A few months ago I detailed the makeover we gave our daughter’s bedroom. The transformation from nursery to toddler’s room was made with careful planning and a lot of input from our daughter. (She may be a toddler, but she voices her opinions like a teenager.) Little did I know that our day’s worth of labor would simply be the start of what has turned into a multi-month long project that’s still a work in progress.
Since my last blog my daughter has acquired a freestanding puppet theater, a plastic ball pit and another kid-size table and two matching chairs. They are all wonderful additions, however, they also meant her room needed some serious rearranging. The puppet theater and the table-and-chair set were easy fits; it was the plastic ball pit that became a major challenge to store. And, storing it away is exactly what I wanted to do with it. Unfortunately, the pit was a gift from my parents who purchased it soon after they heard how much their precious granddaughter loved to jump in the foam pit at our local gym.
The challenge resulted from the fact that my daughter’s room is located at the end of a long hallway. She wanted to use the hall as her runway and propel her body into the pit (similar to the gym’s setup). We quickly learned that small plastic balls were not nearly as comfortable to slam into as chunks of foam, especially when the pit is not sunk into the floor. What’s a mother to do? Call in reinforcements… Grandma to the rescue. My mom hand stitched dozens of felt “pillows” to fill the pit. We eventually got rid of the balls and now my daughter’s bedroom is home to a felt pit, instead of a plastic ball pit.
Other additions included:
· Painting one of the walls with chalkboard paint (we used some of it on our pantry door as well). We applied it to her bedroom wall nearest to the felt boards.
· Moving the Snoopy lamp from her nightstand to the top of the dresser. The wires were just to tempting for her tiny hands to resist. Now the wires are hidden behind the dresser and the lamp is out of reach.
· Adding a peg rack at my daughter’s eye level. It was placed there to make it easier for her to contribute to clean up time. (No more, “Mommy, I can’t reach.”)
Related Articles:
Extreme Makeover–Children’s Room Edition (Part 1)
Extreme Makeover–Children’s Room Edition (Part 2)
Creating Your Baby’s Haven–On A Budget
Would You Buy Your Child A King-Size Bed?
Decorating Your Child’s Bathroom