Buenos Dias. Yesterday I shared our new rain gutter bookshelves for wee Lou's room. Or, as it may more aptly be called, Lou's Wee Room. It's about the width of a twin mattress's length, or 78 inches. I'm not sure how long it is, but suffice it to say that moving the book storage to the wall was a necessary act.
Once the shelves were up, and the books unpacked, we did another round of purging, and Lou was a champ about letting things go. We're now comfortably, if still a bit busily, ensconced in her room.
Here's what we're working with right now. I think we've done a really good job of cramming a lot into the space (if I do say so myself). The bookshelves' space saving can't be over stated, and I'm pleased with how using a coat rack and tall narrow bin as dress up storage allowed us to keep a lot of her role play clothes, which I love her to be able to play with.
But the MVP, by far, is Lou's bed, which as I've mentioned, my dad built. He built three bookshelves to be used as platforms for the mattress; two comprised of three compartments each, meant to be placed the long way beneath the mattress, and a third made of two compartments, meant to be placed at the foot of the bed. In another room, we would (will) be able to access all sides, but in here, we put the bed in the corner to maximize floor space. That leaves three hidden compartments facing the window, which I filled with summer clothes and lesser-used toys.
But you can see that something's missing: the third compartment - the one that would normally be under the mattress, at the foot of the bed. This photo, taken from the bed, shows the third compartment. It didn't fit in this room; we wanted to place the bed width-wise, and there's a heating element in the back corner that took up precious inches and made it so that this wouldn't work (you can see it in the photo above, behind the dress up coat rack). Plan B: Great toy storage.
You can see Lou's kitchen from this angle as well. We streamlined her kitchen stuff for the time being, and agreed that Sweet Lou's (her play market) would be closed for renovations for a while.
You can also see two locker-like storage units in the corner; my younger brother had those in his room as a teenager, and my mom said I could have them. They are filled with Lou's games, puzzles and small treasures - her 200 marbles, assorted gemstones and Polly Pockets. In other words, the banes of my existence. But as for the lockers, I'm impressed by the amount of storage they give for such a small footprint, and I plan to paint them, probably black.
Painting the lockers black isn't my only plan. I'd like to get a chunkier curtain rod, create a little wall-mounted art space above her desk, hang some globe lights and some art, and possibly paint the walls. My initial thought is to paint the entire area below the chair rail in black chalkboard paint. I'm still drawn to that idea; I'm just averse to more work than necessary at the moment, as I struggle with the rest of the house, so it seems like a long-term project.
But I am not just happy with how this turned out; I'm relieved. It's one of the few rooms that are fully functional and unpacked right now (I also did mine yesterday - hooray!) so it offers a respite from shimmying between stacks of boxes in the rest of the house. I was also unsure of how it would work out, and if I'd be able to set this up in a way that didn't feel so cluttered and cramped and crowded that it just didn't work (or, heaven forbid, her toys would start to invade the rest of the house. There really isn't anywhere else to put them, and I prefer to keep them corralled anyway).
So that's phase one. Phase two will involve shifting, I'm sure, and hopefully implementing the projects I talked about. But phase one - getting things in working order - feels really good.
See you tomorrow!