Kid’s Room Makeover

When our two-year-old son Miles started climbing out of his crib, my husband and I knew it was time to start thinking about creating a room for him. His nursery, a teeny space, roughly 8 feet by 10 feet, didn’t offer any room for play, toy storage, and all the other stuff a busy preschooler needs.

The solution was to let Miles take over the little used spare room.

The spare room has a bit more space. It also has a nice south-facing window, and a little space for playing on the floor.

It has a decent closet, but sadly, the majority of it is hidden behind lathe and plaster — not such a great use of space, unless you have a four-foot-long arm! Also, the window is drafty and leaks occasionally (about once a year) when the rain blows a certain direction. Not a great feature either.

But with a small budget and designer Cameron MacNeil, we started operation “big boy room.”

The plan?

1. Replace windows in both rooms. We replaced both windows with affordable vinyl windows from Ply Gem. We selected the Elite Series Ambassador windows. With their triple weather seal and Eco 5 glass, we could bid farewell to leaks and drafty breezes.

2. Invest in creating a real closet in Miles’ new room. The plan is to break down the lathe-and-plaster enclosed closet and build in Pax units from Ikea. We love the look of the Pax units with birch interior and white Pax frames. My idea is to prime and paint out Ikea Ballstad flat doors the same colour as the room (Pavilion Gray (242) by Farrow & Ball) for a seamless look that will help make the room seem bigger.

3. Paint the back wall of Miles’ new room black. I have a feeling it might make the whole room feel bigger and add loads of impact to the small space.

4. Find a new use for the old nursery. Could a space this tiny make a good TV den?

The end result?

Well, this one is a cliffhanger, folks! Tune into H&H Online TV for the results. And I’ll be sure to share all the details in a follow-up blog post soon.

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Photo credits:
1-5. Stacey Smithers