The Girls’ Room
This was a fun one!
My two girls share a room, it’s not a bad sized room for them but it’s occupiers are demanding. The storage requirements needed to house toys, fancy dress outfits, so many books and their clothing is a big challenge. I knew I needed to utilise as much of the alcove space as possible, and so I wanted to have storage reaching up to the ceiling. Given their four year age gap, this had a practical advantage as I could put anything precious or fragile high up and away from tiny hands. Having looked at the cost of having shelving custom built, this wasn’t an option so I saw this as the perfect opportunity to embark on my first proper Ikea hack project, and also to learn how to operate a circular saw!
The main challenge.
The biggest challenge for this room was sleeping logisitics, everything had to be done with my girls still living in the space! We couldn’t fit their bunk bed anywhere else in the house so emptying the space wasn’t an option. So, call me crazy, but I just did everything in small manageable parts. It’s not the most efficient way of working, and it takes far longer but that’s what renovating around family life often looks like.
The bits in between.
It all began with the ceiling, it made sense to tackle ceiling painting before taking up the gross carpet and building furniture I would need to cover. I chose Bunches of Blooms by Valspar, a rich pastel mauve, with a lovely grey undertone. It is rich yet muted, and potentially a lot less ‘Barbie’ than my eldest was after. Next to tackle - the carpet, this was the last bit of carpet remaining in the house, and it was disgusting, I was so so so happy to see it go! I cut the carpet down the centre so I could pull it up exposing most of the floorboards, but still being able to leave the bunkbeds in their only possible position! I painted in the alcoves first to allow me to get to work in them first. Then, I set to work building the shelving, starting with two Ikea Billy bookcases, and the extenders and an Ikea Gnedby bookcase, and built each piece and attached them together. The two separate bookcases didn’t happen to be the same height so I boxed off the corner of the Gnedby to bring it to the same height as the Billy and the extension at the top. I filled all the unused holes for the pins that hold the shelves up and sanded it all back ready for priming. I added strip pine facing to the fronts and bottom to cover the joins but also to give a nice chunky borders. I also added a super cute scalloped edge trim from Camilla Hampton Interiors to the top. I primed everything with a white undercoat.
Next, the floors. The scrappy wooden flooring was sanded back, gaps were filled, then the boards were primed with a hardwearing undercoat (Zinsser primer everytime). I then painted the walls, skirting, door frame, door and my DIY shelving in Easter Rose by Valspar. Once the walls and ceiling and shelving had had enough coats, I started the floor painting. I love a white painted floor, the boards don’t need to be perfect, they can be scrappy and gappy and are forgiving when chipped and worn. It’s just something I like the look of. Once the floorboards had two coats and was fully cured, the bunk beds could be moved over on to the newly painted section so the remaining parts of the flooring could be completed. This part was when it felt like time stood still and that I’d never get the job finished. Anyway, before long it was time for the fun bits. I invested in a beautiful Mustard Made locker in Lavender, purely to house the amount of dressing-up outfits the girls have, that is perhaps the most ‘extra’ thing in our home. I used Ikea spice racks as shelves for little trinkets. I found a small rail and hung some curtain loop clips on it so they can hang polaroids, mini drawings, and tickets from special occasions. The washable rug from Dunelm was the perfect addition, and the girls love it. And the floral bird printed bedding is also from Dunelm. The rattan hot air balloon above the bed was such a hit.
I decided to keep the original fireplace in the matt black finish, because I loved the black next to the wall colour. I’d still like to do something with the bunk beds but until inspiration strikes they’re staying the way are, although the girls sticking stickers on the side is still troubling me a little!
