of a see, shoot, and run type of thing but they’re all thrift store prices, which are usually fairly good down here…sometimes a little higher than other thrift stores I’ve been to in other places but still, much, much less than buying new and even consignment.  The point is to show you what you can find if you only go into a thrift store with an eye of potential.  ;)

First up, a local Goodwill. 

It’s no wonder this shower curtain caught my eye (I heart striped shower curtains v much):

Step-In Closet

“I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!!!”…said the white rabbit…and says me.  I didn’t make the link-up deadline for the One Room Challenge this past week because I was teaching a two-year old how to use the bathroom properly BUT never fear, I’m still in it and I intend to finish the kids room before the big reveal day – November 8th!  I started painting their rug a couple of days ago and I’ve got one other little thing to iron down (literally) and then it’s finito! 

Week four saw me in their closet.  I put up a whole Instagram story about their closet situation and a couple of things I did to make it better a few weeks ago (and didn’t save it because I just am not that on top of things) but then didn’t go in again.  Great except when I left off, there were a couple of big bins and bags full of clothes right when you walk in that needed to go.  Let me explain from the top though, in case you missed the story.

This house has decent-sized closets – they’re pretty long inside but they have regular, doorway-sized entries so almost all of the usuable rod space is behind a wall.  It’s not ideal when you have four kids in a room and need access to all of their clothes regularly.

Here’s what their closet looked like shortly after we moved in:
There was a hanging rod in there but we took it out and hung it in my closet as a second rod so I could get more organization.  Then, we set up that closet organizer (it’s this one that I found at Dirt Cheap…here’s a similar one*) and it seemed like a great idea at first because it’s got double rods on one side and shelves on the other; perfect to hold all of the kids stuff and keep it organized.  But then we realized that half of it would be behind the wall and, while still accessible, a big pain.

Then, one day not too long ago, I stumbled upon this closet makeover Amy cranked out.  And you know what it is?  Genius.  That’s what.  Her hubby’s closet has a wider doorway than that of our kids’ but it’s the idea that counts.  I couldn’t copy it fast enough.

Kids/Guest Bathroom Reveal

So, I did a thing.  I know I casually mentioned I was doing it a few weeks or so ago but…

I brought this horribly lit, outdated bathroom…

into 2018 with a little bit of paint and some better lightbulbs.