You know those rooms that get done-ish, but never quite finished? Meet our kids' room. A few months ago we finally finished things off and created a simple shared kids room that is neutral but still colorful. Here's the room reveal, before pictures, and a bit of back story behind the room that is shared by three of our kids.
We have lived in our house for 4.5 years and in that short span went from a family of three to a family of six (how awesome, right?!). We've slowly finished and checked rooms off the list, but the kids' room stayed relatively the same. Naps are gold when it comes to tackling DIY projects with kids around, so we added beds and moved em around, and that was about it.
Before:
Before:
Before:
We are selling our house by owner (check our house listing here), and I had no good pictures of the room. The dark trim kept it from looking like the rest of the updated house and it looked super tiny with three beds. Plus there was tons of crap under the bed which isn't good...
So we got to work and knocked that project out in a day.
We first took the crib out and made the decision not to put it back in. Patched walls, touched up existing paint, primed and painted the trim white.
When it came to decorating, I wanted to keep things as simple as possible.
The goal here was not to create an awesome room reveal (sorry, folks), it was to:
- make this room look big (it is 11'x10')
- not spend much
- keep it neutral but not bland
- use pieces that would work in a new room
I bought the gray and white twin duvets from IKEA ($30 each), the colorful triangle rug from World Market (on sale for $25), and shopped the house for accessories. I bought primer for the trim and a small can of paint for touch-ups, so the total spent was just over $100.
We have a nice sized closet, one standing dresser, and two huge drawers under the bed to hold clothes for our three older kids.
Normally, I would have had fun with this blank wall. But I needed this room to be spacious, not cram it with more stuff. Stay focused, Ann Marie! 😉
Minus a laundry basket in the closet for stuffed animals, we only store clothes in the room. Read about how we do toy organization, rotation, and keep the toys from taking over. The door there opens to a 3'x4' closet.
See, nothing. Super boring wall. 😉 But spacious!
Here's a closeup of that great rug. I can't find it on the World Market site, but it was still there a few weeks ago. I love the texture, color, it's super soft, and it could easily live in any other room of the house.
The bookshelf/bookrack was made from an old window opening by the previous owners. We added strips of poplar to hold books in.
The depth is only about 2-3 inches so it's perfect for displaying little treasures.
And the sleeping situation? Well, don't throw rocks at me.
Lily and Ben (5 and 4) used to use the bunk bed, Adam (2.5) used the crib. More than half of the time though, the two older kids would beg to sleep in the top bunk together. We needed more space and for the room not to yell "HEY! WE HAVE THREE KIDS IN HERE! WE NEED TO MOVE! DO YOU SMELL THE DESPERATION?!" when people walked in. So we took out the crib, put Adam in the bottom bunk (much to the dismay of his nap), and have Lily and Ben share the top bunk.
Is it weird? Do you probably think I'm the worst mom ever for having them share a bed? Maybe. Go ahead, that's okay. *dodges rocks* If it wasn't working we could bring in a collapsible crib for Adam. But when I hear them whispering and giggling in the dark, playing with stuffed animals in their hilarious high pitched voices, I know it is working out fine for now.
I've had quite a few questions on how we do storage in this room, organizing kids' clothing, and also questions about having a shared kids' bedroom, so I'll be working on a post answering those questions! If you have questions about toys, here's a post on how we keep toys from taking over and where they go.
What do you think of the space? If you have any questions you'd like answered, leave em below in the comments!