One of the first things we did when we moved in was try to make Lou’s room more her own. Before this, we were at my parents’ house outside of Philadelphia, where she slept on a blowup bed in my dad’s office. Before that, we were in an extended-stay hotel/serviced apartment in Beijing, where she slept in a pack n’ play.

So when we got to Brooklyn, I really wanted to create a space that was just for her. We dove in pretty fast, hanging up art and a little garland, establishing a zone for her artwork (Yes, that's just washi tape and command clips), and piling toys into these big canvas bins.

Lou's Room Before - Washi Tape Art Display

It was fine. But just fine. I wish I’d waited to think through her space before diving right in, but it’s tough with kids. And tough when you live in a space where there’s no room to store things you’re not sure about.

Anyway, fast forward a bit and we’re in the middle of making this space work a bit harder for Lou. After lots, and lots and lots of deliberation (between Lou and I), we moved things around to a layout we like a lot more:

Moving the bed away from the corner was clutch. It is such a pain to make a bed in a corner, and I’m the kinda gal who needs beds made. Plus, I didn’t love having her so close to that window. I wouldn’t call the workmanship around here top-notch, and that made me nervous. And finally, I just assumed shoving the bed in the corner was how we’d get the most room, but now that it’s in the middle of the room, it still feels spacious.

Lou's Room Progress: Better Organization & Upcycled Closet

The dressers and kitchen then became the back wall (bonus: they block that window) and we played around with the rest of the toy storage ‘til we came up with something that works.

I talked about the free closet we "made" for her here, which freed up a surprising amount of dresser space: that tall skinny dresser to the right of the kitchen is all toy storage.

So now that we have the bare bones, we’re onto the fun part!

Our Lou Lou To Do List:

1. Make a headboard-like-item – I have a couple ideas here. Removable wallpaper? Tufted cardboard? Must be cheap, light and temporary.

2. Revamp the large L I “crafted” when we first got here. You can see it above the bed in the first picture, above. (This is done as of last night. #crafterfail. I'll share next week to see if we can come up with a better way).

3. Hang up some new and lovely hand-drawn art we’ve picked up from Katie Daisy via local coffee shop/kids' boutique Lunitas.

4. Paint and hang the pirate ship I snagged from Goodwill (as seen here, in our master bedroom restyling product roundup post).

5. Make a 3-D star garland (like this from a Subtle Revelry) and hang it over the bed? (This is underway. It's a slow process).

6. Get or make new throw pillows (I’m crushing on some local free-trade options similar to these).

7. Make a new body-pillow cover (I’m thinking of stamping or stenciling butterflies, since they alternate with penguins and tigers as Lou’s “best” animal, but we’ll see).

8. Relocate and possibly reconfigure her art wall.

9. Make a curtain for the dollhouse bench to hide the storage?

10. Consider playing around with or replace the Today is Your Day Dr. Seuss quote art I made when we got here as well (above the dollhouse in the 4th picture above). I love the quote: "You're off to great places, today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!" But the colors I used were never my favorite and it’s really busy.

11. Label toy storage drawers? This is almost certainly a yes. I've got a budding reader on my hands, so I want to label any and everything. Could potentially help with cleanup.

12. Turn bookshelf holding her kitchen supplies and cash register into a market zone. Buy this.

That’s it! Who’s feeling crafty? Any adorable little kids’ room ideas I should know about?