Bunk'd

Let's take a quick walk down memory lane, shall we? When we first moved to our house, we had two extra bedrooms because it was just us three... but that soon changed and one of our extra spaces changed from a guest bedroom to a space fit for a princess. 

We put so much time and effort into making that space perfect for our little girl. Ryan spent an entire weekend painting the walls and hanging the railing and was so excited to show me when I got back from a work trip. I loved every inch of that space - the antique windows I found in Brenham, the custom sign above her bed, that magnetic bird to showcase pictures... every little thing was perfect. 

Well a short year later we found out we were expecting and we kind of needed that crib for the new baby but Emmy wasn't quite ready to be out of the crib (who am I kidding... I wasn't ready for her to be out of the crib) and while I can't quite remember why or how, the Munsons had an extra one laying around. So one weekend, we got busy again and the room had another update... she came home from a weekend with Gigi and Pops as big girl with a big bed.

She eventually outgrew the crib so we handed it back over to the Munsons and her room turned into this... 

And it stayed like that for all of 5 minutes before we were at it again and flipped it one more time. We loved the idea of the girls sharing a space, freeing up an extra room to contain all the toys and an overnight guest if we needed it. 

This has worked well for us and them - I'd say they like sharing a room at least 90% of the time. But as they've gotten older, they could use a bit more space in their room. Whether it's when friends are over, they want to study or just need some alone time to do what they want. So our Spring Break consisted of creating this... 

and it may be my favorite version of this room ever. 

Also, the girls loved it, too... 

They love their gallery wall, easy access to their jewelry, the clean bulletin board and mostly all that floor space!

I love that the same space can serve so many different purposes. Seriously, if you are thinking of making a design change - just go for it. Small changes can make a HUGE difference and they don't have to kill your bank account OR your sanity! Sadly, the next change to this room is going to come when they really don't want to share a space anymore. Until that day comes, they have to settle for being bunk'd! 

From this to THAT...

We love a project around here. We especially love a project that includes spending $15 or less!!!!  I am going to try to track our redoing, revamping, refurbishing addiction in a fun way to show you that if we can do it - you can do it!

So today, I present: From This to THAT: A wardrobe makeover fit for a princess! :) 

The girls love playing dress up and it just so happens that Santa brought them the cutest handmade by "elves" princess dresses for Christmas. We were quickly running out of dress up clothes space and I knew that we needed something to contain it all. I wanted something that would match Emmy's room and that looked more like a piece of furniture than a store bought storage unit. And then I remembered we had some old chest of drawers in storage. 

I thought that we could remove the top three drawers, add a dowel rod, paint it and voila! A princess wardrobe! (And that is where my contribution ended). 

So, Ryan drove to storage and got to work. 

First he removed the drawers and rails. Then he and Radley began the process of sanding and removing the veneer facade and sanding some more. 

Then he spray painted the interior this lovely aqua color and "killzed" the outside of the furniture. (We probably should have also killzed the interior, but we figured there would be a ton of dresses hanging inside and you wouldn't notice the blotchy spots.) On a whim I bought some aqua glitter spray paint and he added a light layer on front. And so ended my ban of glitter. 

He had to patch a few spots to get the wood even, then sanded the sides down and added one more layer of Kilz.

We had some cream paint in the garage that he used for the base. To give the piece that distressed look, he brushed on some dark wood stain and then painted it again. He repeated this process a couple of times to get that perfect distressed look.

He ran into one issue that we didn't plan for - the base of the piece broke off, so he ended up having to build one for the bottom drawer to work correctly. (I was at work when this happened and he didn't take pictures. I think it involved a saw, some sanding, some nails and wood glue). 

It basically turned out 100 times more adorable than I could have imagined!!!

(Side note: this picture illustrates perfectly why you shouldn't take photos in green rooms. Yellow caste pictures. Ick.)

We added some glass knobs to give it a girly touch and I would never have known that he added the piece on the bottom - super proud of my handy husband!

This is the perfect piece for all of their girly goodness!

And they were pretty ecstatic when they saw it!

Needless to say, only seconds passed before it was no longer an organized master piece. 

They have had the best time getting down their own dresses, picking out shoes, putting on jewelry and strutting around in their dresses. 

Thanks, babe for being such a wonderful Daddy! Our sweet girls are lucky to have you!