one room challenge: shared girls’ room (week 3)
Holy moly. It is week 3 of the One Room Challenge and that means that we are half-way to the finish line of this project. For the newbies to this particular brand of design geekiness, quick recap: twice a year, Linda of Calling It Home invites 20 bloggers to refresh one room in six weeks and share that transformation in real time. And twice a year, anyone and everyone can play along at home as a guest participant by refreshing a space in their own home. This fall, I’m working on my girls’ shared bedroom. You can catch up on the first two weeks of the challenge here and here.
Since we are at the mid-way point, it seemed like a good time for a little progress report. Here’s what we’ve done so far:
1. Moved the existing dresser to the wall where a closet will eventually be added. Moved Théa’s Lego city from her brothers’ room to the dresser as a temporary solution. Hung Lego figure frames. (P.S. can we not talk about all the junk that is stuffed between the dresser and the wall? If I wasn't trying to keep it real, I would have put all that out in the hallway when I took this picture.)
2. Added a desk and desk chair for my older daughter. I mentioned last week that I bought the desk on ridiculous sale earlier in the fall because Abby really liked it (for real – it was $199 instead of $499!). I also found a desk chair in the as-is section of IKEA for $19.99. (Side note: always check IKEA’s as-is section first. You will be amazed at what you can find for almost nothing.)
3. Added a small dresser for storage next to the bed. Again with the IKEA. I know, I know. The price though! This dresser will be painted (color TBD) and will have new knobs.
4. Painted the doll bed per T’s request and “finished” T’s Barbie House. Seriously. This thing is the best. She’s stacked it with all the Barbies and Kens and furniture and has no problem with the fact that so many dolls are living in a house that is much too small. Art imitating life.
5. Hung two peg rails behind the door to give the girls a place to hang things since there is no closet in the room. These will still work when the room becomes the boys’ or is designated a new function, so we didn’t mind drilling into the wall. Design tip: kids are more likely to put things away if it is easy. Peg rails, hooks, bins, and baskets are your friend. Trust me. It isn't the prettiest but you can't see it when the door is open and it looks much better than a floor full of clutter.
6. Ordered a rug. I’m not telling which was the winner but I will say that everyone agreed on this rug. Crossing our fingers that it works.
Here’s what we still need to do:
1. Get rid of that book shelf (a.k.a. tower of clutter) next to the bed and create a better bedside environment for both girls. (We added a bed pocket for A, which seems to be working, but I still think she needs a shelf or something. Challenge: because this room isn’t a permanent or long term space for the girls, and because our walls are solid wood, we don’t want to put holes that will later be problematic to fix. I’m working on a solution to this.)
2. Add better shelving to the room. I mentioned last week that I really wanted to go with this shelf but the price. I’d also really like to hang this acrylic shelf horizontally on the wall next to the play spot, but the whole making holes thing is throwing a wrench in my style. Also, I’m not sure how two shelves will look in that corner. Too cluttered perhaps? Will have to see which shelf ends up winning the primary shelf wars and go from there.
3. Bedding. Nailing down a color palette for this room has been my biggest struggle with this project. I’m not a huge fan of the colors the girls would pick first for this room or their existing bedding. Since the room opens up to my dining room and serves and the primary passage way to the bathroom, it needs to walk that fine line of respecting the girls’ tastes while also respecting the aesthetic of the rest of the house. Feel me? So I'm leaning to a soft blush for the sheets with pops of royal blue and yellow or maybe even a touch of green.
4. Add curtains to the bottom bunk. The girls have different schedules. T is up early for school and A stays up later to study. The peg rail has helped T be less disruptive to A in the morning (key word: less) because she is able to hang her school clothes near the bathroom to grab easily in the semi-dark. Now we need to deal with the light pollution caused by post-bedtime studying. I love, love, love this Kura bed hack with curtains on the lower portion of the bed from last year's ORC, but much more my style is this clean white option (oh, how I long to paint this bed!)
5. Paint the dresser.
6. Accessories and art. More on this later. Like much later.
Some amazing spaces have come out to this challenge. You seriously should pour yourself a cup of coffee or an ice tea take a scroll thru the other projects. Last week, there were 222 updates. Maybe a few cups of coffee are in order....