As most of you already know, Tia moved out at the beginning of the summer. This started "the great room swap"---because Tia's room was now vacant and available. This also coincided with Brooklyn's great desire to have a desk. She tells me daily of all the wonderful things she could do if she only had a desk. But our upstairs kid rooms are small. And I also can't bear the disappointment on her face. So I start looking for solutions......and I find the answer on the Ana White website. Yep, a loft bed will fix everything.
So I print out the plans and naively jump in and start. (special thanks to Cory for loaning me his saw) And I find out that building stuff is really really really fun-even if it takes longer than originally planned.
I'm really quite proud of how it turned out. Because I just couldn't bring myself to paint over the awesome periwinkle color on the walls in Tia's room, we moved Brooklyn over there (luckily her bedding and lamps also match this wall color). Then we made Brooklyn's room into Kobe's room. So now Alex has an awesome man cave all to himself in the basement. And we all live happily ever after because all the children finally have their own room. (at least that how I think it should work......)
Here is the whole loft bed (I even built that ladder!) (the chair came from IKEA--but since I painted it and put it together I'm still taking credit for it):
Full bookshelf at the foot of the bed:
Desk!!!!!
I painted magnetic primer on the back of the tall bookshelf so it can be a magnet board for hanging projects. (Brooklyn made her own custom magnets) That's one of the cool things about building your own furniture.
Kobe wanted orange. I was a little scared of that idea, but Jen's sister Tamaryn had some great inspiration on her blog. (thank you Bree for sending me over there) I even got brave and went a little darker than she did. Kobe loves his room. This was my first go at doing multiple colors. I just painted a white stripe in between them to help the white furniture tie into the room. (He's stuck with Brooklyn's old nightstand, chest, and bookshelf--although I did remove the picket fence headboard) I'm still looking for some wall stuff. I've learned that boy bedding and accessories are very hard to find if you don't want Disney characters or sports teams!
