Merry Christmas, My Little Princesses

It has taken me a long time to get to this post, but the project I have been working on is finally complete. The end of August I decided I was going to turn our fourth bedroom that we were using for an office into a playroom for the girls, for Christmas. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, so I attempted several DIY projects to complete the room. Some turned out, others were complete fails. 

The idea for the room evolved over time too, so some of my work didn’t even end up getting used.

I was surprised it took me all the way until Christmas to finish the job, but it did. I remember we really began the project Labor Day weekend by building shelves in our garage to move all the stuff from the office out there. I also had to clean out my closest, the closet under the stairs, some cupboards, and move a lot of furniture around in the whole house to make the room work. So I guess it was really more than a one-room makeover.

Woodworking is one of Drew’s new hobbies, so I had him build me several things for the room as well. My mom and Courtney spent some time helping me on random things too.

I took advantage of Drew going to all the late-night Boise State games and sewed and crafted while he was gone and the girls were in bed, along with working while the girls nap during the day.

Here are some pictures of how the room turned out. It isn’t anything too special, but it works well for us, and the girls love it, so it is a win in my book.

 

 Drew built the magnet board and board to hang art from. For a month before Christmas Sammy was obsessed with hanging her pictures on the fridge. So I was super excited for this to be done, so she could hang her pictures here instead.

I found a tutorial to sew a braided rug back in August, and went to work. Courtney and I spend hours braiding and sewing. The tutorial said not to worry if the rug wouldn't lay flat, to take an iron to it and it would fix the problem. Well this wasn't the case for us. I ironed and ironed, stretched and stretched, but it was a lost cause. I folded the thing up and threw it in the closet until a couple weeks ago. I didn't want it to be a complete waste so I decided to cut the rug in half to release the tension causing it to curl and finished the straight edge so I could tuck in under her kitchen. Drew built the little decorative shelves too.

Like I said before, this was a low budget project. I was determined to use what we already had, so we moved the bookshelf from Sammy's room and used the baskets we already had. I did buy the red ones from the Dollar Tree. You can't really tell from the picture, but the pink box is a little mailbox I made from a cracker box and put a little flag on it. In the other little box on the shelf are our writing supplies to write letters and put in the mailbox.

One of my main reasons for sewing the girls the little princess aprons for Halloween was so they could use them for dress up in their playroom. The left side of the closet is all their dress up stuff. I made a doctor coat, and a mask for the superhero cape I bought from the Dollar Tree. I also spent a lot of time organizing and labeling the different games and activities to store in the closet. I made it a point to put all the board books on the bottom shelf so Aubrey could get to them and I wouldn't have to worry about her destroying them.

This is probably my favorite part of the room. I was planning all along to make this little corner a reading nook, but it wasn't until the end of October we decided to make it a loft. I already had sewn the little banner and pillow covers, and made the fluff rug, but I think it turned out way better having the loft to put them in. Drew did all the building for this, along with the bookshelf on the wall. The little fluff rug looked really cute, but after having it out for half-a-day I had to put it away because it shed so much. I don't know enough about fabric to know why it happened, but the white fabric I cut shed really bad, but the other t-shirt material I used and the pink fabric didn't shed at all. I love having the storage space under the loft as well.

When we lived in Provo, we used to sing this song at the library that said, "Talk, sing, read, write, play, makes a reader everyday." So I decided to make the little sign with the talk, sing, read, write, play to help us remember what we should do everyday :). We wanted to add the mirror for Aubrey to be able to play in, and also to go along with the dress up clothes.

Well that is the story behind my business the last couple months. The weekend before Christmas we sent Sammy to a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpas so we could put everything together. We had all the nails and everything in place so on Christmas Eve all we had to do was snap everything back in place. Drew made a treasure hunt for Sammy to open Christmas morning that led to the playroom.

I am glad to have a place for the girls to play and hope that they won't drag toys all over the house anymore. I am debating about taking the door off the room and just putting the baby gate up, so the toys have to stay. Also so I can just put Aubrey in there and not have to worry about her falling down the stairs while I do laundry or whatever up stairs. (Sammy just opens the door and runs away, so I have to keep a close eye on her, the gate we have doesn't span the stairway).

The Fairy Princess at Play.