My little gears have been turning lately. Don’t look so scared… I’m looking into the future wondering about the logistics of my sons’ rooms. You see, we live in a smallish house in Florida. That means no basement (we hit the water table at 3 feet below ground level) and no significant attic room for converting to additional living space. It’s a typical 3-2-2. As you can imagine, space is tight.
They boys have a containable amount of crap toys at the moment. Meaning, I have a home for everything. There are no piles of miscellaneous toys taking over the house. I’m too neat for that. I can’t handle having the house in disarray all the time. My living/dining room cannot look like a daycare. When playtime is over we clean up. My head might spin around if we didn’t clean up 🙂 I’m anal like that.
Right now, each boy has his own room containing his bed, his toys and his clothes. Oh, how I’ve dreamed of a playroom! It would be so nice to have a place to put all of the toys so the bedrooms could be just for sleeping. A place where they can leave the toys out and I can just close the door. Unless we add a wing onto the house, a playroom in addition to two bedrooms is not an option. And we’re not adding a wing onto the house before we put in a pool. So, I’ve got to get creative.
I was thinking about having the boys share a room and turning the other room into a playroom. My boys are 3 1/2 years and 16 months now. Wildman was sleeping in his big boy bed at 20 months. I’m not so sure that Cutie Pie will be ready at 20 months but a lot can happen between now and then. While the children are young I think they’ll enjoy sharing a room. Especially if I got them bunk beds. Their bedrooms are 10×10. There is no way to make two independent twin beds work and still have room to move. Twin beds are really the only workable solution for them sharing a bedroom. And they’ll be over the moon about that solution. The other bedroom would naturally become the playroom of my dreams. 🙂
Of course, I expect that they’ll want to have their own bedrooms again when they get older. But by that time, they’ll most likely be out of the massive toy phase they’re in now. A game boy is more compact than a train table. Not that I condone video games but I think it’s inevitable that they’ll want them… *sigh* That’s a topic for another day, however. A laptop for homework can easily sit on a desk but 10 million Little People play sets need significant shelf space. And sports equipment can go in the garage but push toys remain in the house. You see my dilemma? I need a place for all of these toys. Because even though they have a home right now, it’s not very user friendly. An avalanche might be started if Wildman wants his train tracks from the bottom of the organizer box stack in his closet… It would be nice to have a place where the train tracks can remain set up all the time.
So, let’s talk room decor. I need a theme for the boys’ shared room. And licensed characters are not it.
This kind of thing from Target gives me a rash.
I like the idea of quilts on the beds but I’m unsure of the direction I want to go. Sports? Beach? Jungle Animals? Generic Boyish Patterns and Solids? I want something timeless. Something that will be “in” when the boys are 3 and when they’re 10. Luckily, I have time to sort this issue out.
As far as the playroom goes, I’d love to have one of these from Pottery Barn Kids. The price makes me shudder.
I’m not even going to pretend that my kids don’t watch television. They do and they’re fine, well-adjusted little people. I promise. And I do limit their intake. The reason I’d like to have a television in the playroom is for the simple reason that I can only take so much Noggin before I go insane. When it’s on in the family room while I’m making dinner it makes me nuts. I’d rather have them watch it in the playroom while I make dinner so I can listen to the news. Oh, how I miss the news… I love how the armoire conceals the television too. It’s not like there will be a giant screen looming over the children while they play with blocks on the floor. I can simply close the doors when it’s not on.
I’d move Wildman’s twin bed into the playroom as well. It would be so nice to have additional sleeping space. Right now, we have none unless you count the couch in the living room. I’d add a low table to art projects too. I see it in my mind and it is sweet 🙂
So, this is what I’ve been pondering lately. What do you think?
Adventures of Four 