the kids' room revealed

Its done!  The Princess is even sleeping in there.  At least, she starts out in that room before switching to prime kidney-punching-position in my bed around 2 am.

The before was very orphanage-style, cramped and cluttered. There were two dressers; one for the Princess and one shared by the boys after the Hemnes dresser fell apart.  The boys' dresser was crammed into the closet in order to make room for the changing table and bookshelf.   We also have the ginormous Pottery Barn Lullaby rocking chair.

The after is still orphanage style (there are three kids in a 15 x 15 room, it is what it is), but I think it looks a bit nicer and is less cramped.

We lined up the beds under the window:

We put up a large map from Ikea:

We bought new Malm dressers from Ikea so each child has their own dresser, and put them all together for a dressing area. The maple color of the dresser in the middle (that we already owned) was discontinued, so we went with the white stained oak color for the two new dressers.

My homeless orange lamps came upstairs from the basement, and I added some pictures of the kids as art over the dressers:

We took out the changing table and bookshelf and installed book ledges:

The bedspreads on the boys' beds are from Target a few years ago.  They are *very* vibrantly colored, with pictures of zoo animals.  The curtains are from Pottery Barn Kids a few years ago.

I added some of our Costa Rican souvenirs--suns and moons around the room, and a small mirror over Peter's bed.  Even the pictures over the dresser are from a vacation in Costa Rica.

This little mirror is right over Peter's bed, and is the perfect height for him to see himself.

 The light fixture in the room is a map of the world, and I think its pretty retro cool.

I did not want to completely overhaul the room. My main goal was to make the room more usable than what was we had.  I liked the bedding, curtains and furniture we already owned. I really wanted to use the campaign nightstand and desk that I got off craigslist a few months ago, but unfortunately they just didn't fit in the room.

I tried to keep the expenditures to a minimum, and I (sort of) succeeded. The only items I bought specifically for the room were the two dressers ($300), the map ($150) and the Ribba ledges ($120), for a total of $570.  Everything else in the room we already had.

art for the kids' room

I've been looking for inexpensive art  that would be good in the kids' room above the dresser, but nothing has struck my fancy.   I'd also like to finish this room, so I didn't want to drag on looking for months and months for the perfect piece.  I gave myself a challenge to fashion some kind of art out of stuff we already had.

We had some bird prints, an inaccurate canvas painting of the solar system (goodbye, Pluto), a bunch of empty frames, and a couple of large mirrors.  Since the kids aren't tall enough to see the top of their dressers, putting a large mirror up there seemed pointless.  None of the other pieces were large enough to hold the space on their own.

Looking in the attic, I found some blank 11x14 canvases I had picked up at a two-for-one sale at Michaels, along with some red ribbon.  Rummaging in the brown paper bag that holds my fabric stash I found the remnants of a really bright turquoise tablecloth with a quatrefoil pattern.  I also had three bright green picture frames from Target.  Voila, art.

I wrapped the canvas frames in the turquoise fabric, and stapled the back.  I tapped a small nail into the inside top part of the canvas frame.

I threaded the ribbon in the back of the frame hanger.

I hung the picture on the canvas, looping the ribbon around the nail in the back of the canvas.

I picked some pictures from our recent vacation in Costa Rica.  Here's Peter testing the waves:

Princess wearing Grandma's sunglasses:

Greg jumping the waves with Papa and Nonno:

I think the room is finally done.  Big reveal tomorrow.