Reagan's room part II

Back again for the rest of Reagan's room, the details and fun stuff!  When I was planning Reagan's room it was important that she had an area where she could enjoy reading.  I was a total bookworm as a kid and hope to instill a love of reading in my kids by encouraging them as much as possible.  So the book nook was born!  Take a look:

The book nook is basically a soft, cushy area we made from an Ikea mattress.  The cool thing is, the mattress we bought came in 4 sections because it is for an expandable bed.  We used one of the sections as a backrest at the front part of the bed (Reagan loves using the top of that area to sit her little stuffed animals).  When we were on our big city trip to Ikea we picked up those fun pillows for the nook, at $5 and $6 bucks a pop they were an affordable way to add some comfort and color to the space.  After we had the mattress in place we realized that we had a 16 inch opening at the foot of the bed.  The wheels in my little brain got to turning and I wondered if we could fit a bookshelf in that space, sort of like a built-in.  Since I'm not handy and neither is my hubby (and there was snow still flying outside meaning it would have to be built in the living room) I decided to see if I could find one that would fit in that space.  Low and behold, a $15 one from Lowes had the dimensions that would work in the space.  It was white and plain but for $15 it was a go, especially since you can't see much of it. Here it is in the nook:

I decided to make it a bit cuter with some Ikea fabric I bought., Since I don't sew my inquisitive husband wondered what I was going to use the 2 yards of fabric for, I assured him I hadn't a clue but would figure it out.  And I did!  Before we attached the cardboard like backing to the shelf I ironed the fabric, sprayed adhesive on the back and carefully adhered it to the backing.  Then we nailed it to the bookshelf as you normally would.  I think the fabric really made it super cute and Reagan loves it!

The other favorite feature of the book nook is a cute flower wall lamp we got at you guessed it...Ikea! Seriously, I could move in that place and would work there in a heartbeat if we had one within 250 miles. Here it is in all it's glowing glory:

To say it's a hit would be an understatement!  It has a super easy switch so the kids can easily turn it on and off and the bulb is securely covered there are no worries about the kids getting burned. The book nook is under the top bunk and can be a bit dark the so light serves as a good reading light too.  We snatched it up for $9.99, a steal! It really sets a nice vibe in the nook, I may have to sneak in there with Pioneer Woman's new book (that I'm hoping my hubby got me for my upcoming bday) when the kiddos are at school.
Another super fun and thrifty aspect of Reagan's room are these fun flags:

I got the idea from the birthday garland I did for Quinn's rock star birthday, paper is the one thing I can sew.  For this fun project I called up my mama and borrowed her sewing machine, went to Wal-Mart and bought a $5 pack of scrapbook paper then cut it into triangles and sewed the together to create this cheap and cute decoration.  I thought it went well with the similar flags on Reagan's canopy and would add a nice visual element to draw your eye upward and make the room seem bigger. Remember, Reagan said that a princess room has to have a canopy, her daddy and I agreed and bought her this cute one in the "as is" section at Ikea for $8.99, it was open but didn't have anything wrong with it.  I love it when that happens! Here it is in her room, rocking out with the flags it inspired:

Did you notice the second rail on the end of the bed with the cute little buckets?  We got those for chalk storage since I knew I was going to go the chalkboard paint route.  Keeping my theme of turning paper into decor, I decided to cut out the letters of Reag's name in cutesy paper, I then used clothespins and twine to create a simple but large decoration for over the dresser:

It has been getting rave reviews and cost a whole $1.12 so if one gets blown down when we open the windows to let in a spring breeze I won't be stressing. I'll just grab a piece of scrapbook paper and make a new one.  That is one reason I used so many different paper patterns, I am not limited to making it match! 

Want to see my favorite thing in her room?  I love it so much I want my own:

That awesome, fun and quirky rug really sets my heart aflutter! I spotted it on Ikea's

So that brings us to the end of Reagan's room tour...now for you number nerds here is the total dinero that we dropped for this room:
$225 from this post
$16 for pillows
$15 for the bookshelf from Lowes
$6 for fabric for the bookshelf
$9.99 for the wall flower (I couldn't resist)
$8.99 for the canopy
$6.12 for the flags and name
$39.99 for the rug
All the other decor in the room was free! We reused it from our other daughter's previous princess room.  I just refreshed it a bit by painting the frames with paint we already had.
=$326.98 total


Pretty good, but remember, we sold her old furniture for $325 which brings the grand total down to $1.98!  So we re-did this room top to bottom for less than a gallon of milk!