When All 3 Of Your Kids Share a Room

Ever since our youngest turned 2, he has not been a fan of sleeping alone in his own room. He would fall asleep in his toddler bed (he was already climbing out of the crib) and around 2 or 3 in the morning wander into our room or his sisters' bedroom. It wasn't until recently that we decided to move his bed into his sisters' room so 1) he isn't alone and 2) we see if this move would comfort him enough during the night that he wouldn't wake up multiple times.

The plan worked! If only we had figured this out sooner!!

So, now all 3 of our kiddos share one room and surprisingly, it's not crowded at all. I feel like it's actually even cozier and comfier than before. 

The change involved repainting the walls with a color the girls chose- Benjamin Moore Iceburg. I was hesitant about it at first because I didn't really know how it would work with some of the other elements in the room. But I have to say, they were spot on with the color! We love it! It's a blue that reminds me of the sky on a clear summer day. :)

Here are a few photos of their new space. 

I spy a little boy reading :)

I did end up keeping the painted closet doors because the girls use this for their clothes. Our son's clothes are still in his old room, since he will be moving back there eventually.

 I spy a cute puppy! (even though he's actually not a puppy anymore, he's still cute)

The doll bunk bed was a DIY project from last year. A few of the dolls sleep there...and did you happen to notice the doll in the basket that is missing her shirt? Why do kids love to take clothes off of dolls and not put them back on? Something I'll never understand.

Behind the closet doors, the girls share an over-the-door organizer. It was a couple of bucks at Wal-Mart and holds plenty of their little toys and stuffed animals. Happy to have them off the floor at the end of the day!

This little spot next to the door of their room is special to me because it holds sweet memories of when our girls were little. :) We had the pictures taken at Colonial Williamsburg. Such a sweet day!

We still have that dollhouse I made for the girls a few years back. They still play with it occasionally, which is nice. Little brother and little sister have also doodled on it quite a bit. It's not lacking in color, that's for sure!

The large B/W picture above is another one of our favorites. It was taken about 2 years ago when our kiddos still loved each other. Just kidding! They still do. ;) 

The framed quote is from Katie Davis Majors, founder of Amazima Ministries (a ministry we support). It says,"I have learned that I will not change the world. Jesus will do that. I can, however, change the world for one person." You can learn more about this wonderful Uganda-based ministry here.

I also hung up a shelf (fence board that my hubby cut down to size) above the picture for all the kids' arts and crafts.

With all this, I hope the room is a place for our kiddos to rest and relax after a busy day. So far, it has worked out that way and for that, I am thankful!

Adding Some Glam/Glitter to Our Girl's Dresser Knobs

Our girls share a bedroom; for a long while we were able to get away with keeping all their clothes in their bedroom closet. When this got too tight last year, we added a tall gray dresser to one side of their room, which worked well until recently.

Well, over time they've grown (shocking) and we noticed that their clothing collection had as well. So in doing what I do best around here, I decided it was time to play musical furniture. 

My husband and I moved this white wooden dresser upstairs a few months ago and I thought I'd try it out in the girl's room. I ended up liking how it looked and decided it was going to stay. The dresser serves a good purpose and gives our girls more space to put their clothes away (who doesn't love more storage?).

However, this dresser has come a long way since we bought it years ago, and I figured it was time to fancy up the knobs a bit with some sparkle. 

On a recent trip to HL with my kids, my girls spotted this beautiful gold and pink card stock.

Cute!!

With a price tag of $2, I decided to buy the card stock to see if we could somehow use it for the knobs. 

My plan was to cut out little circles large enough to fit over the front of the original knobs and use Mod Podge to secure them.

I started by tracing a knob to make 12 circles on the paper and then cut them out. 

Once the card stock was attached, I added more Mod Podge over the glitter paper and let it dry.

Hopefully, they will hold up nicely over time. We shall see! 

Tip: I believe this project would work much better on wooden knobs if you have them. Also, a lighter paper (something not too thick) would adhere better than the paper I used.  

We also bought this gold "Sparkle" sign for a couple bucks to add to their door. :) I mean, why not?! 

I don't know about you, but I love a good before and after picture...so here is one from a few years ago.

picture is from the listing when the house was on the market

 Here is where we are today with this space! 

So fun to see the changes over time that we've made in here. :)

DIY Desks in Girls Room- Made from Nightstands

There has always been this little spot in the corner of the girls shared bedroom that I just never knew what to do with. This little spot has housed dressers, nightstands, and a dollhouse, but something just seemed off about each change I kept making to it.
One day while talking to my husband about it, he suggested putting desks there for the girls. Before the addition of their desks, they would play with their dolls or color and draw on the floor (and there is nothing wrong with that!), but I knew that if we could somehow make desks for them they would finally have their own space to play, color and draw, while keeping toys, crayons, and markers off the floor.

One night while thinking about desk ideas, I remembered we had these $5 nightstands I bought at a thrift store years ago. One was being used in our bedroom and the other was just sitting in my son's closet not serving any purpose. I knew I could swap out my nightstand for one that was in our room already and convert these 2 matching nightstands we already owned into desks.
My husband said the project would be doable and figured we should give it a try!

We went to Home Depot and looked at all of our wood options and bought simple 1X3's which cost us about $16 total.

So if this worked out, it would only cost us about $21 for BOTH desks!! Holla! That would be a good deal. Plus, the paint I wanted to use for these was given to me by a friend from church who had a bunch of samples left over from a project she did a while ago. Hooray!!!

I also took this $5 chair (another thrift store find a couple years back) and added pink chevron fabric that I saved from a project I did last year. Sometimes it pays to save things. ;)

Putting the desks together was fairly an easy process. My husband cut all the wood to the size we wanted and attached them with screws.

I added some caulk along the edges of where the boards met the side of the desk so there wouldn't be a gap.

Because of the size and dimensions of our desks, the legs were a bit wobbly, so I made a quick trip to Wal-Mart and bought a packet of L-brackets in order to keep the wobbling at a minimum. It's been working well so far!

All I had to do was paint the desks and sand them...and then they were ready to be used! And boy have our girls been using them everyday!

Here are some pictures of their room with the finished desks.

 

To read about the painted doors, go here.

Also, if you are interested in making doll bunk beds, Ana White has some great plans on how to do that. She is definitely a very talented woman!

We've had the desks in here for about a week, and they are seeing good use. 
It's so sweet to see my girls play together. There's plenty of arguing in between those moments for sure, but it makes us happy when they show grace and love to each other. 

Saving money tip: If you are looking to save and not splurge on children's desk, check out your local thrift store(s) for inexpensive nightstands. They usually carry tons! We bought ours for $5 a piece. Just make sure to look for ones that have an opening at the bottom so you can slide chairs or ottomans easily underneath. 
The nightstands we purchased years ago had legs that were easily removable and all we did was add longer wooden legs to them.