My office was closed for Good Friday and I took advantage of the time off with a quick (ha! they're never quick) trip to Ikea. The closest Swedish Slice of Heaven is 2.5 hours away, so it's always a full day trip whether I need 1 thing or 30.
I had quite the entourage - my mom, my best good friend Libby, Josie, Luke and myself - so the 4Runner was pretty full before we even pulled out of the driveway. (This will come up later)
This was slated to be a kid-focused trip. Both kids are getting bigger and we're not going to have LESS toys anytime soon, so some furniture upgrades were in order. Now that doesn't mean I didn't pick up a few things for myself. I snagged a few trays, a laptop bag, a set of sheets, a pillow cover, and some kitchen towels. Don't ask me what happened. They just jumped right into my cart, and who was I to kick them out?
Any who, back to the kid stuff...
The main item on the list was a loft bed for Luke. He really likes puzzles, hot wheels, and general playing pretend, all of which need room to spread out. His current mattress-on-the-floor situation was taking up too much space so we decided to take advantage of his vaulted ceiling and build up! After some online research I settled on this one. As we were walking around the loft and bunk section Luke walked right up to the bed I had already picked out and said "This is my bed. I want to buy this one." He had no idea we were bed shopping, or that I had picked this one out, so it was a little on the eerie side. After I picked my jaw up off the floor I hoisted him up to let him give it a test-drive. Verdict: he loved it. Have you ever seen such a happy kid? No, no you haven't.
It wasn't on the list, but when I saw a Lack wall unit marked down from $50 to $30, well that threw itself in my cart, too. Luke loves books and didn't have anywhere to keep any in his room (the big bookshelf is in Josie's room), so now he has some book storage of his own
Here's a quick shot of the car after everything got loaded up. I told you had a car-full. To really round out the ridiculousness of the whole thing, we had to tie Luke's new bed to the roof. In the rain. And it rained the whole way home. Because it never occurred to me that the box for a bed might be slightly larger than the back of a small SUV. Thank god Ikea sells ratchet straps. Best $20 I spent all day.
Mom and I started assembling the bed Saturday morning and Luke was so excited, begging to climb it the entire time. As soon as the sheets were in place Luke scampered up the ladder, grabbed a book and got right to reading. We gave him a clip-lamp (which he is equally excited about) so he can read in bed before he goes to sleep.
Every time I look in his "new" room, I scream "There's so much room for activities!" in my head. But yes, now he has tons of floorspace to spread out and play.
Now for the details:
Luke was very thrilled to discover that his metal bed is magnet-friendly, and he wasted no time adding magnets everywhere. I knew the time would come when Luke would have his own ideas about how to decorate his space, I just didn't know it would be this soon. Sob!
Below is the afore-mentioned $30 lack. I could have sat it on the floor like a boring person, but I could just tell this little shelf was crying out for a pop of color. $16 and a Saturday night trip to Home Depot later, I had the makings of these little orange feet. Tell me I'm not the only one who spends their Saturday nights at a hardware store. The surprise bonus was that the real estate under the shelf was perfect for puzzles and other too-big-for-the-cubbies items.
Here's a zoomed-out shot of the bookshelf. I really want to get him a cushy seat and some fun curtains for a little reading corner slash fort action.
We stashed all the toy storage in the corner to the left of the loft, which helps with separating the zones of storage and play.
This wall... needs some work. The height ruler is staying but the paper globes have got to go. I bought them at a yard sale on a whim, but I've always thought they were too big for the room. So down they come. The blue thing isn't a beauty, but it was a cheap and easy way to display the
But enough about Luke's room. Miss J got some upgrades, too! Luke was so excited about the bed we built that he volunteered to help build his sister's stuff. He was more helpful than we expected.
We recently sold the navy recliner I used as a nursing chair, which opened up this corner for some toy storage. We fell in love with the TROFAST system, and went with 3 of the tall-ish sections. I centered them under the 2 disparate groups of frames, and I FINALLY re-hung the bunting from Luke's baby shower. I'm really happy with how it looks here - it helps to unify this group of stuff.
And the bins? I LOVE the bins. They hold anything and everything - books, toys, stuffed animals - and, because the bins come all the way out, cleanup will be a breeze.
It probably won't stay this way for long, but I made some mini-vignettes with some of the prettier kid toys.
Last, but not least, I hung this flamingo mobile in the corner by the changing table. I've been wanting to add some pops of pink to girl the room up a bit, and I was happy to give this gal a home. My mom saved her from my nursery, so I guess that makes it a bit of an antique. Wait, does that make me an antique? Don't answer that.
I think this was one of my most productive weekends, ever. Not only did I buy and build all that stuff (with some help from Mom and Steven), but I also organized both kids' rooms, did some laundry, scrubbed the hot tub, sold Luke's old mattress set and did some general house cleaning. Who am I and what have I done with the TV addict that usually lives in my house?
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