This post was supposed to be ‘The Kids Shared Room Update’, to show you where I’m at with designing their rooms (which was not very far). However, in order to show you Birdie’s room (which is much farther along) we brought the mattress from this room into her room so as to not shoot just a bed frame. Once the mattress was on her bed with sheets and her stuffies she was like “I really really really want to start sleeping in here, like tonight.” Charlie looked me dead in the eye and said “No. I’m not ready” which is soooo cute (he gets scared at night) but once we rearranged what is now ‘his’ room (with only one bed) he was ready to give it a go. So it’s the end of an era. I have big kids that want their own spaces and styles.
As a reminder, they’ve shared a room since Birdie was 2 and Charlie was 4 not because we didn’t have the room but because they slept better in the same room and bedtime with two toddlers in the same room was so much easier. They shared a room at the mountain house and we found that weekends, when we were there, were easier and they slept better so we stopped forcing them apart and let them share a room in LA. Then when we moved up full-time for lockdown they continued to share. We figured we’d let them tell us when they were ready (I had done some basic googling on boy/girl shared rooms and most feedback was between 8-10 the older one is typically ready for their own space and privacy).
So what it all means is that I can start figuring out this room, now Charlie’s room, and have actually made some progress now that there aren’t two beds. We tried to convince him to keep two beds for sleepovers but he was adamant that he wanted the space (and then I found the most incredible huge round chair that is big enough for sleepovers anyway).
The ages of 7 and 9 are so cute/fun because they are still obsessed with stuffies and want to cuddle their mama, but the tween-ness is happening so fast. We’ve been watching High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (which is EXCELLENT BTW) and they just really want to be teenagers. I remember that so clearly – just wanting to be a cool teenager so bad (methinks nothing has really changed).
We shot this as-is without really styling because there really wasn’t a point (I did clean up a lot of pokemon wrappers). I only JUST bought them some duvet covers that didn’t make it in time for this shoot, which brings me to a quick rant about bedding. Most kid’s duvet covers or comforters have a lot of texture and it’s my opinion that no one wants to sleep with texture. This could be because I’m sensitive to this stuff, but I think people sleep better if it’s just a soft percale and not embroidery or lace or seams everywhere (and no, not linen). Anyway, I searched all the major retailers that I loved but couldn’t find any good colors/patterns on soft percale. There were annoying colors, but no pretty percale that were in stock anyway. I ended up getting these which are super soft and have a zipper, and are affordable. I figure once I know more about their rooms I might get a color for them, but for now, they both have white duvets (not shown).
The Window Treatments
These shades (from Decorview) are excellent at function (room darkening for sure) and so easy to manually bring up and down (and down and up). The color is great. Oh, and we keep them mostly closed during the day while the kids are at school because they help so much with keeping out the cold (those windows are original and not exactly energy efficient).
They are the top-down bottom-up kind which is a lovely added function (and no ideally, a bed wouldn’t be just up against them – we always knew this was temporary). In Birdie’s room with the wallpaper, I wish we had chosen white because I think the rail at the top takes away from the diamond pattern. Unsure if I’m going to change them, but in here I’m going to make them work. They are excellent – I just wish I had done white so they receded more visually and then possibly I could add curtains.
This room was full of leftover furniture or thrift/vintage finds. I’ve had that schoolhouse lamp for 8 years now. It’s still so good. I got the large vintage lightbulb lamp on Etsy (Charlie loves funky pop art decor). The dresser is NOT staying (it’s total garbage) but I got it on FB marketplace for this exact temporary reason. I didn’t know how the room was going to be laid out or what our needs were so I didn’t want to buy something new, but we needed clothes storage badly. It has served a purpose but I’m ready to find one that is more functional (and has four knobs that stay on).
I got the second-hand IKEA table at a thrift store and really like it! The two vintage Windsor chairs are so cute, but now too small for our kids so looking for a new home.
I’ve had that bookcase for a few years – it’s from Crate and Barrel and is still available (and excellent).
The wood net chair was one of the first pieces that Charlie and I both loved and is helping to drive the style of his room. I bought it from Urbanite but I believe it was made by Purl Samoheyl (@total_nonsequitor). It’s SO FUN and rarely gets sat in, but I think will do a lot for the room.
The carpet is from Stark Carpet and I’m getting less and less nervous about it every day. I think because we are strict about no shoes in the house (you literally have to be here because of mud and the kids don’t even think about it anymore), and no food upstairs, so it’s actually been fine. Of course, the dogs are the wild cards as they come in every night for our nighttime routine and I’m always concerned about their paws, but dirt just vacuums up easily. Am I scared that they are going to pee, poop, or puke on it? Yes and no. They don’t and haven’t but they certainly could at any moment and then once they do…. That’s all to say that doing something darker would probably have been smarter/safer long term, but I think since these are on the second floor and far away from exterior entrances hopefully we are ok. And yes I MIGHT add rugs, but honestly, I really like the vibe and simplicity of the pretty wall-to-wall.
What’s In that tiny closet??
Okay. One of the only requests that the kids had was a secret door connecting their rooms. ARCIFORM put it in the plans and it was framed this way, but the sheetrockers did their job and it wasn’t exactly a priority before we moved in. But the kids, as you all know, remember EVERYTHING and asked us almost daily about it. So just recently Jamie was back working on the punch list and we asked him if he could cut it out and build the door and he did.
It’s pretty dang cute. So basically that goes to Birdie’s closet and thus into her room. It does make designing the closets more challenging (and I’m unsure how long they will even want to access each other’s room).
I have yet to paint the frame because I’m waiting to see how I design these closets now that the kids have separated.
So that is where we are at with the shared room (now Charlie’s room). I’ll show you Birdie’s very soon – we are much further along on it, although making some pivots because it’s looking QUITE ECLECTIC 🙂
Resources:
Window Treatments: Decorview
Carpet: Stark Carpet
Wall Color: Extra White by Sherwin-Williams
Door Color: Upward by Sherwin-Williams
*Photos by Kaitlin Green
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