Kids Room Work in Progress

If you remember back to January (a stretch I know!) I mentioned three home improvement projects that I wanted to accomplish this year. Well the first one was the bathroom makeover which I'm very happy with. The mirror still hasn't been framed, but I'm ok with that. The lovely green paint and new towels and framed Grace painting still make me smile when I go in there! The second project was to replace the falling apart kids' dresser with built in shelving and the third project was to make toy storage bins to control the toy mess in the living room. The built in shelving and toy storage bins were actually finished on Easter weekend when my Super Fantastic father in law and husband lovingly made them. They totally rock.

Here's a quick pic of the toy bins. I love how we can now organize toys! All the cars go in one bin, the balls in another, 800 Mr. Potato Head pieces in yet another and so on. Can't say enough good things about them or the men who made them.

Here's the kids' room nook with falling apart dresser if you don't remember.

And here is what it looks like now!

The reason I haven't posted pictures of the shevles yet is that I was hoping to have the room completely done. That hasn't come together as quickly as I would like so I'm showing it at it's halfway point. Plus I'd love some feedback and suggestions!

Here's the top half of the built in shelves. Not all the stuff shown will be staying. The quilts are all handmade quilts given to us and the framed flowers are from my wedding bouquet. Unfortunately that pretty white frame is heavy and can't be hung.

I used the coordinating fabric to make these curtains to hide the bottom half of the built in shelves that holds their clothes. I found the canvas bins at Fred Meyers with a coupon which made them under $5 apiece. I also found some smaller canvas bins at Ikea that hold socks/underwear. I love that there's also room to store the wooden blocks and bin of baby dolls in there too!

Our kids share a room and the decor has been gender neutral green leaning slightly girly. Now that Ethan is getting a little older I'd like to move away from pastels and go for more of a "big kid" look that both kids will like. We bought the rainbow rug at Ikea last fall and I really love it. I think it does a great job brightening up the room and even better I was able to buy the coordinating fabric too!

Today I finished sewing (or attempting to sew) a new window covering for the kids' room with leftover fabric from the built in shelves and some red fabric I bought in Salem this week. The flimsy white curtain from before was pretty but doesn't do one bit of good to make the room dark which is an issue as summer creeps closer. Last year and until today we've tied a large blanket on the window which does the job but isn't particularly attractive. The new curtain I'm hoping will be functional AND more attractive.

Here's the crib side of the wall. The crib will be going this fall when we transfer Ethan to Grace's toddler bed and a twin bed will take it's place. I'd like to move the shelves since they're really too high to see what's on them. The framed artwork is Ethan's birth sampler that will go somewhere in the room.

I'd really like to take this quilt down (isn't it beautiful? David's Oma made it!) and free up some wall space.

Here is the window wall, the wall you see when you walk in the room. Don't the curtains look lovely? The GP will be coming down. The framed artwork on the left is Grace's birth sampler that will stay in the room somewhere.

I'd like to put the white shelves on one wall and some sort of artwork display on the other. With Grace starting preschool next year I'm sure the amount of artwork she brings home will increase and I'd like to be able to display it. I'm thinking of using either fabric covered cork boards or a laundry line type of artwork display like these:


And that's where you all come in. Help me figure out what to put on what wall! I'm thinking about putting the two white shelves on the shorter wall (where the quilt is currently) and dedicate one to each child. I'd probably print out a black/white photo of each kiddo and decorate with girly/boyish knick knacks. They'd serve as headboards of sorts. On the longer wall I'm thinking about doing either a couple cork boards or the laundry line strung out to dispaly their artwork. I might print out a couple more photos and frame them for that wall too. Or maybe not. Here's where I'd love some more creative imput. Let's hear some ideas!