Reagan said she wanted a princess room, which as we discovered meant a canopy over her bed like her sister currently had in her princess room....easy enough! A trip to Lowes and she quickly (or not so quickly) selected pink and green as her bedroom colors, her only other request was a bunk bed. The foundation was set. I decided that chair rail would be a nice (and inexpensive) way to add a little character to her room and be a nice transition between the pink and green.
The hubs and I had a trip to Pittsburgh planned, it was a perfect opportunity for me to hit up Ikea and scour craigslist for some second hand deals. Since the deals are always more plentiful in a city. The Steel City treated us well and we found a ton of stuff and had a really great kid free weekend. Sidenote: there are so many local beers in Pittsburgh my hubby almost decided to stay. before we went on our trip we had to take care of getting rid of Reagan's current furniture. I listed it on craigslist (even though results can be limited for us in such a small area) and a local facebook yardsale site our area has, a few days later a nice family came to pick it up, so before we knew it this cute Ikea set our youngest had slept in since 18 months was gone:
I started checking out bunk beds, we thought that this cool bunk bed from Ikea was perfect for Reagan. It is reversible so it can be either high or low but even when the bed is on top it isn't too high. Still with me? A picture may help:
The $199 price at Ikea is reasonable but I was thrilled to find one on craigslist for a hundred bucks...and they were willing to hold it for us for a few days. We negotiated and brought it home for $80! Sweeeeeeet! But I had big plans for the bed, I grabbed a quart of chalkboard paint and went to town painting those ugly blue panels:
Now the kids have a cool outlet for their creative visions. We call the area underneath the bed the book nook...more on it later!
After securing the bed the only other major piece of furniture we needed for her room was a desk. I hit up craigslist again and we found a cute and 4.5 year old friendly desk and chair for $30! Those nice folks had ties to WV so they were willing to hold it for us, again Pittsburgh rocked with it's nice people! My sweet talking hubby sure did get them down to $20! Yay! Here it is in Reagan's room:
I loved that it wasn't huge and had a little shelf. I have big plans to sand and refinish it this summer, not sure if I am going to paint or stain it. Ideas? Reagan LOVES it and feels very important when she does her "homework" at it!
Her dresser has been around for a while: we snatched it from our older daughter's room since we were going in a different direction there, before that my hubby used it in college and when we first got married, before that it was at my in laws house. Many years ago it served as my hubby's dresser when he was still chillin' in his under roo's. He thinks it may have belonged to their neighbor before that... so yeah, it's held up well. Did I mention that I have painted it 4 times in the last 9 years! It's now white:
The big door on the right has a rack to hang clothes but we prefer to use it for game storage and find the area underneath perfect to slide in weird items (i.e. Hungry Hippos and huge drawing pads) that don't seem to fit good elsewhere. The paint job isn't great but Reagan is a bit rough so it will suit her well.
We decided to keep the 9 cubby shelf that Reagan has had since she was a wee lad of 18 months. We love that she can easily access it and that the fabric bins can store small items. We seriously need to do away with the red cubbies and get some green ones though...yikes:
See that big frog hanging beside the desk? Like you could miss it! We picked it up at Ikea for $9.99 (on sale!!). I thought is was super cute and fit our "princess" room, plus it serves as great storage for small toys like matchbox cars, My Little Ponies and Zhu Zhu Pets. Reagan can easily get her toys in and out and see what is in each compartment. Reagan isn't great at picking up her toys so we are trying to giver her good, easy storage options.
Curious about our paint colors: they are both Olympic no VOC paint from Lowes (side note, I wasn't impressed with the paint, it's coverage was terrible!), the green is asperagus and the pink is cotton candy...what a combo!
That's all for today, but come back tomorrow to see some more including the book nook and the cute flags that people have bee asking about!
For those of you tallying the budget here is a rundown so far:
2 gallons of paint, $15 each (I had a 20% off and there was a rebate bringing it down from $23)
Bed, $80 on craigslist
Matressess for upper and lower bunk: $35 each at Ikea, we lucked out and found them in the "as is" section because they were discontinued! But they are still on the website so not sure what's up with that?
Chair rail, $5.17 each (we used 5) at Lowes but all of ours had busted up ends (you cut those off anyway) so I got them for 50% off and then used a 20% coupon = $10.34 for all 5!
Desk, $20 from craigslist
Dresser...free, we owned it already and
Rod and containers, $4.50
Frog and toy storage, $9.99
=$224.83
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