6.09.2010

New & Old Furniture Make a Sweet Room

When we renovated our house, we not only needed to make room for the kids, but make rooms for the kids.  Before the renovation, we had one child (and I was pregnant with #2 during the reno).  Elizabeth's nursery was in our former office (like most nurseries seem to be), and that worked just fine for our purposes.  But, then as we prepared for baby #2 (sex unknown), we had to make a new room for Elizabeth. 

So, we weighed the options.  We added a new master bedroom in the renovation so we decided to turn our former master bedroom - a not very grand 11x14 sunny room facing the front of our house.  The remaining front bedroom became our guest room (about 11x11) and will ultimately be our son, Alex's room when he is ready for a twin bed.

Of critical importance to me was the right bed to set the tone for the room.  I wanted something cute and girlie but hopefully something that she will tolerate when she's 10.  I don't have any hope that she'll want to sleep in it when she's 15 but if I get 10 years out of it, I'll be thrilled.  I couldn't justify (to myself) the cost of the adorable Pottery Barn Kids beds (around $800) so I set out to find a great knock-off and JCPenney came through for me (once again) for about $300!

We opted for a twin bed to maximize floor space to play and the room is not very large to start with.  The bed is incredibly sturdy and I could not be happier with the quality and I have no doubt it will hold up for as long as she will want to sleep in it.  I also got the trundle which is currently empty but which will have a mattress at some point when we get a little closer to sleep-overs requiring more than an AeroBed for Kids

I am not a big fan of "bedroom suites" because it often feels like a furniture store showroom, so I didn't buy all of the pieces that matched the bed (and that would have gotten expensive quickly).  Instead, we decided to reuse the dresser from her nursery, a beautiful antique dresser from Jim's grandmother which hung out in his parents' basement for many years before getting a coat of white paint, a set of faux crystal knobs, and a happy new recycled life.  It's a great size (not too big or small) and it's on legs so it doesn't have a dense feeling (and her plastic stool slides under it easily).

On a whim, we put a hand-me-down nightstand from my grandparents house (probably circa 1965) as a stand-in for a future nightstand.  We quickly realized that it's height, 2 drawers for her little stuff, and a shelf in the middle make it a perfectly workable piece.  Stay tuned for an upcoming make-over on this cute little piece. 


I am really happy with our decision to buy a new bed and reuse the other pieces that we already had.  I'll source the rest of her room in a future post. 

Her room really fits the overall style of our house, despite it being decidedly pink!