Growing kids, changing rooms

Although I've only been talking about changes we've made to Mallory's room here, the fact is that we have made changes to Liam's room, too. In fact, Liam's changes came about before Mallory's. It all started when we decided that a single skinny white IKEA 'Billy' bookcase in the corner of the room was not enough to hold all of the stuff that little boys are wont to collect.

So back in the fall, when I made my annual trip to Niagara Falls for the OEA conference, I swung into the Burlington IKEA and picked up an Expedit bookshelf. It's 4 cubbies x 4 cubbies in a nice glossy grey finish, and it holds so much more than the Billy. We can style it up really nicely when we want to, but this is what it looks like most of the time. The cubby arrangements make sense to Liam and I suppose that's all that matters.

We also found Liam a new desk, since the old one that was there was pretty small. This is a big old oak banker's desk that I found listed on Kijiji. The night I drove to Tilbury to pick it up was the night we got hit by Hurricane Sandy's remnants. It's never taken so long to drive to Tilbury before, but it was worth the hassle! We found the chair later at the Bibles for Missions thrift store auction and it totally fits the look.

We made a few other changes, too. We finally took down the Curious George and David prints that I loved so much, and put up some hockey-themed stuff in their places. Much before befitting of Liam's current obsession!

After Liam got his Expedit and we saw how well it was working, we made the same change in Mallory's room. Out with the Billy bookcase and in with Expedit, this time in white. Luckily I had another meeting in Mississauga just a few weeks after the conference in Niagara Falls, so I was able to squeeze in another IKEA trip then. 

The painting in Mallory's room is now complete. The bed took five coats all told, though there are only 4 coats on the back of the headboard since I put the last coat on with the bed in the room and the sun shining through the windows so I could see where I had missed. You can see the original wood colour on the inside of the frame where the supports are. Don't you love the ghetto sleeping arrangement here? - double bed frame with a twin mattress on the floor in the middle of it. We ordered a new mattress last weekend but it will be next weekend before it is delivered. Mallory can't wait.

For a while I fretted that the pink wasn't pink enough and that the white of the bed frame was too stark (especially since the trim is very much an off-white), but now that it's together, I love it all. You can also make out the edge of the night table we painted blue beside the bed. Once the mattress is here, we'll get the new bedding in place and then assess what else needs to be done. She needs a beside lamp (there's one I am eyeing at IKEA and as luck would have it - we'll be in Burlington again for the Chilly Half Marathon in a few more weeks). I'm trying to figure out how to re-rig the lanterns that originally formed a canopy over her daybed; I don't want as many, but I would like to re-hang at least some of them. I am considering making her a bedskirt, but want to get the rest in place before deciding any more about that. And there are a few more things to hang on the walls once we finalize plans for furniture arrangement. That's the thing about decorating I guess; it evolves over time - never a finished process.