We live in a small (1000 square feet) house that has two very small bedrooms and there are 5 of us. When we had our third baby I was sure my husband and I would have to share our bedroom with him for a very long time.  Then I came across this bedroom on Ohdeedoh one day. The room is small and not only does it fit three kids comfortably, there is room for a desk and a dresser and toys. I thought if they can do it, we could too. Only we had to do it for a 6 year old girl, a 4 year old boy, and the 2 year old boy.

The first thing we did, or rather the first thing I asked my brother to do, was build a loft bed. The room is 10×10, so there was no way we were going to fit two beds and a crib in there. I hate bunk beds–changing the sheets on bunk beds is the worst, but they can look pretty awful too.  We designed this cloud loft bed (for the 4 year old) so it would almost disappear into the background. The clouds act as a guard rail and I painted them the same white as the walls, but I couldn’t resist one stripey cloud (inspired by this coat rack).

Underneath the clouds is my daughter’s bed–the iron number by ikea that everyone loves. We strung christmas lights to the bottom of the loft bed so she has a light. Also because we had to put the cloud bed right in the window. The way the room is set up there was no other place for the loft to go.  I was worried about it, but it turned out just fine–the window and the shade still work and it barely even blocks any light.

The baby’s bed is across from the clouds. Above the crib is a map of our neighborhood that I painted. It still needs street names and the railroad track and the bike path painted in, but it’s a work in progress–mostly because  I can’t do while the baby is sleeping! I picked up the the masks at our local art supply shop and they work for dress up and decoration (a twofer). There are wooden boxes under the crib for storage (that I talked about here) and the hamper was a lucky thrift store find.

On the neighboring wall is the dresser/changing table and the storage/display shelves. We keep diapers in the wooden box up on the shelf and the red cross thing is actually a nightlight!  The dresser caused a bit of problems when I was redoing the room. I really thought it would look good gray, but it ended up looking like a big gray blob in this all white room. So I had to paint it white again (and again and again–it takes lots of coats to cover up dark gray).

But even though it’s boring white on the outside, the inside is super awesome! I fell in love with the idea of painting the inside of drawers when I saw it on pinterest. It took four cans of spray paint: safety orange, farm equipment yellow, lagoon blue, and fluorescent pink (all rustoleum brand). After spraying a few coats of color, I finished them all with a coat of clear shellac. The dresser is the only clothes storage we have for the kids, so they each get their own color drawer and they all share the undie/sock drawer on top.  What happened to the closet, you ask? Stay tune for tomorrow and I’ll show you!

three kids in a room: part two

I’m here. I haven’t fallen off the earth, I’ve just been sucked into summer with three little kids and all it’s sweaty, whiny, wet and happy craziness. I keep waiting for things to slow down a little so I can get some projects crossed off the list, but then yesterday I realized the crazy is not going to let up until summer’s done.

So I’m going to try to take that minute here and there my kids give me and to get something accomplished. Like their room. It’s still far from done and it’s starting to wear on me.  The overhead projector came out yesterday and I started to draw a map of our neighborhood on the big board.  Nothing like a big junior high flash back in the middle of the day.  If you are too young to remember the drone of the fan and the slightly burny smell of the overhead projector well then you are just too young aren’t you.

If you’ve got a keen eye then you spotted the bumper I made in the first picture. And here is the bunting bumper (rubber baby bunting bumpers!) in all it’s glory. Take a long look, because I will never be making one of these suckers again. You know when you are dreading doing a project and then you start and think, hey, this isn’t so bad, kind of fun even? Well this wasn’t like that at all–it sucked the whole way through.  But thankfully done and off the list.

Painting the dresser is next. Any thoughts?

Here are the first few posts about the room if you need a refresher:

• before
• during 1
• during 2