playing musical bedrooms with kids

A while back, we switched our two eldest out of sharing a room and plopped the toddler in with his big brother. In part, it was because our daughter (newly minted four year old) kept asking for “privaseee” when changing her clothes, and in part it was because they fought about who got to shut the door and play in the room {clue: neither of you}.

She seemed to be elbowing for her own space, her own place to get away from her brothers and be creative without having them rip down her art from the wall as soon as she taped it up. Of course, this still happens in the new room, but it’s with less frequency.

Bed || Bookshelf || Dresser || Desk & chair: all vintage refurbished
Lamps || Shades || Nightstand || Chair: all around the house
Desk knobs: Anthropology
Rug: Pottery Barn Kids
Art cart: Ikea
Bulletin board || Wall shelves : Target here & here
Tent: similar
Chandelier: similar
Valances: made in Birch Organic Fabric
Art walls: brown paper & tape
Bedspread: me myself and I in Cotton & Steel fabric
Radio: the garage

We have two good-sized kids bedrooms, so to make one less “nursery” and more “girl power” made sense. And lots of icons, because, of course you need them.

Here’s a lil look at how we did her room. And by we, I mean my amazing dad who spent hours skim-coating the old plaster walls that needed smoothing, painting, and more painting. My amazing husband helped with the light fixture & polishing the brass, painting the furniture, and I helped by spending money like a drunken fish. If they also had Amazon Prime and random runs to random stores, maybe they’d have been spending too.

For the accusers who think I projected about what I would have wanted had I not been the fourth daughter and shared a bedroom til practically forever with little to no say over the decor (remember: little sisters have little say), you may be right.

She generously allows her older brother to sit on a stool and listen during story time. Quite generous of her, I must say.

She kept taping art to her wall and it kept leaving residue, so a little packing paper and some painter’s tape, and tah-dah you have an “art gallery!”

Her most precious dollies and such rotate, so sometimes they’re up on the shelf, and sometimes they’re crammed into the bins below it. Totally depends on the day, right?

She found a catalogue among my mom’s mail and suddenly wanted these matching purple pillows so we sewed them up! There’s a doll bed hiding on the other side of her bed that she *sometimes* allows her little brother to play house with her wherein she instructs him to “LIE DOWN AND GO TO SLEEP”–I have no idea where she ever would have heard that instruction. Ahem.

It’s never this clean! But I do love that she has a desk-full of glue and pompoms and art supplies and can scribble and color and listen to stories and have her own groove. Even if the rug is usually littered in small cut up bits of paper. She should run a homemade confetti business.

When the baby girl arrives in December, she’ll sleep with us for a long time but eventually will bunk up in here!