I feel that whenever I have solidified one of my kids rooms as 'the perfect' room within a week or two, I have come up with a grandiose idea that will make the room even better, just me?!
EV's room to me is the perfect kid's room. It is spacious, full of natural lighting and all the little design details speak to her and my organization love since she has so many little things (doll clothes, Polly Pockets, etc). Much like her mama, she is a fan of all things tiny and miniature.
The Commodore's room however has been a learning curve in organization and maximizing space. It always has made me sad that his room is that much smaller than EV's and considerably darker since his room faces our neighbor's fence and the side of their house. Therefore creating a spacious airy room for a little boy who loves all things that are action figures, transportation, and lovies, has proven quite a feat and has been a process throughout the last couple of years. The amount of organizational storage and furniture that I have brought in and out is something else (never broach the subject to Sean). Do not get me started on the returns because as forementioned no matter how I think I measure something, there always seems to be a mistake. Apparently, using my hands to determine the distance between something is frowned upon in our home (FYI this is also how I hang everything even though I have a level) ;). I recognize it as a problem and also something I see no reason to bring up in therapy. No one can outpack me when going on a trip, but when it comes to fitting furniture in a room, I have the vision, but no concept of space. I cannot tell you how many times this year alone, I have quoted myself as saying "and NOW it is the perfect room!"
I wish I could say that this blog was also saying that, but the Commodore starts Kindergarten this year and I have a desk, chair, and some first-time in-school space to do homework things being delivered for him today, so there will be a blog on that too. However, as they have been getting older, they have been getting more and more into bigger kids reading and I wanted them to have a space to put their books. The Commodore had tapped out of his reading area and not to mention every flat space seemed to be overrun by 'things'.
Case in point....
I removed the one storage cube organizer that is only two shelves and crammed with books entirely (pictured on the right) and bought THIS one from Target that is the same as the one next to it (left) that has six storage cube spaces. I love this one from Target as the 'wood panels' are thicker and make it look more like a piece of furniture and the weathered oak looks great anywhere, so if we end up moving it somewhere else in the house it will flow with the rest of our furniture. He also has a ton of cutesy collectible decor pieces I have gotten for him over the years and as you can see above, they no longer looked cutesy, but rather disheveled and thrown together. It wasn't even a room I enjoyed going in anymore and just sitting with him. Although I am a fan of the other shelves that house his toys and the clear storage cubes (I bought these on Amazon) I will never be without them again.
Below is the space I redesigned and although I love how other people use the floating shelves for their books (especially when they swap them out for holiday ones), my kids have way too many of them, they were too heavy for the shelves and I would spend a good part of my evening, picking them up and redistributing them on these shelves because they would just topple over. Amazing looking, great in hindsight, way too frustrating for me and the kids.
I loved the space and do not think it looks terrible per se, but I did think that I could maximize the area and make it a little more conducive to the Commodore's needs and easier to get at things. As you can imagine, Sean was thrilled about having to take the shelving off the wall and remove the bolt that attached the bookcase to the wall. Let's just say when I told him about my grand scheme, he made sure to do the measurements of the space and the storage cube himself.
I will say that the Commodore loves his organization almost as much as his mama. Everything I have purchased to make his play time and pickup easier, he has absolutely loved and has used immediately to show his deep appreciation. When the organizer was delivered, he was the first to want to drag it to the living room and help Sean and I put it together post haste.
Luckily with two people I will go as far as to say even with one, these can be put together in less than an hour. I am being gracious in that I have two kids that love to build furniture so that takes a little more "of course you can screw it in" time and then sometimes having to redo said screw (hence the hour).
Because I put the piece horizontally rather than vertically like the other one, I had a lot more space on top to move around his decor that was overflowing in other areas. It also allowed me to move the lamp that he loves from a different space in his room to here. He can now not only reach the lamp but the socket is attached to the light switch (it's a long story), so all he has to do now is flip a switch and turn on his light. Some of his special pictures I was able to move over and I switched out his two-year-old birthday picture for his five. He actually set up this whole picture (told me where to stand and how he wanted the picture to look when I took it) and was quite proud of himself, so seeing it in a frame front and center on his new furniture was the cherry on top for him.
There is nothing I love more than putting everything together, inviting the Commodore into his room, and watching his mouth drop and gasp as he gets so excited to see a new space with new ways to get at everything. he doesn't really play with the Toy Story characters, but they looked so darn cute that I didn't have the heart to re-home them.
I bought a pack of six acrylic bookends for $13 on Amazon, which worked perfectly both in the Commodore's and EV's space. I wish the Young Jedi ship fit a little better as it had in the other, but c'est la vie, I can live with it, and as long as the Commodore can take it out and play with it, I am good.
It's the finger on the chin as he is assessing everything for me. I was worried that the piece was going to be too far from the wall and it was going to make the space look even smaller and harder to navigate, but that wasn't the case at all and with the lamp, the space feels more cozy and inviting. Honestly, if anything, the space looked less cramped.
In pure Dana fashion, besides the homework space, there is one more space that I am looking at redoing in the Commodore's room (I know you are asking how is that possible after I just stated how small the room is and maximizing space is a must), but that requires a pretty big furniture purchase for the living room, so we will have to see and again my depth of perception is way off and I think as it is the furniture I would move in from another area is going to be much too big... let's all say a silent prayer for Sean's nerves when I bring it up to him shall we?!
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